This seminar event is a special collaboration between the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) and the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH).

The seminar will be in the form of an interactive panel discussion focused on exploring current research and service delivery issues around gender and family violence in Australian Indigenous Communities. Gender and family violence are increasingly recognized as issues of national importance and have seen a significant rise in public interest and pressure on state and federal governments to provide funding for effective services, programs and processes. The pressures and challenges around these issues become all the more acute when discussed in the context of impacts on Indigenous families and communities. Speakers will highlight the latest research and explore the social, cultural and logistical issues of appropriate program and service delivery in this field. With a particular focus on the intersection of policy and practice, speakers will discuss innovative, preventative and empowering approaches to issues of gender and family violence in Indigenous communities.

Participants of this panel would like to acknowledge the Research School of Social Sciences Cross-College funding scheme for support in this event.

Panel Member Biographies:

The panel consists of a diverse range of researchers from social science, epidemiological and service provision backgrounds

Professor Komla Tsey is Research Professor in Education for Social Sustainability at theCentre for Research Innovation in Sustainability Education, James Cook University. Komla’s focus is on community development research. For the past 20 years, Komla has worked with the Family Wellbeing program in Indigenous communities across Australia. The Family Wellbeing Program uses empowering approaches, working with Indigenous people and communities to address relationship issues, violence, suicide prevention, drug and alcohol issues.

Dr Anna Olsen is a Senior Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH).  Her primary research interests include illicit drug use, hepatitis B and C, sexual and reproductive health, social inequalities of health and Indigenous health. Her theoretical background lies in the anthropology of health and illness, qualitative research methods, mixed methods and social science in public health. Anna recently completed an ANROWS State of knowledge research project on violence against women in Australian Indigenous communities.

Dr Ray Lovett is an NHMRC Research Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH).  Ray is a  Wongaibon (Ngiyampaa) man from far west NSW. His career has spanned a number of settings, including Aboriginal health services (both in the community and government sectors), at the policy and clinical levels in both nursing and public health. He has also worked in the private sector on business improvement, evaluation and health service planning and health service standards auditing. Ray recently completed an ANROWS State of knowledge research project on violence against women in Australian Indigenous communities.

Dr Sarah Holcombe is an ARC Future Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR). Her current research explores the social practice of human rights in remote central Australia. Given her focus on how an Anangu person comes to understand themselves as a ‘rights-holder’ (as a specific type of personhood), a major concern emerged over the issue of gender and family violence and the intersections between the legal system of mandatory protection and local norms. Sarah recently co-authored the Evaluation of the Cross Borders Indigenous Family Violence Program with Matthew Willis (AIC).

Dr Marisa Fogarty is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR). Marisa is an anthropologist, specializing in qualitative research methods, with a particular research focus on Indigenous policy issues, gambling, social service delivery and program development. Marisa has spent the past 10 years working with Indigenous families in remote communities in the Northern Territory.

Matthew Willis is a Research Manager with the Australian Institute of Criminology, responsible for the Criminal Justice Monitoring and Analysis team. He is also responsible for the Drug Use Monitoring Australia and National Deaths in Custody Monitoring programs. Matthew has led projects in a range of areas, including post-release and community-based correctional services and risk assessment, Indigenous community safety and family violence, and evaluation frameworks for multi-faceted juvenile justice reform strategies. He recently undertook an evaluation of the Cross Border Indigenous Family Violence Program, co-authoring the final report with Dr Sarah Holcombe.

Professor Yvonne Cadet-James is Professor at the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Centre at James Cook University. Yvonne is a Gugu Badhun woman from the Valley of Lagoons in north Queensland. She has an extensive background in health as a registered nurse and an academic. Yvonne is Chair of Indigenous Australian Studies at JCU and has worked extensively on empowering research and program approaches, in particular the Family Wellbeing program.