Presentation given to Ninti One staff on 17 February 2016 Sheree Cairney, Tammy Abbott

1. The Interplay Wellbeing Framework for use in remote
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities:
Development, Methods and Outcomes
Project Leader Sheree Cairney
Senior Aboriginal researcher Tammy Abbott
PhD student Byron Wilson
Statistician Steve Quinn
Project Website www.crc-rep.com/interplay

2. Overview
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3. Research Questions
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1.! What are the relationships between health and wellbeing
outcomes, and education and employment for individuals,
families and communities living in remote Australia?
2.! How effective are targeted interventions?
3.! How can policy and practice be better informed by this
knowledge to maximise desired health and wellbeing
outcomes?
Interplay Project

4. Literature Review - Recommendations
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1.! Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people involved and
their perspectives represented
2.! Strength-based approach
3.! Focus on interrelationships
4.! Include additional themes of culture, community and
empowerment
5.! Broader culturally aligned definitions of education,
employment and health
Nguyen O, Cairney S. 2013 ‘Literature review of the Interplay
Between Education, Employment, Health and Wellbeing for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote areas:
Working towards an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
wellbeing framework’.
(named in the top ten Indigenous research
publications in 2013 by Australian Policy Online).

5. Community Engagement
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Over 3-year period, engagement included:
-! 21 workshops
-! 11 semi-structured interviews with PRLs
-! 4 community visits
-! 2 advisory group meetings
-! 21 ACRs employed
Questions were asked about
the research approach,
framework and methods.
Cairney S and Abbott T. In press. ‘Aboriginal
Wellbeing in a Red Dirt Economy’. Journal of
Australian Indigenous Studies.

6. Community Engagement - Outcomes
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•! Culture governs everything that people do
•! Importance of building empowerment
•! Broader understandings and flexible, culturally aligned
practices needed to achieve good outcomes for
education, employment and health
•! All of these areas are inherently interrelated, or interplay
together
Cairney S and Abbott T. In press. ‘Aboriginal
Wellbeing in a Red Dirt Economy’. Journal of
Australian Indigenous Studies.

7. 7
Numbers
Stories
Bringing it
together
Shared Space model
Abbott T and Cairney S. 2014. Collaboration and Capacity Development through the employment of
Aboriginal Community-based Researchers: Examples from the Interplay Project. Journal of
Australian Indigenous Studies.

8. 8
Government priorities

9. 9
Community priorities
1.! Culture
(language, family,
land, law, spirituality)
2.! Empowerment
(control, two-way
learning)
3.! Community
(safety, inclusiveness,
leadership, respect)

10. 10
Wellbeing = feeling good
Interplay = connections
Interplay Wellbeing Framework

11. 11
How to tell the story
Numbers/Quantitative
---- Survey
Stories/Qualitative
---- Focus groups & Interviews

12. 12
Designing the
Survey
Real
scenarios

13. 13
Interplay Project
Wellbeing = feeling good
Interplay = connections
Project Aims
•! Interplay
•! Objective measures
•! Inform policy
Review
•! Literature
•! Community Engagement
Interplay Framework
•! Links science, community & policy
systems
•! Quantitative & qualitative
•! Tool for planning, evaluation &
communication
Study Design
•! Prospective cohort
•! 4 communities
•! 2 timepoints/waves
•! 900 surveys, 20 focus groups
•! Nguyen & Cairney (2013) Literature review – working towards a wellbeing framework. CRC-REP
•! Cairney & Abbott (2014) Aboriginal Wellbeing in a ‘Red Dirt Economy’. Journal of Australian
Indigenous Studies.

14. Get a picture for different communities
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15. Quantitative Data"
(Survey)
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16. Number of Surveys from each community
Community Total
Population
Number
surveys
Too old
(>34 years)
Useable
surveys
Katherine 2,344
(9,186 total)
571 15 556
Wiluna 200-300 86 34 52
Galiwin’ku 1,890 122 22 100
Yirrkala 521 138 4 134
TOTAL 917 75 842
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17. Interplay Wellbeing Framework - subdomains
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18. 18
First and second order traits/domains

19. Interplay Wellbeing Framework - Culture
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And a further
level of data

20. 20
Third order "
traits/domains

21. Interplay Wellbeing Framework – strongest impacts
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22. Interplay Wellbeing Framework – strongest impacts
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Can be used to
understand the relative
influence of different
contributors
Only health and education directly influence wellbeing
(others may indirectly)

