Deakin researchers have secured a $975,000 VicHealth grant to support research exploring what commercial factors impact Indigenous health at key points in the lifespan.
Professor Yin Paradies and Associate Professor Jennifer Browne from the Murnong Health Research Mob, part of the Deakin Institute for Health Transformation, have secured the inaugural VicHealth First Peoples Research Fellowship.
The funding will support the Strong Systems: Healthy Futures project, exploring the impact of Commercial Determinants of Health (CDoH) on Indigenous communities.
Murnong Mob researchers will work in collaboration with VicHealth and the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO).
All work will be grounded in existing relationships with the Community, to ensure the research aligns with Community priorities and is Community centred.
What are Commercial Determinants of Health?
Commercial Determinants of Health are things businesses do that affect people’s health, directly or indirectly and can be both positive and negative.
Ways that businesses can negatively impact public health include through targeted marketing of goods and activities that are bad for us, like alcohol, tobacco, ultra processed foods and gambling, through deforestation for commercial use and through factories that pollute the air.
Companies can also positively impact health by producing safety products like seatbelts, improving access to safe and affordable medicines and medical products and companies providing employees with paid parental leave and other health benefits, for example.
Unfortunately, Commercial Determinants of Health are more likely to negatively impact populations and areas that are already at a disadvantage within broader social and economic systems.
How might commercial interests impact Indigenous health?
Strong Systems: Healthy Futures aims to generate new evidence and translation strategies to inform how CDoH shape Aboriginal health at key life and developmental stages. The research fellows’ complementary skillsets will be applied to co-design actions for health promotion across Victoria.
The fellowship will extend Murnong Health Research Mob’s existing CDoH research and will be led by Murnong Mob research fellows Fiona Mitchell (mothers, infants and children), Dr Nichole Lister (adolescents and young adults), and Troy Walker (adults and Elders).
The Strong Systems study will examine many factors that may impact First Nations’ health outcomes, such as unhealthy marketing online and within neighbourhoods. The study will also explore how Community members may be impacted by the practices of baby and toddler food companies, vape, alcohol, unhealthy food and gambling industries, as well as other commercial actors such as the finance, insurance, superannuation industries or privatised health and aged care providers.
Troy Walker, a Yorta Yorta man, says the Fellowship will allow the Murnong Health Research Mob to continue the essential work into the far-reaching influences and impacts of the commercial industry in Australia.
‘Several successful outcomes are likely to arise from this opportunity. One would be ensuring that the research continues to look deeply and truthfully at the perspectives and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Victoria.
‘It will also enable the fellows to learn with, and alongside, one another and the communities as a strong contributor to knowledge translation.’
‘We are working towards knowledge and understanding about our autonomy and the decisions guiding our own health and the environment, and empowering Indigenous people to take the lead.’
Troy Walker
Senior Research Fellow
The importance of First Peoples-led research
The Murnong Mob is Deakin University’s premier First Peoples’ health research team, established in 2019 as a culturally safe space for public health research led by, and for, Community.
Fiona Mitchell, a Mununjali woman says, ‘Elevating the voices of Victoria’s First Peoples through this important research is a step in the right direction for self-determination, to help empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people against commercialisation.
’As Aboriginal researchers we are unable to actively implement our findings for our communities across Victoria without strong partnerships. Through our vital partnerships with VicHealth and VACCHO, successful outcomes will ultimately come back to the Community.
‘It will be the first known research of its kind to be able to address the commercial health determinants using a lifespan approach for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.’
Fiona Mitchell, pictured right, with Senior Research Fellow Nic Lister, Research Fellow
VicHealth Manager Research and Impact, Carolyn Wallace says, ‘Murnong Mob has an outstanding track record and demonstrated ability to achieve research objectives that are well connected to and led by community, within a safe, inclusive and supportive space.
‘Their strong community focus enables research that is led-by and builds on the experiences and understanding of First Peoples. This expands the knowledges and voices contributing to health promotion and creates new opportunities and ideas to challenge norms and influence systems for better health.’
Read Deakin University’s Indigenous Research Strategy
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