It is well established that Indigenous Australians experience worse health outcomes than non-Indigenous Australians. Self-determination is key in closing the health gap for Indigenous communities; engaging communities in research, however, can be difficult due to historic mistrust of institutions. Creating space for Indigenous researchers and health professionals to bridge the Indigenous communities with institutional research and public health efforts will greatly assist in identifying community benefits and reducing health disparities.
Supporting these Indigenous researchers without burdening individuals to represent broad communities they have neither the capacity nor cultural authority to represent requires the active support of Indigenous multi-disciplinary networks. The facilitation of Indigenous research communities can assist ally organisations in understanding the unrealised benefits Indigenous Communities would like to see. Sometimes the research benefits a community prioritises or expects may be in fact be secondary or even tertiary to the formal research goals and so understanding such discrepancies can be extremely important in the translation of research outputs and in the building and maintenance of relationships with Indigenous communities. I will provide examples of current networks and programs both in Australia and around the world that support the development of Indigenous scientific leaders in genomics.