Sponsored by:
Presenters: Raglan Maddox, El-Shadan (Dan) Tautolo, Abbey Diaz, Lisa J Whop
Across the Pacific and globally, epidemiology has played a critical role in documenting patterns of disease and inequity. However, epidemiology has also often operated within systems that frame Indigenous peoples through deficit narratives, while insufficiently accounting for the impacts of colonisation, racism, and the commercial determinants of health.
This interactive workshop explores how epidemiology can move beyond deficit and extractive approaches through Indigenous and Pacific leadership, governance, reciprocity, and community-driven public health action. Drawing on Indigenous-led work in tobacco control, cancer control, implementation science, and commercial determinants of health research, participants will critically examine how epidemiological methods, language, framing, and partnerships influence research practice and health outcomes.
The workshop will incorporate practical examples, including youth-led movements such as Voices of Resistance, Warraay Puthu, and community-driven cancer control initiatives that centre Indigenous governance, leadership, and systems transformation. Through practical activities and discussion, participants will explore strengths-based quantitative approaches, reciprocal research partnerships, and strategies to help ensure epidemiological evidence is meaningful for community priorities and policy action.
Aligned with the conference theme “One Ocean, One Health,” this workshop positions epidemiology as both a scientific and relational practice grounded in Indigenous sovereignty, reciprocity, and solidarity.