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The Kids Research Institute Australia and Australian National University Professor of Indigenous Genomics, Professor Alex Brown, has become the first Indigenous member of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Board.

Led by nine Elders, the Ngulluk Koolunga Ngulluk Koort Project is working to generate a better understanding of early childhood development from an Aboriginal/Nyoongar perspective.

Some of the nation’s leading medical researchers will converge on Darwin this week to step out a plan to wipe out rheumatic heart disease.

This five-year project in Western Australia (WA) aims to promote vitamin D sufficiency among Aboriginal people by developing food-based dietary strategies to increase vitamin D intakes and by encouraging safe sun exposure.

Carrington Shepherd PhD Honorary Research Associate Honorary Research Associate Areas of research expertise: Population health; Aboriginal and Torres

Brad Carrington Fiona Farrant Shepherd Stanley BSc (Hons), PhD PhD FAA FASSA MSc MD FFPHM FAFPHM FRACP FRANZCOG HonDSc HonDUniv HonFRACGP HonMD

Low vitamin D status and intake are prevalent among the Australian population, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We hypothesised that some traditional foods could contain vitamin D, and measured vitamin D in foods from Nyoongar Country, Western Australia. Samples of kangaroo, emu, squid/calamari and lobster/crayfish were collected and prepared by Aboriginal people using traditional and contemporary methods.

Indigenous peoples globally have incurred significant harm resulting from colonisation and the forced removal of children from their families, culture, communities and Country. Over the last two decades in Australia, there have been calls for significant reform and there has been a raft of policy changes in child protection services. However the problems are intractable, and the numbers of Indigenous children being removed from their families continues to rise.

While benefits of involving consumers in research are well established, bereaved parents face unique challenges, and descriptions of their experiences with co-designed stillbirth research are lacking. The collective experience of ‘Project Engage’ involved co-designing resources to support bereaved parents’ involvement in research.

This chapter outlines the concept of ‘justice capital’. It commences with a discussion of the impacts of colonization on Indigenous people in Australia, with a particular focus on Indigenous children placed in state care systems.