This is the first of three annual Research and Impact Evaluation (RIE) Reports of a program entitled ‘Bagaraybang bagaraybang mayinygalang (BBM): Empowering & Alleviating: A Health Justice Partnership (HJP) offering legal support for social & emotional well-being between the Hume Riverina Community Legal Service (HRCLS) & Albury Wodonga Aboriginal Health Service (AWAHS). This RIE has been embedded from service start up including in the way the funding application was designed.This RIE forms a part of an NSW Government funded service program that is ongoing and a part of the ‘National Partnership Agreement’ between governments as Federal and State levels and the legal assistance sector in Australia and is funded under the ‘mental health stream’) focusing on AWAHS’s Aboriginal clients who are affected/impacted by poor mental health.Conclusion and General Findings:The data collected for this 2023 report suggests the BBM is already gaining traction in the Aboriginal community, particularly in comparison to other similar MDP and HJP projects in start-up phase. The project has seen staff of both agencies working together not only in its co-design but working through emergent issues together with numbers in this short three-month startup phase when the field trip and data was collected. This period has seen high numbers of clients seen already and waiting lists. This is indicative of the leverage secured from the 7-year Invisible Hurdles project where trust and familiarity had been built over the seven-year period between the two agencies.The data also shows however that there is a high level of distrust in Aboriginal communities in the catchment area which is shaped by previous experience with the legal system, service system, and implications of colonisation. This project will need to address this for positive outcomes on the social determinants of health and justice outcomes for Aboriginal clients. Despite these challenges, the partners at a management level and staff participants in this research and impact evaluation are already making positive changes to increase engagement, listen, hear, and adapt so that it is better positioned to respond to identified ways of working to address inequality.It is concerning that the data suggests high levels of ignorance about the law, with perceptions that the role of the law is only when someone has ‘done something illegal’ rather than in the protection of rights or to enforce those rights. It was clear that this ignorance is seen to be utilised by authorities to suppress the Aboriginal community. This conclusion is based on some of the narratives collected across different tools (thus testing and verifying each other) during the field trip in April 2023.There is also an element of members of the Aboriginal community identifying concerns that in exercising their rights they risk reprisals against them by authorities. This highlighted the great need not only for access to a lawyer but also the need to build legal awareness, capability, confidence, empowerment, and advocacy skills in both the Aboriginal community and among the ‘trusted intermediaries’ (TIs) namely AWAHS non-legal support staff and professionals who support the community. Significance:Ella Baker, trailblazer of the African American civil rights and human rights activist is attributed with saying, ‘in order to see where we are going, we not only must remember where we have been, but we must understand where we have been.’ The data emerging highlights consistently that there are significant flow-on effects from colonisation, these policies remain significant in relation to how they affect Aboriginal people today and ought not to be ignored if efforts to eradicate racism, trauma and human rights of Aboriginal Australians are to be advanced. This is not unique to Australia. Around the world, colonised communities are still significantly impacted in terms of their life outcomes and ability to advance the sustainable development goals (SDGs), due to the impacts of colonisation on various minoritized populations. This includes ongoing poverty, inequality, poor mortality rates and negative health and well-being. The growing body of international research cannot be ignored in a report that examines the effectiveness of this Health Justice Partnership that aims to improve justice and social determinant of health outcomes for Aboriginal community members experiencing poor mental health and well-being. In addition, the “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) is a worldwide movement which has also shaped recent and similar movements in Australia within the Aboriginal community, particularly considering the ongoing deaths in custody, over policing, and structural racism which has been consistently documented in a range of Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry. The report makes some findings and recommendations directed at government, authorities, the judiciary, the legal profession, funders as well as for the BBM itself. It identifies policy change needed in specific areas. The authors and partners are also disseminating this report to shape and inform replicable models and to make changes based on the evidence that address inequality, discrimination and poverty through justice working alongside the Aboriginal community and health and allied health services.
