Keeping First Nations moving

Community leadership is vital when developing health initiatives with Aboriginal communities, according to Professor Andrew Maiorana

Self-determination is an important, but often neglected consideration when developing health and lifestyle programs for Aboriginal people. Historically, such programs have often been developed by central bureaucracies, without the input and guidance of the community the program is designed to benefit.

As the nation prepares for a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, it is imperative to recognise the importance of an Aboriginal ‘voice’ in developing health initiatives designed for Aboriginal communities.

Health inequalities for Aboriginal people are well recognised and underpin the 10-year life expectancy gap experienced by Aboriginal people, compared with the nonAboriginal population. However, much of the chronic disease burden experienced by Aboriginal people is preventable.

Improving access to health services that are culturally appropriate and are guided by Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing are critical to helping address the gap.

Sport and physical activity are important to reducing the risk of chronic disease, maintaining good mental health and strengthening social engagement.

Many Aboriginal communities are well supported by organisations that provide sporting initiatives for children and youth, however, culturally appropriate physical activity programs for adults are much less available. This likely contributes to reduced levels of physical activity in Aboriginal adults.

Talking Together, Walking Together is a research project designed to address this inequity. Recently funded by the Medical Research Future Fund, the project will run in three diverse Aboriginal communities – the Watjuk Noongar community of the Perth region, the Yamatji community of the Geraldton/ Mid West region and the Martu community in the Eastern Pilbara.

It is important that Aboriginal communities have the opportunity to lead the project. At its core, Talking Together, Walking Together is about establishing physical activity programs that are led by the community.

Our research team will provide support for the community to do this, but the ownership of the programs will remain with the community. The communities’ guidance in developing the programs will ensure they meet their needs and expectations.

Some of the physical activity initiatives the project will explore include ‘on-country’ walking programs, peer-led walking programs, modified sporting activities for older participants (such as walking football and basketball), dance-based physical activity programs, and improving community resources to improve access to physical activity.

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While improving access to physical activity is the primary objective of the project, sport and physical activity will be employed as a vehicle for increasing awareness about healthy lifestyle more broadly, such as nutrition, smoking cessation, and alcohol and drug avoidance. Knowledge sharing is an important aspect of the project.

The project will embrace the concept of ‘both ways learning’. This involves the researcher team and Aboriginal community learning with and from one another. This will involve using traditional knowledge and ways of learning including locally meaningful metaphors, empowerment through critical thinking and community ownership of knowledge.

An important outcome of the study will be training local community members to deliver the physical activity programs that are developed, so that these are sustainable beyond the duration of the project.

The health benefits of physical activity are only maintained as long as people remain active, so we are mindful that we need to develop programs that the community embraces and can continue to run once the project concludes.

ED: Professor Andrew Maiorana is from Curtin University’s School of Allied Health, and Fiona Stanley Hospital’s Exercise Physiology Department.