Seeding Grant recipients
The following Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations have been supported by Lowitja Institute Seeding Grant funding.
*Among these are recipients that went on to also receive Major Research Grant funding.
Akeyulerre Aboriginal Corporation
Project: Case Study for a Model of Care for Customary Healers
Year granted: 2022
Akeyulerre Healing Centre provides Angangkere (Customary) healing care that is uniquely suited to address the social, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing needs of Arrernte people. With the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress intending to incorporate Angangkere as an option to Arrernte people as part of their Mental Health Care Plans, this project represented an important opportunity to understand the organisational processes that facilitate client referral and case management across these two services.
Central Land Council
Project: Lajamanu Good Community Life Yapa Project
Year granted: 2023
This is a Yapa-led project that supports the residents of Lajamanu in the Northern Territory to define, assess, and take action for a ‘good community life’. Seven domains of a good life in Lajamanu were defined and are now tracked yearly. The community uses the emerging findings to give voice to their interests and advocate for the life they envision for future generations. The aim for this grant was to resource the project team to update the community on the research findings and workshop next steps with community.
Central Land Council
Project: Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic: Developing a research evaluation of the role and contribution of Central Australia’s Aboriginal Community Controlled organisations
Year granted: 2020
This project seeks to co-design and develop in partnership with key Aboriginal organisations a full research proposal for conducting a strength-based evaluation of Aboriginal leadership and community responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Central Australia. The work will be led by the Central Land Council (CLC) and involves partnership with key Aboriginal leaders and other community members. In this seeding grant, the partnership will develop an evaluation model to explore responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM)
Project: Building the Foundations for a Workplan for Indigenous Student Enrolment Retention (WISER)
Year granted: 2022
A CATSINaM initiative to address barriers within the nurses and midwives (N&M) workforce pipeline was a national engagement program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people commencing N&M undergraduate studies. The program aimed to invite first year students to connect with CATSINaM and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait N&M. This funding would help explore the need and feasibility of undertaking an evaluation of impact of the Student Engagement Program with nominated stakeholders.
*CATSINaM received Major Research Funding in 2020 and 2022
Dead Inspiring Youth Doing Good (DIYDG) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation
Project: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Seeding Symposium
Year granted: 2003
The Seeding Symposium supported DIYDG managers to build their capability to design research proposals for their individual research higher-degree enrolments, and enhance DIYDG skills for leading research within the DIYDG organisation, as well as continuing to partner in an informed way with university researchers.
First Nations Eye Health Alliance (FNEHA)
Project: First Nations Eye Health Alliance (FNEHA) / Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Seeding Symposium
Year granted: 2023
FNEHA arose as a result of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander eye health professional sector meetings held at the 2022 and 2023 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Eye Health Conferences. First Nations professionals voted to set up and incorporate an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander eye health community controlled organisation to represent the vision and hopes for eye health in our communities.
*FNEHA received Major Research Funding in 2023
First Nations Media Australia
Project: Above & Beyond Broadcasting: the pandemic continues. A study of the impact of First Nations media on vaccinations and community safety
Year granted: 2022
In 2020, First Nations Media Australia partnered with the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism to undertake a study of the impact of First Nations media organisations in the initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Seed funding was sought to update the initial study, providing evidence of the contribution First Nations community controlled media organisations have made to keeping communities safe.
Jawoyn Association Aboriginal Corporation/ Banatjarl Strongbala Wimun Grup (BSWG)
Project: Scoping an evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 on the BSWG cultural healing activities
Year granted: 2022
The aim of this research was to scope an evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 on the activities of the BSWG, which is instrumental in providing a means of core cultural connection plus giving a place and validation of the centrality of culture for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Jawoyn Country and Katherine. This project intended to scope a larger, long-term project with the aim of building evidence of BSWG capacity and community processes.
Kaurareg Aboriginal Land Trust
Project: Uka Pilamin: Coming Together As One, Kaiwalagal (Torres Strait) Renal Health Care Model
Year granted: 2020
This Seeding Grant provided a unique opportunity for Kaurareg First Nation peoples and Torres Strait Islanders resident in Kaiwalagal (the Torres Strait), to follow on from the Catching Some AIR Project (C-AIR) and design and develop their own model of renal health care. This includes early intervention and supporting the prevention and management of renal failure, with the end goal of preventing end stage renal disease and renal transplant. Under the theme of Cultural Safety and Respectful Systems, this proposal aimed to explore the next phase from the C-AIR Project which is to design and develop a traditional tribal health care model.
Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service (KAMS)
Project: Creation of a Kimberley program to build intelligence and improve social and emotional wellbeing
Year granted: 2022
KAMS aimed to create a Kimberley program to build emotional intelligence and improve social and emotional wellbeing among Aboriginal people. Objectives included establishing a program structure informed by relevant literature and local knowledge, working within the Kimberley Cultural Security Framework; designing a complete program, in consultation with stakeholders, catering to local needs; and developing a research proposal to trial and evaluate the program.
