The Indigenous Resiliency Project was part of the International Collaborative Indigenous Health Research Partnership (ID: 361621), a trilateral partnership between the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Health Research Council of New Zealand. There were parallel projects in Canada and New Zealand; together we aimed to examine the role of resilience in protecting Indigenous populations against sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections.
In the qualitative arm we conducted community-based participatory projects with two communities. Check out the findings below:
- Mooney-Somers, J, Olsen, A, Erick, W, Scott, R, Akee, A, & Maher, L (on behalf of the Indigenous Resiliency Project). (2011) Young Indigenous Australians’ sexually transmitted infection prevention practices: A Community-based Participatory Research project. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 12(6): 519-532.
- Mooney-Somers, J, Olsen, A, Erick, W, Scott, R, Akee, A, Kaldor, J, & Maher, L (on behalf of the Indigenous Resiliency Project). (2011) Learning from the past: young Indigenous people’s accounts of blood-borne viral and sexually transmitted infections as resilience narratives. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 13(2): 173 – 186.
- Mooney-Somers, J, Erick, W, Scott, R, Akee, A, Kaldor, J, & Maher, L (on behalf of the Indigenous Resiliency Project). (2009) Enhancing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people’s resilience to blood borne and sexually transmitted infections: Findings from a community-based participatory research project. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 20(3):195-201.
- Mooney-Somers, J & Maher, L (2009) The Indigenous Resiliency Project: A worked example of community-based participatory research. NSW Public Health Bulletin, 20(7 & 8), 112–118.
In 2010 we used the qualitative work as the basis for community surveys. Again, researchers worked closely with community, in this case the Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Service. The cross-sectional survey covered location of usual residence, recent and past sexual activity, alcohol and other drug use, history of selected health outcomes and health service utilisation. We trained five young local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in research ethics and survey methodology. These peer researchers collected surveys from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people aged 16 to 24 years at the Townsville Show, sporting events, shopping centres, a health service open day and a NAIDOC parade and community event.
Check out what we found: Scott, R, Foster, R, Oliver, L, Olsen, A, Mooney-Somers, J, Mathers, B, Micallef, J, Kaldor, J and Maher, L (accepted 22/10/2014). Sexual risk and health care seeking behaviour in young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in north Queensland. Sexual Health
Note: this is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of the accepted article; I’ll post the link to the definitive publisher-authenticated version as soon as it is released.
Julie Mooney-Somers 