8 July 2025
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research has been highlighted and celebrated in a special compilation issue of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health published this week for NAIDOC Week (6 – 13 July 2025).
The open access issue features nine key articles led by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander authors and published in the journal over the last two years.
The issue was compiled by Associate Professor Summer May Finlay, a Yorta Yorta woman and the journal’s Indigenous editor. It also features an editorial from A/Prof Finlay, reflecting on the importance of public health research led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the relevance of the articles selected.
“The selected articles have a focus either implicitly or explicitly on the role Culture plays in the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Cultural Determinants of health are recognised as a key feature in achieving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as identified in the Closing the Gap Framework.
“Some of the topics included in the Special Edition include the climate crisis and its impact on the Torres Strait Islands, the impact of racism, the need for greater Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men’s health funding, and a co-design renal dialysis pilot.
“Indigenous-led research is a key focus and priority for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
“Australia is currently dramatically failing to deliver on the Close the Gap Targets. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led public health research is crucial to progress.
“It’s not only about self-determination, Indigenous-led research helps us understand what works, helping us improve our public health system and services to better support our communities and make them stronger and healthier,” the University of Wollongong-based A/Prof Finlay says.
Articles featuring in the special issue include:
- “Traditional community-based knowledge for envisioning climate change action for the Torres Strait"
- “Examining zoonotic notifications in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations over time: An analysis of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System from 1996-2021”
- “Enhancement of scoping review methodology to reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing”
- “Aboriginal peoples’ lived experience of household overcrowding in the Kimberley and implications for research reciprocity in COVID-19 recovery”
- “A pilot place-based renal dialysis model of care responding to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander priorities in South Australia”
- “Mapping pandemic responses in urban Indigenous Australia: Reflections on systems thinking and pandemic preparedness”
- “Alcohol and other drug use before custody among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in New South Wales, Australia”.
- “Further investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men’s health research funding is urgently required”
- "Heal Country, heal our Nation: Talking up Racism”
The full issue can be viewed open-access here.
ENDS
Media Contact: Paris Lord, Public Health Association of Australia, [email protected] or 0478 587 917
Please credit the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health as the publication source of the research.
The Journal is the official publication of the Public Health Association of Australia.
All articles are open access and can be found here: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/australian-and-new-zealand-journal-of-public-health
Contact details:
Paris Lord, Public Health Association of Australia, [email protected] or 0478 587 917
