Poche Research Updates, Part 2

Seminar Overview

This seminar will highlight advancements and innovative approaches in Indigenous health research, featuring presentations from three of our researchers. Our researchers will share their latest findings and insights, providing an overview of their research.

Dr Richard Violette, Research Fellow, will present on Two-Eyed Seeing, community-engaged research practice, and non-Indigenous collaboration in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research. Dr Kiara Minto, Research Fellow, will present a Scoping Review of Evaluations of Relationships and Sexuality Education Programs for Young People in Australia: Exploring co-design, cultural safety, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Understandings of Health. Dr Victor Oguoma, Senior Research Fellow, will present Charting Paths: My Journey in Indigenous Health Research. 

Speakers

Dr Richard Violette is a French-Canadian from Ontario, Canada. He moved to Meanjin in 2019 to complete his PhD in Human Services at Griffith. Prior, Richard worked as a research professional for more than fifteen years planning, coordinating, and implementing health and health service research across a variety of spaces; from suicide and mental health care trajectories to pharmacy practice and vaccine hesitancy. Richard’s PhD, "Practice at the research interface: Two-Eyed Seeing, community-engaged research practice, and non-Indigenous collaboration in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research" explored community-engaged research practice from a dialectical sociology perspective to identify the system- and community-level enablers/constraints to genuine research collaborations in community spaces. Guided by his Aboriginal mentors, Richard engaged in Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) to explore how to do research differently, how to foster genuine collaborations with community, and most importantly, how to meaningfully support communities to self-determine their involvement in health research. Working alongside community these last few years has been completely transformative for Richard, as he learned to listen, and listened to learn. Richard is excited to continue his journey of learning with the team at Poche.

Dr Kiara Minto is a social psychology researcher who has joined the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at The University of Queensland as a research fellow. She received her doctorate from the University of Queensland in July 2021 for her PhD research project, The role of idealising jealousy in inhibiting the identification of and response to non-physical intimate partner violence: a schema theory approach. She has since completed a post-doctoral research fellowship on sexual consent in Australia. Kiara has a passion for applying quality research techniques to identify practical strategies for real improvements across a range of social issues. Kiara is experienced in quantitative and qualitative research methods, and holds a strong commitment to research transparency, methodological rigour, and collaborative research as the foundation of positive social change. She is also dedicated to research communication and has previously written and edited a blog page for social change research. As a member of the Poche Centre she keen to apply her skills and experiences to improving knowledge around and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians health.  

Dr Victor Oguoma is a Senior Research Fellow joined UQ in February 2022. Before this time, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Health Research Institute University of Canberra and Senior Research Officer at the Menzies School of Health Research Darwin (Menzies). He held an honorary appointment at the Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait and currently holds an honorary appointment at the Menzies in Darwin. Victor completed his PhD studies in cardiometabolic disease epidemiology at Charles Darwin University before taking up an academic appointment at the Menzies where he conducted research on chronic middle ear and respiratory disease in children. He also holds a Master of Biostatistics degree from Macquarie University through the prestigious Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia program, a Master of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Medical Parasitology at Nnamdi Azikiwe University. Before his relocation to Australia in 2013, Dr Oguoma held several roles in implementing strategies to control neglected tropical diseases in Nigeria, West Africa. Since 2017, he has led/contributed to the design, implementation, and analyses of large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and epidemiological studies in the Indigenous populations of Australia, sub-Saharan Africa, and diverse populations in Kuwait. He has over 10 years of experience in public health, epidemiological, and applied biostatistics research across sectors - non-governmental organisations and academia in Australia, Africa, and the Middle East. In collaboration with other researchers, Dr Oguoma has attracted over AU$8M in competitive National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), and International-funded collaborative research grants as Chief Investigator since 2017. He has over 60 published works in peer-reviewed journals of national and international reputation. Dr Oguoma is an Associate Editor for the Australian Journal of Rural Health and BMC Public Health. He is available to supervise Ph.D. students.

Seminar recording