‘The stage is set for the 2013 National Indigenous Health Conference: Building Bridges for Indigenous Health at the Pullman Cairns International Hotel in Cairns, Queensland, Australia scheduled for the 25th– 27th November 2013.’
This year’s conference generates international interests from First Nation’s Peoples throughout the world. One of the additional highlights of the event will be the presentation about a major and common issue throughout the Indigenous native groups of Alaska involving the loss of culture, language, respect, ceremonies and so on. By working with the Indigenous spiritual technique of calling home, a community can reconnect with its roots and ancestors to effect a change.
The Traditional Healing and the Health of the Tribe shall be presented by Debra Chesnut of the USA who was raised in Anchorage, Alaska in an Alaskan Bush on one of the last homesteads allowed under the Federal Homestead Act where her father flew his 2-seater airplane to Anchorage to work because there were no roads connecting them to other communities. Debra graduated Magna Cum Laude from Nursing School at the University of Alaska, Anchorage in 1976 and worked in a variety of places as a nurse around Alaska; Palmer, Nome, Barrow, Anchorage, Fairbanks and overseas such as in Brazil, Thailand, Israel, Siberia, South Africa and Nicaragua, mostly as a volunteer.
In1989, she earned a BS in Psychology, graduating Magna Cum Laude at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks as well as earned an MA in Western Esotericism with Merit from Exeter University, Exeter, England in 2008. In 1980 she volunteered to work in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand where she met her future husband, Dr. Dennis Dussman, a local dentist. They worked for two years in Barrow, Alaska providing health care to the Inupiaq peoples. They spent many years traveling to different Alaskan villages such as Fort Yukon, Noatak, Selawik, Northway, Tetlin, Dot Lake, Tanacross and Tok to provide dental services to the Native people in the villages. In 1991 she was called to shamanize. She has taught numerous workshops in different Alaskan communities on a variety of subjects such as shamanism, the emotions, death and dying, spiritual cleansing, drum making, and transmutation work as well as overseas in Ireland and Greece. She was a member of the faculty for the Foundation for Shamanic Studies since 1996 to 2008.
In 2001 she was made the Alaska Field Associate for the Foundation. In 1993 she founded The Four Winds Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting shamanic and traditional wisdom. The Foundation offers classes, craft nights, seasonal ceremonies, healing work, and community service of a spiritual nature to the people of Alaska.
Similarly, Riki Nia Nia of New Zealand, Director Maori Health, CCDHB and Chair, Tumu Whakarae will present some of the health service innovations/best practices in placed to accelerate performance in key Maori Health Indicator priority areas such as cardiovascular risk assessment, Immunisation, Cancer Screening (Breast & Cervical) and Smoking Advice as well as some of the initiatives related to the acceleration of the achievement of better Maori health outcomes which includes the role and function of Tumu Whakarae (National DHB Strategic Reference Group), Standardised Maori Health Plans and Performance Monitoring Framework in place to monitor and leverage accelerated performance of the system, The Maori Health Workforce Development Program entitled Kia Ora Hauora (largest in country) implemented to accelerate the development and progression of more Maori into health related careers and the Biennial Maori Health Development Conference to promote and build on Maori health achievements as well as the implementation of Tikanga Best Practice Guidelines across NZ hospitals to guide culturally responsive services.
As part of an added bonus to the event, we co-organise a satellite symposium entitled: From Broome to Berrima – Building Capacity Australian-Wide in Indigenous Offender Health Research with several speakers showcasing a series of various research initiatives to improve Indigenous Offender Health outcomes. Dr. Nerelle Poroch of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service ACT has worked in Aboriginal research for eight years and has contributed to the Footprints in Time Study, Trachoma Studies, Sexual Health research and an AIATSIS Grant Study about Aboriginal Youth communicating with Centrelink. Her research work at Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service has been in the areas of Aboriginal prison health care and the connection between spirituality, social and emotional wellbeing.
Prof. Mick Dodson, AM Chief Investigator IOHR-CBG & Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies ACT is a member of the Yawuru peoples – the traditional owners of land and waters in the Broome area of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia. He is Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the ANU and Professor of law at the ANU College of Law. He was Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and was Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations 6 Indigenous Voluntary Fund and later an expert member on the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He is a chief investigator and member of the NHMRC-funded Indigenous Offender Health Research Capacity Building Group.
As the conference has been centred around the sharing of information, increasing network and access to programs, what a great opportunity it will be to have more than fifty (50) speakers gathered in one roof, over the course of this three – day conference, from various countries of Indigenous Australia freely sharing knowledge, ideas based on results of research studies, yarning about personal journeys and interacting with more than two hundred registered delegates. With all these, this is a conference that should not be missed. REGISTER NOW!
To register online or for further information, please visit the conference website: www.indigenoushealth.net
