Researcherenye Wappayalawangka-Central Australia Academic Health Science Network (CA AHSN) is dedicated to improving the health of people in central Australia, with a focus on Aboriginal health. It is focused on community-driven research and research translation in close collaboration with research, educational and service delivery organisations.
Our Name
Our name, Researcherenye Wappayalawangka, reflects our place in central Australia—one that goes beyond arbitrary state and territory boundaries.
Researcherenye is an Arrernte rendering of a borrowed word describing a gathering of researchers. Wappayalawangka is made up of the first one or two letters of the fourteen First Nation languages represented in central Australia.
Our Logo
Our logo was designed by renowned Arrernte artist, Marlene Rubuntja, who lives at Yarrenyty Arltere Town Camp (Larapinta Valley Town Camp). The work, taken from a print by Marlene is entitled “Landscape”. The logo has been licensed to CA AHSN for non-commercial use.
Marlene was born in Alice Springs in 1961. Her mother’s country is Herma
nnsburg (Ntaria), west of Alice Springs. Marlene grew up at Amoonguna community, east of Alice Springs where she went to school. Marlene is the daughter of Wenten Rubuntja the well known painter and activist. It was her father who fought for the rights of people to settle Town Camps in Alice Springs. In the 1970s her family, the Rubuntjas, along with the Ebatarinjas and the Lynches were the original families to settle Yarrenyty Arltere Town Camp. Marlene has been here ever since and she is proud to call this place home. She is sister to the important watercolour artist Mervyn Rubuntja. Marlene learnt to sew at Yirara College, Alice Springs, however she only began making soft sculptures at Yarrenyty Arltere in 2009. She says she draws inspiration for her soft sculptures from what she sees around her in her daily life at Yarrenyty Arltere Town Camp; “some things are good for people and other things make people really mad”.
She also draws inspiration from her husband’s country at Wave Hill. Marlene is interested in telling proudly the stories of her people; her art is helping her to do this. Marlene is a proud spokeswoman for the art centre and is happy to tell people how important it is in her life in helping her stay strong and healthy.
Marlene has also written the script for both the soft sculpture animations made at the art centre in conjunction with the YALC multi media room. In 2016 Marlene officially opened Desert Mob Exhibition in Alice Springs and in 2017 she was one of three judges for the Portrait of a Senior Territorian Art Award.
In 2016 Marlene won the inaugural Vincent Lingiari Art Award.
http://www.yarrenytyarltereartists.com.au/marlene
Our Story So Far
The Central Australia Academic Health Science Centre (CAAHSC) was formally established in 2014 to promote collaboration between Aboriginal community controlled and government-run health services, universities and medical research institutes working to improve health outcomes for people living in central Australia. Founding members included (xxxxxxxxxxxxxx).
In 2017:
The Central Australia Academic Health Science Centre was recognised as a Centre for Innovation in Regional Health [external link] (CIRH) by Australia’s peak funding body for medical research, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
At the same time, the Centre was awarded $222,000 in seed funding from the Medical Research Future Fund’s Rapid Applied Research Translation program. This funding contributed to funding the establishment of CA AHSN as well as small projects led by the Baker Institute and Central Australian Aboriginal Congress
In 2018:
The Centre formally changed its name to Researcherenye Wappayalawangka-Central Australia Academic Health Science Network (CAAHSN), a name which reflects our place in central Australia and better describes our operational structure as a network.
Also in 2018 the Turnbull government announced that the network would receive $6.1 million funding over three years (2018-2021) from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), to support research and translation activities to promote better treatment and diagnosis of health challenges experienced by Indigenous Australians.
In May, following planning and application processes, the Governing Council of CAAHSN accepted 11 project proposals to be funded through MRFF funds. In late 2018 the first tranche of funding was approved by the MRFF to part-fund these projects.
In 2019:
In early 2019, three new members were welcomed into the Network: Anyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation, Tangentyere Council and Western Desert Dialysis (Purple House).
A second round of 9 funding proposals, led by community partners, was accepted by the Network’s Governing Council in April 2019.
| The aim of the Centre for Innovation in Regional Health initiative is “to encourage leadership in health research and translation of direct relevance and benefit to regional and remote areas of Australia.”
To achieve recognition as a CIRH, our Centre was assessed as demonstrating competiveness at the highest international levels across all relevant areas of health care, with specific evaluation criteria including*1:
*1 From Australian Government (2016). Call for submissions
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Our Governance Structure
Governing Council
The Governing Council is the highest governing body of the Network. It meets three to four times each year and includes a representative and an alternate from each Partner organisation. The Chair is nominated by Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation partners.
Functions of the Council include reviewing and approving research projects to be funded; approving the Network’s strategic plans and annual reports; dispute resolution and ensuring compliance with ethical research guidelines.
Management Committee
The Management Committee is the day-to-day governing body of the Network. It meets around 20 times per year with a membership of no more than ten members nominated by the Governing Council. Membership is expert rather than representative, and is restricted to employees or non-executive directors of Partner organisations. The Chair is nominated by Aboriginal community controlled organisations; employees of the Leading partner are not eligible for nomination.
Functions of the Management Committee include appointing and monitoring performance of the Executive Director; overseeing funding applications; approving annual budgets and monitoring performance against budget; overseeing annual and operational planning processes and providing strategic and operational reports to the Governing Council; and ensuring compliance with best practice research standards.
Executive Director
The Executive Director is an employee of the Leading Partner and reports to the Chair of the Management Committee.
The key responsibilities of the Executive Director include duties related to: Management Committee support; planning, policy and quality; relationship management; contracts; fundraising; budgeting; marketing and communications; and human resource duties related to other staff of the Centre.
Leading Partner
The Leading Partner provides financial management and other administrative support required by the Network under a negotiated service agreement. It receives, manage and acquits funds received by the Network as advised by the Executive Director.
The Network is expected to act within the broad policy constraints of the Leading partner as the employer.
Central Australia Aboriginal Congress (Congress) is the Leading Partner for the initial three-year term of CAAHSN (201X-202X).