The three projects have a strong focus on working alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander to deliver community-led health initiatives that improve health and wellbeing to communities in Darwin, Northern Australia and beyond.<\/p>\n Professor Jaquelyne Hughes<\/a>, a Torres Strait Islander woman (Wagadagam) who is the Clinical Research Professor for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Advancement based in Darwin, has been awarded $2,954,575 for her project \u2018And We Are: Determined as Indigenous Leaders to advance First Nation kidney health\u2019.<\/p>\n The research will promote and implement health improvements delivered by First Nations leadership, for Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people, families and communities living with kidney diseases.<\/p>\n \u201cRates of kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplantation among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have risen progressively over the past 40 years, remaining consistently higher than rates for non-Indigenous Australians,\u201d says Professor Hughes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u2018And We Are\u2019 project recognises our role as leaders in choosing to be solution-enablers. It will ensure that we can sustain and extend health improvements that were initially developed as pilot programs or conceptual models.<\/p>\n \u201cThroughout this project we will uphold Indigenous self-determination, Indigenous sovereignty, human rights and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n Associate Professor Karla Canuto<\/a>, a Torres Strait Islander and descendent of the Naghir Tribe of the Kulkalgal Clan, has been awarded $2,818,905 for the project \u2013 \u2018Community-led Health Promotion in the Torres Strait\u2019.<\/p>\n As a researcher and recognised national leader in Indigenous health promotion, her project will reduce chronic disease risk factors through community-led evidence-based health restoration initiatives in extremely remote and under-resourced communities.<\/p>\n \u201cThroughout isolated communities in the Torres Strait (Zenadh), the rates of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and chronic renal failure are skyrocketing, and health restoration is an urgent priority for Maluilgal (the tribal people of the Maluilgau region \u2013 Badu, Mabuiag and Moa Islands),\u201d says Associate Professor Canuto.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sustainable community-led initiatives we implement will help restore wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fhmri\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/113\/2025\/04\/Professor-Jaqui-Hughes_Flinders-University-200x300.jpg\")
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