2023-24 Premier’s Awards for Health and Medical Research
Ms Joanne Luke
Winner, Aboriginal Researcher undertaking research in any field of health and medical research Award
PhD Project: Public health ‘evidence’ in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and social settings: past, present, and future.
Joanne’s thesis explored the topic of ‘evidence’ construction and the use of evidence-based practice methodologies in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and social settings.
In recent years Australian governments and universities have increasingly promoted evidence-based practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander settings. This practice theorises that evaluation and research ‘evidence’ should be applied to decision making in this setting.
In her research, Joanne applied a critical Indigenous research methodology and worked with researchers at the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency to better understand the existing evidence-base (research and evaluation) and consider existing evidence-based practice methods for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander settings.
Drawing on the critical thinkings of Indigenous scholars and communities this research found that there are real concerns with past and present research, evaluation, and evidence-based practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander settings. Firstly, there are serious issues with the quality, ethical strength, and safety of existing research and evaluation ‘evidence’. Secondly, there are also issues with existing evidence-based practice methods (including evidence hierarchies), as these methods assume the positional superiority of Western knowledge without considering the constructed nature of ‘evidence’, which can marginalise the expert perspectives, experiences and knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled organisations.
In considering the future of ‘evidence’ construction and evidence-based practice, this thesis finds the need to build a culturally informed evidence base and the enaction of culturally informed evidence-based practice where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations have greater control.
12 май 2024
