National Reconciliation Week (NRW), celebrated from 27 May to 5 June, is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.
Read about how recent work of QUT Centre for Justice is contributing to this vision.
QUT Centre for Justice “Doing Justice Differently – Food Justice”
In October 2024 QUT Centre for Justice hosted an event titled, “Doing Justice Differently – Food Justice”. This event explored the experiences and perceptions of five leading stakeholders engaged in Australia’s food justice sector to explore how Australia addresses the challenge of making the food system more equitable. The experience and contribution of indigenous communities were central to this discussion.
Stakeholders included:
Ema Vueti, President of the Pacific Islands Council of Qld (PICQ) based in Brisbane.
Dr Lilly Lim-Camacho is Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Agriculture and Food.
Dr Simone Nalatu is the Director of Equity and Communities at Health and Wellbeing Queensland.
Jess Watkinson is the Chief Executive Officer of Foodbank Queensland
Dr Deb Duthie is a Wakka Wakka Warumungu woman with family ties to Cherbourg Queensland and Tennant Creek Northern Territory. She is the Director of Indigenous Health (Faculty of Health) and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Social Work (Faculty of Health) .
Read more about the event here
QUT Centre for Justice Briefing Paper – Event Paper – Food Justice in Focus: Perspectives from Key Stakeholders”
To record and summarise the key findings and future directions of the “Doing Justice Differently” conversation, QUT Centre for Justice released a Briefing Paper – Event Paper titled, “Food Justice in Focus: Perspectives From Key Stakeholders .” Read the full paper here.
A number of discussion points included:
The disproportionate risks of food insecurity – with women, children, and Indigenous and rural and remote communities identified as experiencing systemic inequities that result in a higher instance of food insecurity than the broader Australian population (Parliament of Australia, 2023).
The importance of the amplification of voices and narratives of communities was discussed, with indigenous perspectives identified as a vital repository of knowledge. The importance of place-based approaches to food justice tailored to specific communities and cultures, as well as the engagement of these communities in the decisions-making process, was recognised.
Recent policy initiatives targeting food justice include those aimed at enhancing food security and addressing health inequity in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
ARC Discovery Indigenous Grant – Co-designing food sovereignty models for Indigenous communities
QUT Centre for Justice member, Associate Professor Deb Duthie is part of a project team that was awarded an ARC Discovery Indigenous grant to work with a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from QUT, University of Southern Cross and Diabetes Australia to co-design a food sovereignty model with Indigenous communities.
“Food sovereignty is a core human right that privileges Indigenous knowledges and methodologies to co-design local strategies for addressing food insecurity,” Professor Duthie said.
“We aim to develop place-based food sovereignty models with both rural and urban Indigenous communities to build sustainable food systems.
Read more about the ARC Discovery Indigenous Project here.
From left: QUT researchers – Associate Professor Kate Murray, Professor Danielle Gallegos, Associate Professor Debbie Duthie and Dr Lee Wharton
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