*KAMS received Major Research Grant funding in 2020
Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation (LHAC)
Project: Keeping our gurrutu strong: Improving North East Arnhem Wellbeing When there is Covid
Year granted: 2022
This project aimed to improve Yolŋu wellbeing in the context of COVID-19, ‘feeling better about our lives’; feeling strong in our gurrutu (family connections). Yolŋu and Balanda researchers worked with Yolŋu and Balanda health workers – genuine both-way learning. Funding went towards changing health service practices around explaining and managing COVID-19, and developing place-based measures to demonstrate/evaluate the impact of wellbeing projects.
*LHAC received Major Research Funding in 2022
Leadership FIT
Project: Re-imagining community leadership programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people
Year granted: 2020
The project explores the idea of Indigenous-led intergenerational knowledge transfer for mentorship and/or coaching. Through facilitated supportive relationships, the idea is to improve intergenerational connections between senior community leaders and young people willing to learn and develop their leadership capacities. The project aims to identify organisations and individuals willing to develop a baseline analysis of community needs regarding Indigenous-led community leadership. The project will involve talking to and building connections between various community organisations and individuals willing to develop a conceptual model for the idea of intergenerational leadership. Discussions will focus on how community organisations could benefit from the concept while also thinking about developing appropriate teaching and learning spaces for young people within the community.
*Leadership FIT received Major Research Funding in 2020
Literacy for Life Foundation
Project: Developing an Aboriginal-led evaluation framework
Year granted: 2020
The project will conduct a co-design process as a step towards a future longitudinal study into the impact of adult literacy as a social and cultural determinant of health in communities in the NT where English is an additional language/dialect (EAL/D).
Literacy For Life Foundation received Major Research Grant funding in 2020
Mallee District Aboriginal Services
Project: Community wellbeing through empowerment
Year granted: 2020
This project will use the seed funding to develop a grant application for a larger implementation and evaluation study to strengthen the evidence for community wellbeing through empowerment. This will allow the partner service organisations to work with existing and new industry and research partners to develop a larger competitive research application to implement and evaluate outcomes across partner communities.
Murri Watch
Project: Supported Youth Accommodation Program
Year granted: 2020
This research project aims to co-develop a methodology with key stakeholders to develop a practice framework to deliver the most effective crisis and transitional supported accommodation service delivery model for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people experiencing homelessness in Queensland.
*Murri Watch received Major Research Grant funding in 2020
National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition (NIYEC)
Project: NIYEC Youth Research
Year granted: 2022
This project aimed to advance the Indigenous Rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in education through the development of a youth-led research model that is grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing.
Ngambagga Bindarry Girrwaa Community Services
Project: Footprints on Country
Year granted: 2022
The primary aim of this Seeding Grant was to fully scope, explore, and identify all the elements, potential outcomes and resources required to support the development of a ‘My Life Story program’ by Elders living on Gumbaynggirr country. The longer-term aim was that this package (when developed) could be utilised to develop My Story programs widely across other traditional lands in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elder communities.
Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, University of Queensland / Dr Shea Spierings, Research Fellow
Project: Cultural governance: Building, supporting and strengthening cultural determinants of health in Central Queensland
Year granted: 2023
This project asserts First Nations sovereign governance by exploring the role of cultural governance in facilitating and supporting the cultural determinants of health through the practice of formal and informal governance. It extends on existing research by interviewing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members who hold formal and informal governance responsibilities across Central Queensland.
Short Black Opera
Project: Launching Ensemble Dutala
Year granted: 2020
This Seeding Grant supported the launch Ensemble Dutala. This Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led and populated ensemble will become a beacon to young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians who are searching for a pathway which will lead them to a career as a classical musician. Through this research process and practical application, Short Black Opera will test the idea that ‘if you can see it, you can be it’.
SNAICC – National Voice for our Children
Project: Building sustainable and effective Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early childhood services
Year granted: 2020
This research project tests the concept that a co-designed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early learning intermediary service will increase the viability, sustainability, quality and coverage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early learning services, resulting in an increase in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s access to quality early learning. The project will explore what this could look like and how it could also strengthen collective Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice and influence in the early years.
South Coast Women’s Health & Welfare Aboriginal Corporation (Waminda)
Project: Walking the talk: how our ways of knowing, being and seeing drive program design, delivery and innovation
Year granted: 2020
This project scoped interest and ideas about how to develop an Indigenous knowledge-based, decolonising approach to evaluating how frameworks are applied and adapted, how they support program decision-making and the impact this has on health wellbeing outcomes. This project brought together key stakeholders (the Board, Elders, the Cultural Committee, staff, and local Indigenous women) to identify what and how research activities and processes need to consider /reflect to assist the organisation to improve its impact in the community and build an evidence base around this.
