
  • Staff
  • Students
  • Library
Flinders University Logo Flinders University Logo
  • Study

    Study areas

    • Business
    • Computer science and information technology
    • Creative arts and media
    • Criminology
    • Defence and national security
    • Education
    • Engineering
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Humanities and social sciences
    • Innovation and enterprise
    • International relations and political science
    • Languages
    • Law
    • Medicine
    • Nursing and midwifery
    • Psychology
    • Science
    • Social work
    • Sport

    I am...

    • a high school student
    • a non-school leaver
    • a future honours student
    • a future postgraduate student
    • a future research student
    • a future online student
    • a future Indigenous student
    • an international student
    • a parent
    • a school counsellor/teacher
    Explore
    Admission pathways
    Apply
    Contact us
  • Study

    Study areas

    • Business
    • Creative arts
    • Education
    • Engineering
    • Environment
    • Government
    • Health sciences
    • Humanities
    • Information technology
    • Law
    • Medicine
    • Nursing
    • Psychology
    • Public health
    • Science
    • Social sciences
    • Social work

    International websites

    • China
    • Vietnam
    Explore Flinders
    Apply
    Contact us
  • Research

    Research areas

    • Engineering and technology
    • Health and medical
    • People and society
    • Science, environment and natural resources
    • Emerging research - Defence

    Fearless Research

    • Research Changing Lives

    I am...

    • a potential collaborator
    • a researcher
    • a potential research student
    • a current research student
    Research@Flinders
    Institutes and centres
    Partner with us
    Participate
  • Research

    Research areas

    • Engineering and technology
    • Health and medical
    • People and society
    • Science, environment and natural resources
    • Emerging research - Defence

    Fearless Research

    • Research Changing Lives

    I am...

    • a potential collaborator
    • a researcher
    • a potential research student
    • a current research student
    Research@Flinders
    Institutes and centres
    Partner with us
    Participate
  • Engage

    I want to...

    • Engage with us
    • Connect with students
    • Locate a clinic
    • Book a campus venue
    • Find a tender
    • Give to Flinders
    • Work at Flinders
    • Participate in a research study
    • See what's on
    • Shop Flinders merchandise
    • Explore Indigenous education

    Related links

    • Flinders New Venture Institute
    • Alumni
    • Health2Go
    • Flinders University Museum of Art
    • Flinders One Sport and Fitness
    Business and government
    Community
    Culture
    International
  • Alumni

    I want to...

    • Join an alumni network
    • Establish an alumni network
    • Share a memory
    • Access career services
    • Order a transcript
    • Give to Flinders
    • Update my details
    • Find a classmate
    • Shop Flinders merchandise
    Our alumni
    Benefits and services
    Get involved
    Stay connected
  • Giving

    Donate today

    • Donate online
    • Donate by mail
    • Giving online FAQs (PDF)
    • Staff Workplace Giving Program
    • Contact us

    Ways to give

    • Give in celebration or in memory
    • Leave a gift in your Will
    • Giving from overseas
    • Give a cultural gift
    • Get involved

    Donate to
    Why give
    Our donors
  • About

    The 2025 agenda

    • Vision and mission
    • Our strategic plan
    • Our values and ethos
    • Flinders Village

    Governance and leadership

    • University Council
    • Chancellor
    • Vice-Chancellor

    Our organisation

    • Colleges
    • Library
    • Professional services
    • Staff directory
    • Sustainability at Flinders

    Campus and locations

    • Bedford Park
    • Tonsley
    • City Campus
    • Flinders in the NT
    • Health and Medical Research Building
    Fast facts
    History
    Structure
    Contact us
  • Staff
  • Students
  • Library
  • You have no saved courses.

    Continue to explore your course options.

     
    Explore our courses

    Your saved courses

    {{{courseName}}}
    mail_outline
    delete
    View all saved courses
  • Quick links 
    • Current students
    • Staff
    • Library
    • Flinders dashboard (Okta)
    • Ask Flinders
    • Flinders Learning Online (FLO)
    • Parking
    • Campus map: Bedford Park
    • Staff directory
    • Jobs at Flinders
    • Shop Flinders merchandise

 
  • Research 

    Research areas

    • Engineering and technology
    • Health and medical
    • People and society
    • Science, environment and natural resources
    • Emerging research - Defence

    Fearless Research

    • Research creating a better world

    I am...

    • a potential collaborator
    • a researcher
    • a potential research student
    • a current research student
  • Institutes & centres
  • Partner with us
  • Participate in research
  • Labs & facilities
  • Flinders Researcher Development 
    • Information and Training Sessions
    • HDR Students
    • HDR Supervisors
    • Development Programs
    • Research Prizes and Awards

Amplifying an indigenous voice in health

Why we need a better framework for healthcare practice and models of care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

BY DAVID SLY

Fearless Research

Through examining the broad umbrella of health services and health systems research, Associate Professor Tamara Mackean is taking steps to de-colonise Australia’s health services – to make them more acceptable and therefore more effective to the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

It’s a difficult process to unravel long histories of stubborn institutional adherence to existing biomedical paradigms, but Associate Professor Mackean – a Waljen woman, Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine and research leader for Flinders University Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Public Health Research Team – believes she is making significant progress.

