ProfJuanita Sherwood

I remain research active and continue to work on Birthing on Country (NHMRC grant), Balang healing WAMINDA, and WAMINDA’s NABU demonstration model funded by Their Family Matters, Department of Families and Communities; Night Patrol ARC grant; and Whanau Violence in New Zealand a Marsden funded project, Connections with Justice Health and Corrections NSW. I am a CI on two NHMRC grants, STRIDE CRE First Nations Research – Building Indigenous Researchers, and Bangamalhana: A collaborative throughcare program for young Aboriginal women transitioning from prison to the community, as well as a new nationally funded First Nations Research Hub. Critically the research I continue to be part of has been effective in making changes. Translating research into meaningful outcomes for Aboriginal communities has been vital to improving health, education and justice outcomes for our First Nations peoples. We have achieved trauma informed care for Aboriginal women in prison, a key causal agent for why women end up inside. Birthing on country is another key project that aims to shift the removal rate of Aboriginal children from their mothers postdelivery. Aboriginal child removal is at its greatest numbers and it is this successive cycle of removal that destroys families and results in Aboriginal women being incarcerated at a 30% greater rate than non-Indigenous women.