DrVeronica Matthews

Wilya Janta Evaluation – Coming Home, Making Home, Valuing Home (2025-2029)

CIA MRFF Targeted Call (GNT2039697)

For too long, remote Aboriginal communities have lived with poor quality housing not suited to their culture and now worsening climate extremes. This project will measure and evaluate in line with Aboriginal worldviews wellbeing outcomes from the Wilya Janta model of co-designed culturally safe and climate appropriate homes. The evidence will support transferability and scalability to other remote communities to improve housing and health outcomes and build resilience to the changing climate.

Climate Attribution of Wildfire Smoke Impacts on Priority Population Health in Southeast Asia and Australia (CanBREATHE) (2025 – 2028)

CI Wellcome Trust Grant

This project aims to use climate attribution modelling and storylines to assess the influence of climate change on the risk and characteristics of extreme wildfires and related smoke haze exposure, and on the health of Indigenous people, pregnant women and children in five heavily affected regions of Southeast Asia and Australia. The project engages policymakers, Indigenous peoples and communities, citizen scientists and artists in the participatory co-design of innovative communication tools based on climate attribution science, health impact data, and the culture and lived experiences of communities suffering extreme or recurrent wildfires in Thailand, Laos, Indonesia and Australia.

Stronger Together As Unified Nations for Community Health (STAUNCH) (2025-2029)

CIA NHMRC Synergy Grant (GNT2036067)

STAUNCH aims to unshackle the colonial constraints on Australian First Nations by strengthening their capacity for self-governance and preparing policymakers for new relationship-based ways of working towards holistic health and wellbeing, as defined and monitored by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community-Controlled Health (ATSICCH) sector. We will generate new evidence on Indigenous Nation Building processes centred on health and wellbeing solutions that deal with intersecting social, political, economic, and environmental challenges collaboratively and effectively.

Strengthening primary health systems through Australian Indigenous paradigms: self-governance for healthy Country and community wellbeing (2025-2029)

L1 NHMRC Fellowship (GNT2034631)

Indigenous communities are currently experiencing severe environmental challenges related to climate change. This project aims to simultaneously build community self-governance and attend to priority climate concerns through multisector alliances between community-controlled primary health care and Traditonal Owner organisations. These alliances will enhance community negotiating power and decision-making authority to address complex issues for improved health of Country and community.

Counting what Counts: using a national cohort study to develop, validate and apply an Indigenous Quality of Wellbeing Utility Index and quantifying key determinants of health (2024-2029)

CIE MRFF Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies

This project seeks to ensure what Indigenous peoples value is truly valued. Existing health-related quality of life and health state utility measures fail to capture Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander conceptions of health, which encompass the social, emotional, and cultural wellbeing of the whole community, and health of country, undermining the appropriateness and effectiveness of health decision-making for Indigenous peoples. The proposed project will develop, validate and apply an Indigenous Quality of Wellbeing utility index. This will be a world-first Indigenous wellbeing index that will inform better policies, programs and services in response to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ wellbeing needs, and create a model of measuring Indigenous wellbeing that could be adapted globally.

Healing Country – weaving together knowledge systems to meet climate challenges (2022-2026)

CIA ARC Discovery Grant

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are currently experiencing severe environmental challenges related to a changing climate. Led by Aboriginal communities, this project aims to integrate traditional knowledges and environmental and health data to create community story-data maps. These interactive, online maps will be a unique and powerful blend of information, providing a rich evidence base, decision-support and communication tool to inform the co-design of local climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience plans. The project aims to give agency to Aboriginal communities in leading a systems-change process to reduce environmental risks and strengthen health and wellbeing.

Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) Network (2022-2026)

CIC NHMRC Special Initiative – Lead of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges Cross-cutting theme and Lead of NSW Hub.

The Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) National Research Network is a collaboration of 100 investigators and more than 30 organisations from across Australia that aims to catalyse research, knowledge exchange and translation into policy and practice to bring measurable improvements to our health, the Australian health system, and the environment. HEAL brings together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wisdom, public health, epidemiology, sustainable development, and data science and communication to address environmental change and its impacts on health.

Working it Out Together! Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led co-design for a strong and deadly health workforce (2022-2026)

CIB NHMRC Partnership Grant

The Working it Out Together! project resulted from health services priorities emanating from the LEAP project (see below). It is centred on four Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC services in Lajamanu (Katherine West Health Board), Mount Isa (Gidgee Healing), Northern Queensland (Qld Health) and the Northern Rivers region (Bullinah Aboriginal Medical Service) leading the development of flexible health workforce models that are suited to their needs and context. This includes building pathways and growing the local Aboriginal health workforce and improving the cultural capability of the non-Indigenous health workforce to strengthen relational aspects of care and community trust in health services.

Validating Outcomes by Including Consumer Experience (VOICE) (2021-2025)

CII MRFF Indigenous Health Research Grant

With eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC centres in urban, regional and remote context, we are developing and validating an Indigenous-specific patient reported experience measurement (PREM) tool that reflects the values and world views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, for use by PHC services to improve the quality of care they provide.