“We have to get to the core idea of what a system is trying to achieve, and realise that it is not being successful in the ways it delivers appropriate health services to Indigenous people. It therefore needs to pursue a different path,” says Associate Professor Mackean.

“The existing health systems are being guided by prevailing views that we see driving the Closing the Gap federal policy framework, which data shows is failing to close the gap in health, education and employment inequities facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – so we have to create a better framework for healthcare practice and models of care. We are driving a new program of research that will answer some of the shortcomings of the Closing the Gap policy.”

Strong indicators are helping to point the way forward, with an important landmark being the 2019 accreditation for standards of hospital care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. “It’s a driver for change that opens up broader possibility for systems reform,” says Associate Professor Mackean. “Another significant advance is the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency embarking on a cultural safety project that ensures health providers have cultural safety practices linked to their registration.”

Associate Professor Tamara Mackean

Associate Professor Tamara Mackean

FHMRI Healthy Communities

Email

Associate Professor Mackean believes such changes now need to be fused to increase Indigenous knowledge input into healthcare systems. “Having people in Canberra tell Indigenous communities what they need, without listening to the input of Indigenous leaders, has been such an entrenched part of the way Indigenous healthcare has been delivered that it has bred community distrust in the system. The wants of the people have become invisible – therefore, much of our work is to make their needs visible, and make sure they are acted upon.

“We have to make space for Indigenous evidence and Indigenous ways of working, so that it can’t be dismissed. This will see us move forward in a more respectful and integrated way.”

Associate Professor Mackean can already see growing respect throughout Australia for Indigenous knowledge of environmental understanding, planetary health and knowledge of Country, and she is hopeful this will now stretch further, so that Indigenous health and healing knowledge is respected and incorporated into new and revised ways to tackle Indigenous health and wellbeing.

Building trust among Indigenous communities is imperative for better engagement to result in improved health outcomes, but this means that researchers and policy-makers have to ask hard questions of what trust looks like to an Indigenous individual and at a collective level, for families and communities so that they listen, understand and accept what is being said to them about public health.

“Trust built through collaboration that has real meaning is only going to happen through dismantling the existing Indigenous health model and repacking services in a more functional and constructive way.” It’s an enormous task, but Associate Professor Mackean says the fundamental building blocks will be laid through recognising First Nations peoples’ knowledge and introducing this into best practice healthcare measures.

A crucial first link in building a stronger chain of trust is engaging more Indigenous health workers to interact with Indigenous communities – and this is where Flinders University plays a crucial role in educating an increasing number of future Indigenous healthcare professionals through its teaching and training programs based in South Australia and the Northern Territory.

“I have a very big vision for a better system, and that has been inspired by changes I’ve seen through the past decade in the cumulative impact of Indigenous health leadership,” says Professor Mackean, “but we can’t drive this alone. It’s an effort we must all undertake together, to provide benefits for everyone – and particularly for our nation moving forward.”

“Trust built through collaboration that has real meaning is only going to happen through dismantling the existing Indigenous health model.”

FHMRI Healthy Communities

Associate Professor Tamara Mackean

Associate Professor Tamara Mackean

Download your free copy of Fearless Research

Download Magazine

Flinders University Logo

Sturt Rd, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042

South Australia | Northern Territory
Global | Online

Information for

  • Future students
  • Alumni
  • Media
  • Business and community
  • Current students
  • Staff
  • External contractors

Directories

  • Contact us
  • Campus and locations
  • Staff directory
  • Colleges
  • Library
  • Research Institutes and Centres

Follow Flinders

Facebook - Flinders University
Instagram - Flinders University
TikTok - Flinders University
LinkedIn - Flinders University
Bluesky - Flinders University
YouTube - Flinders University
Brand SA logo Innovative Research University logo Indigenous communities

Website feedback

Disclaimer

Accessibility

Privacy

CRICOS Provider: 00114A      TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12097      TEQSA category: Australian University

Last Updated: 16 Nov 2023

FOREVER FEARLESS

This website uses cookies

Flinders University uses cookies to ensure website functionality, personalisation and a variety of purposes as set out in its website privacy statement. This statement explains cookies and their use by Flinders.

If you consent to the use of our cookies then please click the button below:

Accept all cookies and continue

If you do not consent to the use of all our cookies then please click the button below. Clicking this button will result in all cookies being rejected except for those that are required for essential functionality on our website.

Reject all non-essential cookies and continue