One of these organisations is ReachOut, which has been changing the way people access help since it launched the world’s first online mental health service nearly 20 years ago. ReachOut is accessed by more than 200,000 people in Australia every month.

The partnership between ReachOut and the Department of Indigenous Studies will lead to the creation of one of the first resources ReachOut has produced specifically for Indigenous youth. Head of the Department of Indigenous Studies Professor Bronwyn Carlson, tells us about this impressive partnership below.

What was/is the aim of the project?
The project, ‘Meeting where you are: social and emotional wellbeing resources and social media to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people build resilience, seek help and to prevent suicide’ aims to design, deliver and evaluate an innovative and culturally-safe social media campaign and supporting online resources to promote the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. The ultimate objective of the project is to build resilience, support help-seeking and prevent suicide.

Who are the key players?
This project is a partnership with the academic researchers in the Department of Indigenous Studies: Professor Bronwyn Carlson, Dr Tristan Kennedy, Dr Ryan Frazer, and Madi Day with ReachOut Australia, Mariesa Nicholas, Director of Research and Hilary Miller, Research and Evaluation Manager.

Project budget
$950,000

How did the partnership project come about?
We first met the ReachOut team when we hosted an Indigenous youth and cyberbullying forum with one of our other partners, the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council. ReachOut does significant work with young people and online violence. We were then invited to collaborate on a grant application with the Department of Health (Commonwealth) for this project.

Which Macquarie people/teams helped make it happen?
We have a fabulous relationship with the Faculty of Arts Research Office who are always very supportive of our research aspirations. Particularly Dr Jan Zwar and Associate Dean Research Professor Robert Reynolds. Also Daniel Johnston, Research Partnerships Manager.

How did you approach the management of the project?
It was a pleasure writing the grant application with ReachOut as they are very collaborative and they are used to co-design in their approach. We are also fairly tech savvy and happy to use digital platforms as well as more traditional ways of collaborating.

Any cultural or business process differences that you had to navigate?
As Indigenous people and working in Indigenous Studies our priorities are to ensure the work we are engaged in also benefits our communities. ReachOut were very responsive to this. There are always moments where we have the opportunity to learn from each other and our role is to make sure we are true to Indigenous philosophies and ways of operating.

What has been the outcome?
The outcome was being awarded the grant. We have made some initial progress on the project and are submitting our ethics application shortly. We have had a few meetings and we are trying to recruit the research associate. COVID has impacted our progress but we are fairly happy with what we have achieved so far. We have held one workshop where we have begun to think about the evaluation phase and we have done some work on the co-design of the project.

What is your advice to staff that are thinking about partnering with industry?
Partnering with industry can be very rewarding and you can see your research have real world impact. Our industry partners are keen to work with the University and our involvement brings a lot pf prestige to the outcomes. Look for partners who share your values and for us we always like to work with industry that will benefit the communities we also work with.

Every month we celebrate impressive achievements and partnerships within the Macquarie community. Got something to share for next month? Tell us.

Macquarie’s star scientist

Congratulations to Dr Tayyaba Zafar, who has been named among the 2020 NSW Young Tall Poppies by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science.

Tayyaba is an astrophysicist and lecturer at Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO) at Macquarie University, with her work focused on what stardust can tell us about the universe.

A strong advocate for encouraging women into STEM, read about Tayabba’s work inspiring the next generation of female scientists.

One overall winner in each state will be announced at the national Tall Poppy Awards later this month.

Historian’s ‘master work’ wins Premier’s prize

Kate Fullagar, an Honorary Professor in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations, has won the General History Prize at the 2020 NSW Premier’s History Awards for her book The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist.

By charting the unlikely story of the intersecting lives of three 18th-century­ figures – Cherokee warrior Ostenaco, Raiatean voyager Mai and the British artist who painted them both, Joshua Reynolds – the book challenges our understanding of Indigenous peoples’ interactions with the globalising force of the British Empire.

Yay for our BA

Macquarie’s reimagined Bachelor of Arts – launched this year – has been shortlisted in the Australian Financial Review’s Higher Education Awards in the Employability category.

Designed in consultation with industry partners, the Faculty of Arts created the new degree to equip students with the most in-demand transferable skills like communication, problem solving and critical thinking to prepare them for employment. Throughout the course, students build a digital portfolio to showcase their skills to future employers while learning how humanities subjects can be applied to tackle problems in the world of work.

The AFR Higher Education Award winners will be announced on 18 November.

New grant to support wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people

A team from the Department of Indigenous Studies, made up of Professor Bronwyn Carlson, Madi Day, Dr Tristan Kennedy and Dr Ryan Frazer, has been awarded a $950,000 grant by the Commonwealth Department of Health for a project in partnership with ReachOut Australia.

