About this webinar:

This webinar discusses how co-design and other collaborative research methodologies are often misapplied in research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It highlights the ways these approaches can fall short of genuine partnership and instead remain extractive in practice. The webinar also outlines strategies to strengthen research methods so they support true collaboration, ensuring that both the processes and outcomes are culturally safe and grounded in respect, reciprocity, and Indigenous ways of knowing.

About the speaker:

Associate Professor Summer Finlay is a Yorta Yorta woman and Associate Professor of Indigenous Health at the University of Wollongong, where she is Director of the Ngarruwan Ngadju First Nations Health and Wellbeing Research Centre. A leading voice in Indigenous health and public health reform, she drives high-impact, community-led research grounded in Indigenous Standpoint and sovereignty, with a strong focus on translating evidence into tangible policy and systems change.

A/Prof Finlay has led nationally significant research programs addressing Indigenous health service delivery, public health policy, and the structural determinants of health inequity. Her work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health spans research with young people, women’s health, primary care, health communications, and the evaluation of complex health and wellbeing programs. Recognised for both methodological rigour and real-world impact, she is known for building genuine partnerships with communities and influencing policy at the highest levels.

A/Prof Finlay holds several prominent leadership roles, including Chair of Thirrili, Editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Chair of the World Federation of Public Health Associations Indigenous Working Group, and Board Director of Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia.

About the panellist:

A proud First Nations woman with Wiradjuri, Murri, Maori and Anglo-Celtic lineages, Professor Juanita Sherwood has worked for over 35 years as a nurse, teacher, lecturer, and researcher to change health and education outcomes for First Nations peoples. Her journey began in the early 1980s at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, when it was the only hospital responding to the HIV and AIDS crisis. Prof Sherwood was a first-hand witness of the harmful impacts of systemic discrimination on HIV and AIDS patients and their families at the time. This shaped her path toward becoming a health advocate.

In 1988, she took up the fight for First Nations children with very high rates of otitis media in her role as a child and family health nurse in Redfern. Her work changed health and education outcomes for First Nations children across the nation and heralded a long-standing commitment to Indigenous health research as a social justice praxis.  

Prof Sherwood is widely credited for recognising colonisation as the primary determinant of First Nations health and increasing the uptake of First Nations centred research methods. She is one of the top five most productive researchers globally on the topic of decolonisation and has been cited >2470 times by national and international researchers in nursing, medicine, psychology, and social sciences (Google Scholar, August 2024). Prof Sherwood is currently involved in several NHMRC-funded projects toward these ends, including ‘Birthing on Country’, ‘Strengthening systems for Indigenous healthcare equity’, ‘Decolonising Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care’ and the ‘National First Nations Research Network’. Prof Sherwood is a founding member for CATSINaM and the Partnership for Justice Health. She currently lives in Nowra and is a board member for Waminda South Coast Women's Health and Wellbeing Aboriginal Corporation.