Yarn with us on implementing marra ngarrgoo, marra goorri: The Aboriginal Health, Medical and Wellbeing Research Accord – Accreditation Scheme

Dear members of the Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community,
For over 35 years, Aboriginal communities across Victoria have been advocating to have agency over how health, medical and wellbeing research that impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, is conducted.

On Wednesday 11 October 2023, VACCHO was proud to officially launch marra ngarrgoo, marra goorri: The Victorian Aboriginal Health, Medical and Wellbeing Research Accord. If you attended this event at Melbourne Museum, we thank you for coming to share this HUGE MILESTONE with us, we loved seeing you there!

If you don’t know much about the Accord, you can read further information about it and download it here. There’s also an introduction video available here.

Now is time to IMPLEMENT marra ngarrgoo, marra goorri, to ensure that its vision and objectives are realised for our communities across Victoria. The Research Accord team at VACCHO is currently working to devise pragmatic initiatives and establish processes for the following four priority actions of the Accord:

– Increasing research capability, for our Community to lead and conduct more research, and for the non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research sector to become culturally safe and humble in the way it conducts research with us.
– Establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research(ers) Network, for our Community to learn, work, support and partner with each other.
– Instigating institutional reform by establishing an Accreditation Scheme, to ensure signatory research organisations improve their ethical research standards.
– Establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Ethics Committee to review and approve research projects that impact us.

At this stage, we want to have a yarn about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Accord Accreditation Scheme. We are needing input from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members who are involved in research projects at any level. Some of the topics we will be yarning about include:

– Your experiences of conducting research with Communities
– Ways in which your Aboriginal organisation or unit does things differently to other organisations, or departments within your organisation
– Takeaways from your own working processes that could be mirrored by non-Aboriginal organisations or units
– Potential improvements in your own ways of working with Communities
– Challenges and barriers when undertaking research within Communities
– Opportunities in your team/organisation for Community members (including young people) to participate in or lead research projects
– Ways which you, your team and unit ensure research projects are community controlled
– Potential hurdles/obstacles to your organisation undertaking the Accord Accreditation process.

Please register to yarn with us
Date + Time
Fri 8 March 2024, 10am to 12pm

Online Event
Online event is held via Zoom.
We will email some concise information and a meeting link to registered participants prior to the event.

This event is for members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research community only. 

If you require assistance to be able to attend an event, do also reach out to us so we may support your participation.

We look forward to further celebrating and implementing marra ngarrgoo, marra goorri with you. And please feel free to share this event with Community members within your research networks.

Please contact us at varap@vaccho.org.au for more information. And most of all, take care and stay deadly.

The Research Team
Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation

*marra ngarrgoo, marra goorri literally translates to: Community Knowledge, Community Health. This phrase recognises the need to integrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges in research that impacts us, in order to realise health in our communities. It puts forward the vision that our traditional ways of knowing, being and doing, and Aboriginal self-determination in research, are prerequisites to creating positive health outcomes for Community.