Introduced by Professor Sandy Toussaint of the Berndt Museum who is co-curator with the Warmun Community of the exhibition WARMUN THEN AND NOW - Professor Jill Milroy and Professor Pat Dudgeon will discuss their current work in relation to the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and the National Empowerment Project.

Professor Jill Milroy is a Palyku woman whose country is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. She is Dean of the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia and has more than 30 years experience in Indigenous higher education. She has served on a number of national advisory bodies including three terms of appointments on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Advisory Council. In 2011 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of her services to Indigenous education.

The Challenge: The Poche Centre aims to drive a transformative intergenerational Aboriginal health research agenda, which delivers tangible, measurable health outcomes and services directly to Aboriginal people and communities. The UWA Poche Centre has three key focus areas: (1) Culture, Wellbeing and Mental Health, (2) Aboriginal Children’s Health and (3) Disability and Chronic Disease. Professor Milroy’s particular focus is Culture, Wellbeing and Mental Health. Mental health and social and emotional wellbeing issues are estimated to account for 22% of the life expectancy gap for Aboriginal people. In this presentation she will discuss how historic legacy, intergenerational trauma, chronic stress, contemporary trauma and loss and disadvantage, particularly in education, all contribute to poor mental health, poor physical health and chronic diseases.

Professor Pat Dudgeon from the Bardi people of the Kimberly area in Western Australia, is a Psychologist and Research Fellow at the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her area of research includes social and emotional wellbeing and suicide prevention. Amongst her many commitments, she is a Commissioner of the Australian National Mental Health Commission, on the executive board of the Australian Indigenous Psychologist’s Association, and co-chair of the Commonwealth Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Advisory Group. Her many publications in Indigenous mental health in particular, include Working Together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice 2014. She is currently the project leader of the National Empowerment Project, an Indigenous suicide prevention project working with eleven sites in Aboriginal communities across the country and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project.

The National Empowerment Project: This presentation will provide a brief overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and will describe promising initiatives such as the National Empowerment Project (NEP). Developed in response to the high levels of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide the NEP is an Aboriginal-led initiative which has undertaken research in eleven Aboriginal communities nationally. At the core of this project are concepts of community ownership and valuing culture. The mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has become a critical issue. The data suggests an entrenched, perhaps worsening, mental health crisis. It is timely that the mental health professions engage with Indigenous people in ways that will assist recovery and cultural maintenance. In recent times, the emergence of Indigenous paradigms is seen as an important way forward.

This FREE event is presented by the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery as part of the public program accompanying the Berndt Museum exhibition WARMUN THEN AND NOW.

Visit lwag.uwa.edu.au to find out more.