About Us
- Karrawang
- Coolgardie
- Norseman
- Menzies/Morapoi
- Leonora
- Laverton
- Mt Margaret
- Mulga Queen
- Tjuntjunjara
- Coonana
Coolgardie based Health Worker, Alison Dimer, has won the 2011 Dr Ross Ingram Memorial Competition, run by the Medical Journal of Australia. Alison won award for her work writing “Alfie The Tooth Fairy.”
The competition recognises writing and artwork by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people working in health-related areas that conveys original and positive ideas promoting health gains and equity for Indigenous Australians. See more here…
View Alfie the Tooth Fairy, a sand animation made by the community of Coolgardie.
View The Restless Roo, a sand animation made by the community of Mt Margaret.
View The Lost Emu, a sand animation made by the community of Norseman.
View photos of the Menzies residency taken by guest photographer Roman Kutzowitz.
Fencing Wire Saves Kidneys
A mix of ancient sand-drawing techniques now done with fencing wire and animation are being used by Aboriginal story tellers to educate their own communities about preventing kidney disease. So what is this sand animation you ask?
Sand-drawing was traditionally done by women using a story stick – and more recently fencing wire – to tell stories. In this project, the sand drawing is done on a light box. Each stage of sand drawing is captured using a video camera which feeds the images into a computer laptop. The images are then edited together to create a stop animation story which we screen on the side of the trucks at the end of each community residency. Community members collaborate with the project team and use the images to describe how an improvement in diet, an increase in exercise, and stress-management would provide better health outcomes.
Click to see how the animations are created.
What is the Western Desert Kidney Health Project?
The Western Desert Kidney Health Project – launched in October 2010 in Kalgoorlie– is a multidisciplinary team of Aboriginal health, medical and community development workers and artists aiming to reduce disease and diabetes by 20 per cent over three years in 10 Aboriginal communities representing six language groups.
The project will cover an area about the size of Victoria and populated by almost 8,000 people whose expected life-span is 17 years less than that of non-Aboriginal people. Contributing factors in this reduced life expectancy are kidney disease and diabetes.
The project’s Chief Investigator is respected senior Wongutha woman Annette Stokes of The University of Western Australia’s Kalgoorlie-based Rural Clinical School.
“One of the communities the project workers will visit is 700 km out in the desert and is one of the Australia’s most isolated communities,” Ms Stokes said. “More than anything people want to understand what is happening to their bodies so they can make real choices. As hunters, they understand anatomy and physiology – they just have to hear the message.”
“A pilot study in 2007 in Leonora, Laverton and Mt Margaret helped 25% of overweight community-members to lose weight – and keep it off, as well as improving cholesterol levels, blood pressure and the other risk factors for early death.”
Two six-tonne ‘healthy lifestyle’ trucks will be used in the project. One will be a mobile clinic for early detection of disease and chronic disease management, health promotion and evaluation. The other will transport artists and healthy lifestyle workers who will educate the communities about kidney health.
Meet the Team
What communities are involved?
Three distinct areas will be the focus each year and the trucks will spend from six to 12 weeks on each ‘run’:
Salt Lake run
Clay Pan run
Spinifex run
Where are they?
View Communities Participating in The Western Desert Kidney Health Project in a larger map.
Delivery Partner Organisations
The University of Western Australia, the Rural Clinical School, the University of Notre Dame, Bega Garnbirringu Health Services, the Goldfields Esperance GP Network and Wongutha Birni Aboriginal Corporation are the delivery partners for the project.