Moving Forward Together in Aboriginal Women's Health: - Theses ...

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellya possibility to be debated. All staff members supported the viewpointexpressed in the South Australian Generational Health Review (Government ofSouth Australia 2003a), the South Australian Women’s Health Policy(Government of South Australia 2005) the ‘Close the Gap’ Campaign (OxfamAustralia 2008) and Cultural Respect (Australian Health Minister's AdvisoryCouncil 2004) that colonisation, discrimination and exclusion continue toimpact on the lives of Aboriginal people today. They sought to find ways toaddress these, but often found it difficult with existing health care approaches.The benefits of collaborative action-orientated researchEnacting the process of PAR in this Collaboration Area highlighted theimportance of moving beyond interpretation into action (Habermas 1984) and(Freire 1972). Co-researchers discussed that planning and taking positive andcollaborative action helped them to gain a sense of control and better meetunmet client needs. Interpretive approaches increase knowledge andunderstanding, but do not provide opportunities for pragmatic and responsiveaction and evaluation. Co-researchers valued being supported to try somethingnew, without the fear of being blamed if it did not go to plan. If the action didnot work out, they simply evaluated it, reflected, discussed options and triedagain. Rather than being the receivers of directed programs or scapegoats ifthings did not work out (AH D6), workers became involved in ‘ground up’programs where their knowledge and expertise was recognised and supported.In this way this research process became liberating and transforming in wayssimilar to Freire’s (1972) Dialogical Education and Belenky and colleagues(1973) Connected and Midwife Teaching.The PAR process also enabled health professionals to be able to focus on localAboriginal women’s priorities and find creative ways of addressing their needswith available and newly developed resources. Health care was able to focuson local evidence and cultural and personal needs, as well as external, topdown, pre-selected biomedical evidence. In this way PAR increased healthprofessionals’ capacity and opportunity to provide culturally safe, responsivewomen’s health programs, mindful of the ongoing impacts of colonisation,discrimination and exclusion on Aboriginal women’s health and well being.259