23. Impacts of Age & Gender
Age
Older people score higher for:
•! Empowerment
•! Culture
•! Work
Younger people score higher for:
•! Health
•! Community
Gender
Females score higher than males for:
•! Health
•! Education
•! Work
•! Community
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24. Stories to build?
Each window you look through gives you a different view
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25. Using the framework to show the Interplay between
domains
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26. Can culture be used to improve education outcomes?
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27. Learning about culture in school, and Aboriginal literacy
can improve education outcomes
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28. Aboriginal literacy – the key role of bilingual education
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29. Qualitative Data"
(Focus Groups)
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30. 30
Numbers
Stories
Bringing it
together
.
Values & Knowledge
Stories & Numbers together –
More Powerful

31. Interplay Project - Focus Groups
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32. Successful employment examples
•! Ranger / Caring for Country
•! Art
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33. Qualitative data - Martu Ranger Program (WA)
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•! Strong partnerships
•! Connectedness, teamwork, support
•! Working in culture, working and learning on country, learning about culture through work,
preserving culture
•! Capacity development, empowerment, opportunities
•! Flexible employment (2-3 weeks/month)
“If I didn’t bring my boy along with me when I go out, he wouldn’t know anything about his
country ”
“I like learning both ways – white fella way and Martu way. Helping one another – learing
from one another – teamwork”
“We are all happy all of the time”
“When I get up in the morning, I feel happy knowing that I’m going to work”

34. Qualitative data - Dhimurru Ranger Program (NT)
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•! Vision Statement – powerful, resilience to keep strong both at work and home, values shared
•! Two-way working/learning but Yolngu drive it, through Yolngu board
•! Independent (non-government)
•! Strong partnerships with stakeholders
•! Learning and teaching on country, making sure country is safe, respect the land
“It’s a good thing that we are still standing firm for
Yolngu people”
“Two way working thing but the Yolngu drive it, through
Yolngu board”
“You’re empowering yourself to go to work”
“You can see that vision statement within your mind,
as soon as you enter the workplace. The vision
statement guides us every day. We can feel it, it’s
something guiding us during the day and can take it
home.”

35. What works well and why? – main findings"
"
(in programs & services)
1.! Empowerment
Partnerships, Local governance, Engagement,
Consultation, two way learning, support, mentoring
Opportunities to learn, capacity development,
Inclusiveness, networks, connectedness,
Indigenous staff at all levels, control, influence,
Equal respect, linking & referring, open, transparent, trust
2.! Culture – relevance / alignment
Relevant, Flexible, adaptable, learn about culture in school/job, safe cultural identity,
access, inclusive, culturally appropriate resources, learning and governance.
3.! Long term vision, planning and investment
Pathways (education to employment), funding and resources, transport, housing,
infrastructure, time and investment (spending time to engage/consult/build
relationships), monitoring and evaluation.
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36. Interplay Wellbeing Framework
•! Dynamic, holistic and multipurpose
•! Roadmap to inform, drive and monitor change
•! Provides a tool for knowledge building, evaluation decision making,
planning and communication
•! Provides objective measures
•! Strong foundation in both science and community development
•! Model can be applied for other applications/fields
•! Can be tailored to address numerous policy goals
•! Empowers community to have ownership and control in research
process
•! Give community values and priorities a ‘voice’ to Government
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37. Stories to build?
Each window you look through gives you a different view
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38. Stories to Build
What works well in programs and services?
1.! Empowerment
2.! Culture – fits the world in which you live
3.! Long term vision - planning and investment
How to improve education outcomes?
•! Bilingual education / Aboriginal literacy
•! Cultural relevance of curriculum
Pathways to Work
•! Two way learning
•! Balance with cultural obligations
Good examples
•! Caring for country / ranger work
•! Artwork
•! Other employment options?
•! Local Enterprises?
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39. Outlook for 2016 & 2017
Project Output
•! Design and build interactive data visualisation platform
•! Produce video documentary
•! Publication of findings
•! Policy Briefs
•! Conference Presentations
Further Cata Collection
•! Wave 2 data collection (follow-up of participants from Wave 1)
•! Surveys & focus groups
Future work
•! Funding submissions to extend the research (ours & others)
•! Seek opportunities for applications of Interplay tools and
methods (ie evaluation)
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For further information, please contact:
Project Leader contact: sheree.cairney@flinders.edu.au
Project Website: www.crc-rep.com/interplay
Thank you