Following on from our popular segment in the Members Grapevine newsletter, we are pleased to add Members Highlights to the Members Portal blog!
Our first blog will be about the deadly Dr Carmen Parter.
Dr Carmen Parter is a proud descendent of the Darumbal and Juru clans of the Birra Gubba Nation of Queensland with South Sea Islander heritage – Tanna Island of Vanuatu. Carmen's PhD explored how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture can be implemented and incorporated in a public health policy instrument like the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Implementation Plans.
After a 30-year career in government and research in New South Wales, Carmen Parter is finally returning to her roots as the new Chief Executive Officer of Girudala Community Cooperative Society in Bowen. “Country has finally called me home “, she said in her recent interview.
Girudala runs a range of initiatives including a medical centre, health programs, aged-care, family wellbeing and young people projects and an affordable housing program.
Carmen said she was thrilled to be moving back to her mum’s Country, the Juru clan of the Birra Gubba Nation, which encompasses her birthplace, Bowen.
“I’m proud to go back and work on Country to be a steward for local families and community,” she said. To read more about this article follow this link.
Carmen will continue working part-time as the Lead at Djurali Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Education and Health Research, based in New South Wales.
Carmen also plays a key role with the Our Collaborations in Health Research (OCHRe) Network as coordinator of the UNITE Hub. OCHRe is one of the largest cohorts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers ever assembled in Australia. It is funded by the NHMRC and is co-led by Gail Garvey (The University of Queensland), Alex Brown (Australian National University), Paul Stewart (Lowitja Institute) and Sandra Eades AO (The University of Melbourne).
In 2022 Carmen co-authored a paper with Indigenous research leaders titled “Talking about the ‘r’ word: a right to a health system that is free of racism”. The paper proposed a conceptual model of practice, where knowledges and cultures can co-exist and could close the 10-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2031.
Even more recently, Carmen was one of the team of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research leaders to contribute to the special edition of Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) highlighting and recognising Indigenous leadership and excellence in health and medical research. The inaugural collaboration between Lowitja Institute and the MJA coincided with NAIDOC Week in 2024: ‘Keep the fire burning! Blak, loud and proud’.