Understanding the determinants of health: an Indigenous systems science approach
The Team: Dr Jennifer Browne, Troy Walker, Dr Karen Hill, Yin Paradies, Dr Tyson Yunkaporta, Professor Doug Creighton, Simone Sherriff
The gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is one of Australia’s most significant challenges. Indigenous scholars have critiqued biomedical and social determinist approaches to health, arguing they do not fully represent the multitude of factors contributing to health inequity. Concurrently, commercial determinants of health research demonstrates how the profit-focused practices of commercial interests impact health outcomes internationally. However, the commercial determinants of health are scarce in current Indigenous health research and policy.
This project aims to:
- Develop a methodological approach, grounded in Indigenous Knowledge, for conceptualising and examining the interactions between the overlapping factors influencing Indigenous health and wellbeing.
- Apply this Indigenous systems thinking approach to identify the ways where commercial activities are influencing Indigenous health and wellbeing.
This interdisciplinary project will combine innovative systems thinking approaches from Western and Indigenous knowledge systems to produce more holistic understandings of the determinants of Indigenous health. Data will be drawn from existing literature on the determinants of Indigenous health and small group yarning workshops with Indigenous health staff/community members. We will use Deakin’s purpose-built Systems Thinking in Community Knowledge Exchange software to develop a visual representation of the interconnected sociocultural and commercial factors influencing Indigenous Health.
Chief Investigator: Dr Jennifer Browne, Research Fellow, Faculty of Health.
Collaborators: Troy Walker and Dr Karen Hill of the Institute for Health Transformation; Professor and Chair of Race Relations Yin Paradies (Deakin University); Dr Tyson Yunkaporta of the National Indigenous Knowledges Education Research Innovation Institute (NIKERI) at Deakin University, Professor Doug Creighton of Deakin University’s Institute for Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation (IISRI) and Simone Sherriff of the Sax Institute (University of Sydney).