Art, language, deep listening to unlock Indigenous wellbeing

14 October 2024
Three women stand in conversation in a room.
CQU Jawun Research Centre academic Dr Vicki Saunders (centre) and Co-Director Professor Janya McCalman (left) speak with A/Prof Veronica Matthews from University of Sydney

By Mary Bolling

CQUniversity researchers have received prestigious Australian Government support for a First Nations-led project exploring how arts-based research can help close the gap for Indigenous health and wellbeing. 

The groundbreaking project hopes to turn around a negative trend in Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing, despite 16 years of the Australian Government policy informed by its Closing the Gap strategy. 

Dandhigu Yimbana: Listening on Country for Social and Emotional Wellbeing is a five-year project that received $867,741 in the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous grant scheme for 2025. 

Dr Vicki Saunders and Professor Janya McCalman will lead the initiative for CQUniversity’s Jawun Research Centre. 

Dr Saunders is a proud Gunggari woman from Queensland’s Maranoa region. 

The phrase ‘Dandhigu yimbana’ is in Gunggari language and acknowledges the different meanings of listening, and its impact on wellbeing and on Country.

“We know in Indigenous research that the wellbeing of Country and wellbeing of people is inextricably linked, and the project will use Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and being in research, using arts and deep listening practice, on Country with community-led projects,” she explained.


Dr Vicki Saunders looks at the camera.
Dr Vicki Saunders, CQU Senior Research Officer with Jawun Research Centre

The groundbreaking process, described by the research team as Arts-Informed Indigenist Research (AIIR), will be assessed throughout the project for its ability to create change for Indigenous health and wellbeing. 

“The project will contribute to reforms at the cultural interface of Indigenous health and arts-based research, and hopefully extend the international evidence that the arts can, has and will promote good health and health equity on Country,” Dr Saunders said.

“Our arts-informed methodologies promote listening and hence cultural safety, so can address many of the tensions created by more-traditional and dominant forms of research,” Dr Saunders explained. 

Dr Saunders is also a key contributor to another Indigenous-led research project, Stronger Together As Unified Nations for Community-led Health (STAUNCH), aimed at strengthening the capacity for self-governance among Australian First Nations'.

She's one of 10 chief investigators, alongside CQUniversity Professor Adrian Miller, who is Deputy Vice-President Indigenous Engagement, BHP Chair in Indigenous Engagement, and Director of the Jawun Research Centre.

University of Sydney’s University Centre for Rural Health received a $5 million National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Synergy Grant to drive the project, with partners including CQUniversity. 

University of Sydney Associate Professor Veronica Matthews paid tribute to the transformative researchers involved in STAUNCH.

“We’ve got an incredible team of people working together on this, nine out of the 10 chief investigators are Aboriginal leaders and eight out of the 10 are women,” she said. 

Built on nearly 20 years of collaborative research, STAUNCH will generate new evidence on Indigenous nation building processes that centre on holistic health and wellbeing solutions and that deal with intersecting challenges collaboratively and effectively.

“I know this will give us the blueprint for Closing the Gap, driving the change needed for community self-determined primary health care,” A/Prof Matthews said.

The vision for the CQUniversity’s Jawun Research Centre is to contribute to First Nations People’s self-determination through research governed by practices that value and respect cultural knowledge. 

It is a research centre dedicated to realising the gift of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, doing and being in research for social and economic inclusion and cultural continuity. 

Learn more about First Nations projects and impacts at the Jawun Research Centre website.


Professor Adrian Miller
Jawun Research Centre Director Professor Adrian Miller is a chief investigator on the $5 million STAUNCH project