Victorian Aboriginal Community Control Health Organisation Inc (VACCHO), with Aboriginal organisations and communities, has been developing the principles, processes and components of a statewide Aboriginal Research Accord (the Accord). Victorian Aboriginal organisations and communities through community-led projects have foregrounded ethical Aboriginal health and healing research since the late 1980s.
The Accord is a chance to realise a long-held goal of ethical Aboriginal-led research for research projects which impact Victorian Aboriginal communities. The process has been considerably assisted by structural changes in Victoria, such as the development of the Victorian Government’s Self-Determination Reform Framework, Korin Korin Balit Djak: Aboriginal health, wellbeing and safety strategic plan, and the Victorian Closing the Gap Implementation Plan.
We are in Treaty. We are definitely positioned for action in research, right now. Dr Mishel McMahon
By applying the principles of self-determination and codesign, in the context of the Accord, cancer researchers will be able to more confidently engage with Aboriginal health organisations and communities to determine community driven research priorities. In addition to foregrounding Aboriginal research ownership and governance, the Accord follows Community Controlled Action Research processes including ethics submission to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Studies (AIATSIS), review of historic Aboriginal-led projects, relational mapping for sourcing literature, community conversation positioning participants as experts, and Aboriginal-led Decision Making.
The Accord will enable mechanisms for Community-driven health priorities, so health research in Victoria is more fiscally effective and targeted to intended population groups, increasing the chance of improved health outcomes for Victorian Aboriginal people. The Accord also endeavours to streamline processes for researchers, creating new pathways for including Aboriginal populations in clinical trials. These innovations are critical to the work of organisations like the VCCC Alliance and have the potential to add value to research and education initiatives across the strategic program plan. Through implementation of the Victorian Accord and development of relationships based on mutual respect, agencies could gain more accurate data, higher engagement, and enhanced implementation of research findings, improving cancer outcomes in the context of the Victorian Aboriginal Communities.
The Victorian Accord hopes to foreground ethical Aboriginal research relationships, processes and methodologies. Sometimes called both-ways or two-ways learning, the process involves community members’ perspective, knowledges and expertise shaping research design, to enable a more engaged, fiscally responsible and effective research process. It will also encompass a redefinition of who constitutes an Aboriginal researcher.
Dr Mishel McMahon, Coordinator of the Victorian Accord process says, “At the moment, an Aboriginal researcher is defined as someone who has an academic qualification. We want this definition to include community members who have years of experience who have been involved in initiatives to improve health outcomes in their communities.” When community members co-lead or lead research, dissemination goes beyond journal articles and includes tangible direct health benefits for Victorian Aboriginal communities. These improvements in research initiation and engagement, design, and benefit will lead to meaningful and relevant health outcomes for the Victorian Aboriginal community.
We hope to flip the coin. Instead of investigator driven research priorities, through the Victorian Accord, we will move to Aboriginal community driven research priorities.
The Victorian Accord project has listened to historical Aboriginal voices, and current Aboriginal community members from universities, Aboriginal organisations, Aboriginal health and healing workers and Traditional Owner Groups. Its development has been comprehensive and included a review of Aboriginal-led research projects, literature review into ethical Aboriginal research, mapping of ethical process for research which impacts Aboriginal communities in other states and territories, focus groups with mainstream research institutes, Victorian Government, hospitals and Victorian universities, and statewide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community conversations to identify what the Accord should contain.
An Aboriginal-led Decision-Making meeting will determine which components transition into the Accord. The draft Victorian Accord with signatories from the Victorian health research sector will be presented to the Victorian government in May 2022. The ambition is to change the culture of research that impacts Aboriginal communities in Victoria. In consideration of Aboriginal processes and the significant undertaking this project hopes to achieve, a key recommendation is the allocation of resources for evaluation and re-drafting future iterations of the Accord.
Read more about the Victorian Accord.
For more information, contact Dr Vijaya Joshi, VCCC Alliance Health Equity Manager, e: [email protected].
Banner image: Artist is Trina Dalton Oogjes.
The artwork shows the connection between Community, land and water. Bunjil and the Elders watching over the gatherings. Footprints, Emu and Kangaroo tracks are moving us forward, together, towards a new way of being.