The project aims to address the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people through an innovative and culturally safe social media campaign and supporting online resources.

Centre for Emotional Health research project awarded $700,000

Bupa Health Foundation has committed approximately $700,000 to a research project aimed at developing a sustainable system to deliver early intervention for mental health through Australian schools.

Working with students, parents, educators and policy-makers, ARC Australian Laureate Fellow and Distinguished Professor Ron Rapee will lead the project with the aim to develop and test the best possible method to identify youth at risk and test effective pathways to appropriate care.

“Young people with mental health problems rarely reach out for the help that they need. With this support from the Bupa Foundation, we’ll be able to develop innovative methods to identify young people who are in distress and connect them with the most appropriate places to get help,” says Ron.

Macquarie’s course #1 in Australia

In April, Austrade partnered with the social learning platform FutureLearn and Universities across Australia to provide free online courses to help students around the world continue learning during COVID lockdowns and to promote Australia as a quality study destination.

Twenty Higher Education and English Language Training providers released a collection of 52 free short courses onto the FutureLearn site. With over 836,000 enrolments, the campaign has been well received globally.

MUIC-ELC’s ‘Improve your IELTS Speaking Score’ has rated the most popular among these offerings, with 75,000 enrolments, in excess of 35,000 active participants, 7,300 completions and a rating of 4.9 out of 5 for satisfaction.

Director of MUIC and ELC Dr Pamela Humphreys led development and content planning for the course. She says it’s immensely gratifying to see how the course has resonated with international students,.

“We’re so proud that it was number one in the Austrade campaign based on enrolments. The team did an exceptional job putting it together, and it really is a wonderful testament to the quality of teaching we provide at MUIC-ELC.”

The University’s homepage features a special series of stories from The Lighthouse, celebrating the culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and highlighting Macquarie researchers who are working together with Indigenous communities to creative positive change.

Review: Bangarra’s triple bill celebrates 30 groundbreaking years

Bangarra Dance Theatre’s 30th anniversary production is a powerful evening of performance showcasing the resilience and strength of the theatre’s vision, writes Dr Jon Burtt, Lecturer in Dance and Performance at Macquarie University.

Indigenous Australians distributed native plants across the continent for millennia 

Cross cultural ecologist Dr Emilie Ens co-leads a project exploring how Indigenous Australians moved plants around the continent such as the ‘black bean’ tree – a food source now spread across eastern Australia.

Podcast: Time to ditch the textbooks on Indigenous culture

Australian teachers are often nervous about teaching Indigenous history and culture. But one simple approach can have remarkable results, as Associate Professor of Education Neil Harrison explains.

Report tackles the impact of cyberbullying on Indigenous kids

Two Macquarie researchers are working to help Indigenous communities respond to racist and abusive conduct on social media.

New app to help keep endangered Indigenous languages alive

Macquarie University researchers are part of an international minority language project that will help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from across Australia record Indigenous words and sentences into an online resource.

Bush uni bridging the gap for Indigenous students

Second wave of students sign up for Arnhem Land’s First community-led bush university.

A new Indigenous Studies unit sheds light on the places and practices that characterise the local area and its original inhabitants.

The new unit Dharug Country: Presences, Places and People is the first localised Indigenous Studies course in Australia.

Professor Bronwyn Carlson, Head of the Department of Indigenous Studies, said she wanted to develop the unit in response to this gap.

“We often talk about Indigenous people and embedding Indigenous perspectives, but nowhere in the country is anything that focuses specifically on the people whose lands our institutions sit on,” she says. “Often we are so busy thinking about the world in global terms that we forget that it always originates at the local level.”

Importantly, the content of the unit was developed by Dharug people including Dr Jo Rey, a Dharug woman who has just completed her PhD at Macquarie.

Ancient ways of learning

Dr Rey will be the first to teach the unit, as part of a commitment to having this local knowledge passed on by Dharug teachers. Replacing traditional lectures and tutorials will be Indigenous yarning circles, an ancient way of sharing knowledge.

“For students, this will shift their comfort zone,” says Professor Carlson. “You’re actually sitting there with somebody who has ancestral links to this very place that you’re studying on, for thousands of years.

“The yarning circle is an intimate space where the relationship and separation between lecturer and student vanishes.

“It’s a unique way of teaching for universities, but they are very old ways of teaching.”

Discovering Dharug places

As part of the unit, students will spend time on-Country (Ngurra) doing experiential learning activities and learning about the history of Dharug people.

In a built-up area like Macquarie, sacred places for Indigenous people can be hard to spot, but Professor Carlson emphasises the importance of recognising the continuing connection to these sites:

“The unit covers how Dharug people care for Country when the country is basically a city. It doesn’t matter what’s built on top of the land, the connection to place is still the same.”

