Historically, there has always been a gap between positive cancer outcomes for metropolitan and regional patients, which widens even further for First Nations patients.

It’s a gap a local partnership, which launched a now award-winning community-led initiative earlier this year, is trying to bridge in the Goulburn Valley, where the largest Indigenous population outside Melbourne lives.

Lotjpa Yapaneyepuk — or Talk Together — is a collaboration between Border Medical Oncology Research Unit, Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative and Goulburn Valley Health.

Through yarning sessions on and around Yorta Yorta Country, community members helped identify barriers to cancer trial participation and co-designed three video resources to support decision making and encourage culturally safe conversations.

“So the goal was ... about how we can increase the number of patients with cancer who are Aboriginal to be enrolled into clinical trials,” clinical director of oncology at GV Health and co-chair of the project Dr Javier Torres said.

In Shepparton, there are around 14 clinical trials of two kinds.

One, Dr Torres says, is driven by the pharmaceutical industry, the other is instigated by a patient’s own doctors who think one medication will work better than another after looking at the evidence before them.

Co-chair of the Lotjpa Yapaneyepuk initiative Shannon Drake, who heads up Rumbalara Aboriginal Cooperative’s public health and research, said when she was first introduced to the idea, she understood it was about starting a conversation in regards to the cancer care, pathways, and having an Aboriginal researcher leading.

“Once we started coming together, the story sort of came after several discussions, that it should be a visual representation,” she said.

“We can advocate the story through imagery, using our language within that space ... as well as telling a story, so that was really important.

“And it came from the yarning sessions that we had within the steering committee and the advice group and those who wanted to be part of the yarning circles that led those conversations.”

The result was a piece of work collaborators felt achieved its goal of putting health literacy back in the hands of First Nations people.

After its launch in February, the feedback from the community has been positive.

“We had several people within the local area and other areas that come from other communities and they’re like, this is gold, basically, and then they could take and screen and obviously show that to their community,” Ms Drake said.

Delivered through the ReViTALISE project and facilitated by Regional Trials Network Victoria (funded by Victorian Department of Health), the project acknowledges support from the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, the Aboriginal Advisory Group, the steering committee, local health services and other partners.

On October 14, it won the Excellence in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing award at the 2026 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards, which recognises innovation in health service delivery that is culturally responsive, promotes inclusion, advances Aboriginal self-determination and, above all, delivers improved health and wellbeing outcomes for Aboriginal people in Victoria.

Yorta Yorta woman and co-investigator on the project Leah Lindrea-Morrison said the community’s contribution was central to its success.

“This couldn’t have been achieved without the community voices, lived experience and Aboriginal leadership,” she said.

“We’ve been privileged to share a culturally safe place for our stories to be heard.

“I also want to recognise those who have gone onto the Dreamtime. They still walk with us and are a reminder of why this work is important.”

Ms Lindrea-Morrison said the work didn’t stop with the local implementation of the initiative and the award.

“With further funding commitment, we could share these resources with more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia,” she said.

“It all starts with a yarn.”

You can watch the videos at youtube.com/@LotjpaYapaneyepuk

For more information on Lotjpa Yapaneyepuk (Talk Together), visit the Regional Trials Network website.

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