Call it a cliche or call it a truism, but no two days are ever the same at UCRH. As often as they’re at their desks here in Lismore, our staff (let alone our students) are out and about the Northern Rivers and further afield in the pursuit of our efforts to work collaboratively to promote health and wellbeing for all people across rural and regional Australia.
In recent weeks, we’ve had team members traversing city and country. Most recently, Marcelle Townsend-Cross from the Aboriginal Health team, along with Sarah Miles and Sarah Cross from Allied Health travelled to Sydney to participate in the latest Critical Conversations event run by the University of Sydney’s Waranara Health professions education research network. The event was presented in partnership with The Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, and provided an opportunity for healthcare professionals, educators, and researchers worldwide to explore innovative approaches to Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborations. Marcelle was co-chair of the event, while Sarah and Sarah helped facilitate individual sessions.
Closer to home, Talah Laurie (CRE-Stride) and Kris Vine (Healing Country) were invited to attend an on-Country (Bundjalung) collaborative learning day hosted by Jagun Alliance Aboriginal Corporation. As part of the Healing Country research project, we are working together with Jagun on gathering community knowledges and experiences of locally changing environments and co-designing community-led adaptations to address changes to climate impacting on the health of community and of Country.
Talah and Kris were honoured to be walked through the remnant rainforest at Victoria Park and told of stories and cultural protocol by local knowledge holders Oli Costello, Marcus Ferguson and Uncle AJ, as well as hear language being spoken and learnt by young Widjabul Wyabul men. After lunch at Namabunda Farm alongside more than 40 environmental and land management representatives from the region, a demonstration was given of a new Integrated Knowledge System being developed with Jagun, Bush Heritage Australia and the University of Melbourne as part of their Conservation Futures project.
Also in Sydney, UCRH was ably represented in the first University of Sydney Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Academic Showcase recently. The Showcase was open to colleagues, community and the public and gave those who came along a chance to talk with First Nations Academics about their work and research in a relaxed way. David Edwards and Sharnie Roberts from the WellMob project, along with Talah Laurie spoke to the work being done by through WellMob, CRE-Stride and other projects.
