ProfJuanita Sherwood

A proud First Nations woman with Wiradjuri, Murri, Maori and Anglo-Celtic lineages, Professor Sherwood has worked for over 35 years as a nurse, teacher, lecturer, and researcher to change health and education outcomes for First Nations peoples. Her journey began in the early 1980s at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney when it was the only hospital responding to the HIV and AIDS crisis. Prof Sherwood was a first-hand witness of the harmful impacts of systemic discrimination on HIV and AIDS patients and their families at the time. This shaped her path toward becoming a health advocate. In 1988, she took up the fight for First Nation’s children with very high rates of Otitis Media in her role as a child and family health nurse in Redfern. Her work changed health and education outcomes for First Nations children across the nation and heralded a long-standing commitment to Indigenous health research as a social justice praxis.  

Professor Sherwood is widely credited for recognising colonisation as the primary determinant of First Nations health and increasing the uptake of First Nations centred research methods. She is one of the top five most productive researchers globally on the topic of decolonisation and has been cited >2470 times by national and international researchers in nursing, medicine, psychology, and social sciences (Google Scholar, August 2024). Professor Sherwood is currently involved in several NHMRC funded projects toward these ends, including ‘Birthing on Country’, ‘Strengthening systems for Indigenous healthcare equity’, ‘Decolonising Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care’ and the ‘National First Nations Research Network’. Professor Sherwood is a founding member for CATSINaM and the Partnership for Justice Health. She currently lives in Nowra and is a board member for Waminda South Coast Women's Health and Wellbeing Aboriginal Corporation.