On 27 September, the VCCC Alliance co-hosted a panel discussion with Cancer Council Victoria and the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), to hear from Indigenous health experts on how a Voice can make a real change in cancer care and control for Indigenous peoples.
Chaired by VCCC Alliance Executive Director, Professor Grant McArthur, panellists included Colleen Young, Chair of the Board for First Peoples Health and Wellbeing; Aunty Gina Bundle, Consumer and Program Coordinator Badjurr-Bulok Wilam, Royal Women’s Hospital; Abe Ropitini, Executive Director of Population Health at VACCHO, and Todd Harper, CEO, Cancer Council Victoria. Despite ongoing research, the gap in cancer outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is growing.
A powerful and compelling discussion set out the context around the problem and reasons that a Voice has been proposed, and illustrated how it could give life to better ways of doing things so that they actually shift the dial on entrenched issues.
Abe Ropitini observed, “We are not measuring the right things, and from the right perspective: that is, from the perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves. We are very good at asking the perspective of the health system but we’re not very good at asking from the perspective of Aboriginal communities of the health system.
"The only way is to give our community a voice at the national level and really set the case for the changes that need to be made.”
Colleen Young affirmed that, “A successful referendum will give First Australian a say in the things that affect them, and provides a way to demand equitable, culturally safe, competent, and accessible care.”
Discussions highlighted numerous examples of successful health initiatives where Indigenous-led voice, priorities, implementation and solutions were priorities. Beyond politics and slogans, this panel discussion successfully evoked the real changes that could occur in Indigenous health through self-determination.
Read the VCCC Alliance Statement on the Voice.
