Driving innovation at the third Indigenous Australian Datathon

AEHRC researcher Lorraine Bell and CSIRO colleague Zaynel Sushil were among the 130 people who came together in Gimuy/Cairns.

Attendees worked in teams to tackle themes including Health, Emergency Management, Erosion, Rock Art, Fauna Identification and Animal Management.

The event kicked off with stories from Indigenous Rangers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals. The Health team, which Lorraine and Zaynel were a part of, learned about important cultural factors that need to be considered for a holistic understanding of health.

Members of the team then worked together to come up with data solutions for this holistic health and wellbeing model.

One half of the Health team focused on “Total Health”. They considered the potential integration of population, culture, health, climate and landscape data to improve health and healthcare. The other half of the team developed a “POD Spiritual Gateway Digital Twin” prototype that can be used to monitor the spiritual health of people and communities.

The event sparked ideas and connections between people that will continue long into the future. Lorraine and Zaynel are already planning how they can bring this work forward within CSIRO. They would like to thank Partner-Up Initiative and JCU Ideas Lab for the invitation.

Participating organisations: Yarrabah Health Council, Goondoi, Wuchopperen Health Service, Advance Queensland, JCU, Partner-Up Initiative, Deadly Innovations, Department of Communities Housing and Digital Economy, KJR, RainStick, Queensland AI Hub, Amazon Web Services.