The students will make use of a new app developed by Walanga Muru that provides a guided tour of campus’ cultural landmarks and the significant Dharug sites across Macquarie. Staff, students and visitors will also be able to access the free app in Session 2 (sounds like the perfect way to spend a lunch time walk!)

A possum skin cloak made by Dr Jo Rey guides students through the themes in the unit on iLearn.

Imagining a shared future

This week (7-14 July) is NAIDOC Week, with this year’s theme Voice. Treaty. Truth. focussed on the concept of a shared future between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

Professor Carlson says she believes the new unit will allow students to recognise their own impact on Country and local Dharug people and their role in working towards a more equitable future.

“This unit will get students to pause and think for a minute about the impact of themselves, the University and everything that’s happened in the last 231 years on the people and places that have always been here.

“Part of Indigenous culture is also inclusiveness, so by being in that yarning circle you become part of the community and therefore you have roles and responsibilities with Dharug people to help care for Country.”

Dr Kira Westaway, Dr Neil Harrison and Corrinne Sullivan (formerly Franklin) have all been honoured for their work and significant contribution to the quality of student learning in a specific area of responsibility over a sustained period.

The creation of effective earth science learning environments that support different learning styles and positively impact on the student experience has seen Dr Kira Westaway from the Department of Environmental Sciences receive one of the awards.

“This citation represents seven years of studying how students learn so I could develop an approach that engages them and delivers the type of student experience that I would have wanted if I were still at university,” she said.

“Students these days are looking for more than the delivery of information. They want to be inspired, challenged, motivated and provoked – and yet supported and understood. My approach ‘reigniting student curiosity’ recognises the pressures on students these days and helps them get excited about science and their degrees.

“The development and application of this approach has taken a great deal of time with new ideas tested every semester, so it’s great to get recognition for all the extra effort. However, the real winners will be the students when these ideas are given a platform to be disseminated across the university community.”

Dr Neil Harrison from the Department of Educational Studies received his award for leadership and innovation in curricula development that ensures the inclusion of local Indigenous community knowledge in urban locations in teacher education.

“It is a great honour to receive national recognition of my contributions to student learning in the field of Indigenous education,” he said.

“Bringing Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together on Country is crucial to building a strong and harmonious future for Australia, and my contributions to student learning are directed to this end. The citation inspires me to establish yet more opportunities for Aboriginal experts and university students to work together and learn from each other.”

 And finally, Ms Corrinne Sullivan from the Department of Indigenous Studies was recognised for the development of a transformative and motivating learning space in Indigenous Studies that has inspired students to critically and sensitively reflect on their perspectives and world views.

“Teaching in a field where so many people regularly extend themselves above and beyond the parameters of their job descriptions, it is difficult to consider anything that one does as outstanding,” Corrinne said.

“For me to be included in a very talented and professional group of award winners is both the height of humility and the pinnacle of pride. I am deeply honoured to receive this award and am very thankful for those who have guided me over the years. This award is very affirming and inspires me to do more.”

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Kevin Jameson said “We’re very proud that three of our dedicated educators have received this important national recognition for their outstanding contributions to student learning.

Dr

Following last week’s widespread public shock and the announcement of a Royal Commission into the treatment of Aboriginal children in detention in the Northern Territory, Holly was moved to take action, publishing an opinion piece in the Huffington Post and New Matilda.

Read the story here:

Holly Doel-Mackaway: Policies Must Be Made With Aboriginal People, Not For Them

“This matter has shone a floodlight on Aboriginal children’s human rights and galvanised the support of the nation in a way that has never happened before,” Holly notes. “My aim in writing this article was to influence the appointment of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person to lead the Royal Commission and encourage decision-makers to engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people throughout the whole Royal Commission process, not just as witnesses.”

With yesterday’s resignation of Brian Martin OA as head of the Commission, Holly says she is pleased that the Government responded to calls for an Indigenous leader to head the Commission.

“Appointing Mick Gooda to co-lead the Royal Commission with Margaret White is a significant move by the Government toward supporting Indigenous self-determination,” Holly says. “Despite the shaky start, there is renewed hope that the Royal Commission may now offer a significant avenue to address long-standing violations of Indigenous children and young people’s rights in Australia.”

“I am now calling for the establishment of a youth-led Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Advisory Council to work closely with Mick Gooda and Margaret White throughout the Royal Commission process.”

You can follow Holly’s campaign on Twitter (@4ChildRights).

We invite staff to contribute stories – in their own voice – to help celebrate the diversity, passion and collaborative spirit of Macquarie staff.