Thirrili
Project: Boorai Deaming Health Project
Year granted: 2022
This project supported the broader findings of PhD research conducted by Janey McNally (Moondani Balluk Victoria University), which explored trans-/inter-generational trauma (Atkinson 2002) as assimilation trauma and its consequence, to be woven into four digital stories. Led by Thirrili, the Seeding Grant was used to test the healing capacity of the first digital story in the community of Mildura, Victoria.
Tranby National Indigenous Adult Education & Training
Project: Exploring Educational Empowerment for Mob
Year granted: 2020
This research project will explore how Aboriginal-controlled adult education has and continues to, empower individuals, families, and their communities. It will demonstrate adult education as a crucial agent of empowerment, knowledge sharing and self-determination for the Aboriginal community and will draw from alumni testimonies and life histories that contribute to this understanding. While this research will centrally explore the importance of Aboriginal-controlled adult education in Australia more broadly, and in what ways it has contributed to community empowerment, it will also enable Tranby to evaluate our organisational impact on alumni and investigate the rippling impacts of adult education within their communities.
Tribal Warrior Aboriginal Corporation
Project: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Seeding Symposium
Year project: 2023
The H.O.M.E. program yet to be evaluated to determine what outcomes and impact it was having, ensure it was meeting community and stakeholder needs, and to determine how the program might be enhanced. The Seeding Symposium would help build the research skills and capacity of two engaged members of the organisation who would then work with partners to apply for a Major Research Grant to support this work.
The University of Sydney / Dr Simone Sheriff, Research Fellow
Project: Yalbilinya miya (learn together): Aboriginal community-controlled home visiting breastfeeding program
Year granted: 2023
Yarning circles conducted on Wiradjuri Country with Aboriginal mothers and Elders identified a community need for home visiting breastfeeding services that are designed and delivered through Aboriginal community controlled health services. This project aims to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers and restore cultural breastfeeding practices through synthesising evidence on current programs and developing a framework for a community-led home visiting breastfeeding program.
Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO)
Project: Victorian Aboriginal Ethics Committee: Determing resourcing requirements
Year granted: 2022
The objective of the project is to produce a report outlining a model for an Aboriginal Ethics Committee that champions Aboriginal governance and self-determination, and appreciates the local nuances across Victoria.
Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages
Project: Victorian Language Health Check
Year granted: 2020
The project builds on current First Nations language policies and revitalisation projects and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health measures (for example, NHMRC) to develop a community-led Victorian language health check survey. Language revitalisation programs nationally and internationally claim health and well-being benefits, the aim of this health check is to provide evidence, sovereign Victorian specific data to support this theory. Our seed project will ask the ‘right questions’ built around culturally safe and ethical frameworks of multi-generational community members to gain a deeper understanding of: the status of Victorian Language revitalisation practices, how knowledge is produced and how access to Mother Tongue has health and well-being benefits.
We-Al-li Pty Ltd
Project: Pathways to healing: Examining long term outcomes of First Nations culturally informed and trauma integrated practice approaches in health and community services
Year granted: 2020
The purpose of this project was to conduct a pilot evaluation of outcomes and potential for systems change associated with We Al-li’s training to diverse communities, professionals, and organisations in trauma integrated practice. The project would holistically map personal, professional, organisational, community, and systems outcomes with 12 diverse professionals who had completed training over the past decade.
Weenthunga Health Network
Project: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Seeding Symposium
Year granted: 2023
Following the establishment of a social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) outreach service, this research sought to identify how boundaries could be set by First Nations peoples within systems and institutions to prevent burnout. The Seeding Symposium supported the organisation to transform this community priority into a program of research.
Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation
Project: Yanangulu Lingkitu Ngalula’ from the Past, through the Present, to the Future
Year granted: 2020
The ‘Yanagulu Lingkitu Ngalula’ Lowitja Seeding Grant project provides an opportunity for Yanangu Elders and Leaders and Community members to engage in a meaningful way on their Country and in ways that privilege Yanangu ways of knowing, doing and being.
Yalu Marnggithinyaraw Indigenous Corporation
Project: Nhaltjan limurr dhu djäka miyalkku galŋa-ŋonuŋgu limurruŋgiyingal wäŋaŋur- Thinking and talking about future aspirations for a community Yolŋu Birthing Space
Year granted: 2020
Our project will begin to address the longstanding requests of our First Nations Yolŋu families to return childbirth back to our communities and our own control. We know that establishing a Yolŋu Birthing Space is a long journey and we would like to start thinking about how our community can work together and build relationships with stakeholders and researchers to influence health system change and better meet our needs.
