Strategies for Sustaining Aboriginal Song and Dance in the Modern World: the Mowanjum and Fitzroy River Valley communities of WA. This project makes a major contribution to the community in which it is based by developing an appropriate and efficient model for cultural maintenance and regeneration through repatriation, recording, documentation, and digital dissemination. National benefit derives from the development of a model to preserve and sustain endangered cultural knowledges associated wit ....Strategies for Sustaining Aboriginal Song and Dance in the Modern World: the Mowanjum and Fitzroy River Valley communities of WA. This project makes a major contribution to the community in which it is based by developing an appropriate and efficient model for cultural maintenance and regeneration through repatriation, recording, documentation, and digital dissemination. National benefit derives from the development of a model to preserve and sustain endangered cultural knowledges associated with song and dance, and a pre-emptive strategy for the recovery of almost extinct traditions. National benefit also derives from establishing Australia at the forefront of international efforts to safeguard intangible cultural heritages, by revealing how access to recordings via digital platforms contributes to cultural maintenance and regeneration.Read moreRead less
First Nations AI: Country, Climate, Communication. Our team of Indigenous and western scholars aims to develop a systematic account of artificial intelligence and its possibilities in climate change communication in remote First Nations communities in northern Australia. Working under Indigenous governance, we will establish spaces for Indigenous landowners and scientists to come together to probe diverse AI techniques for making sense of climate predictions and risks. We will build the capacity ....First Nations AI: Country, Climate, Communication. Our team of Indigenous and western scholars aims to develop a systematic account of artificial intelligence and its possibilities in climate change communication in remote First Nations communities in northern Australia. Working under Indigenous governance, we will establish spaces for Indigenous landowners and scientists to come together to probe diverse AI techniques for making sense of climate predictions and risks. We will build the capacity of Indigenous people to conceive and design AI, accounting for divergent languages and knowledge systems. This is expected to lead to more effective and trustworthy communications about extreme weather and climate change, improving the preparedness and responses of remote First Nations communities.Read moreRead less
Immunising Aboriginal Mothers With Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine To Prevent Infant Ear Disease And Carriage
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,131,530.00
Summary
Aboriginal children experience the highest rates of acute and chronic ear infections in the world, with resultant permanent ear damage, hearing loss and educational disadvantage. These infections are mainly bacterial, and Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is the predominant pathogen. Pneumococcal colonisation and infection begins within days of birth, many months before any potential immunological protection from infant pneumococcal conjugate vaccine may be expected. New strategies are nee ....Aboriginal children experience the highest rates of acute and chronic ear infections in the world, with resultant permanent ear damage, hearing loss and educational disadvantage. These infections are mainly bacterial, and Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is the predominant pathogen. Pneumococcal colonisation and infection begins within days of birth, many months before any potential immunological protection from infant pneumococcal conjugate vaccine may be expected. New strategies are needed to eliminate, or at least delay, this early-onset pneumococcal colonisation. One such strategy is the administration to the mother of pneumococcal vaccine, which may protect the newborn infant by leading to higher titres of transplacental or breast milk pneumococcal antibodies and-or by reducing carriage (and transmission to the infant) of maternal pneumococci. Previous small studies using this strategy have been encouraging, but there have been no studies properly evaluating carriage or disease endpoints in infants. The polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine is currently recommended for all Aboriginal and Torres Islander persons aged 15 years or more in the Northern Territory but uptake of the vaccine has been poor. We propose to conduct a pilot study to determine if maternal immunisation with this vaccine, either in the third trimester of pregancy of immediately following delivery, can reduce pneumococcal carriage and the prevalence of middle ear disease among Aboriginal infants at seven months of age. We aim to recruit 210 Aboriginal women who have uncomplicated pregnancies from Darwin and remote communities in the Top End of the Northern Territory. Each subject and their infant offspring will be followed-up after vaccination and at birth, one , two and seven months after birth.Read moreRead less