This project explores yarning as a methodology for understanding health and wellness from an indigenous woman's perspective. Previous research exploring indigenous Australian women's perspectives have used traditional Western methodologies and have often been felt by the women themselves to be inappropriate and ineffective in gathering information and promoting discussion. This research arose from the indigenous women themselves, and resulted in the exploration of using yarning as a methodology. Yarning is a conversational process that involves the sharing of stories and the development of knowledge. It prioritizes indigenous ways of communicating, in that it is culturally prescribed, cooperative, and respectful. The authors identify different types of yarning that are relevant throughout their research, and explain two types of yarning-family yarning and cross-cultural yarning-which have not been previously identified in research literature. This project found that yarning as a research method is appropriate for community-based health research with indigenous Australian women. This may be an important finding for health professionals and researchers to consider when working and researching with indigenous women from other countries.

A First Peoples approach was critical to tool development and conceptual validity. The 22 item Cultural Capability measurement Tool reflected the core cultural capabilities of The Framework. The draft tool appears suitable for use with midwifery students.

Successful implementation of The Framework requires instruments to measure changes in students' cultural capabilities. Measuring nursing students' cultural capabilities can inform their development, identify areas of strengths and deficits for educators, and will ultimately contribute to the development of a culturally safe nursing workforce.

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Chronic disease is a main contributor to the disproportionately high burden of illness experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. However, there are very few programs addressing chronic disease self-management and rehabilitation which are designed specifically for urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This paper aims to explore client and staff perceptions of the Work It out Program, a chronic disease rehabilitation and self-management program designed for urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The study used a mixed methods approach to explore the success, barriers and self-reported outcomes of the program. Quantitative data were collected through a structured survey, comprising social and demographic data. Qualitative data were collected through interviews using Most Significant Change theory. Twenty-eight participants were recruited, 6 staff and 22 clients (M = 7, F = 21) with an age range between 21 and 79 years of age (Mean = 59.00, SD = 17.63). Interviews were completed in 2013 across four Work It out locations in Southeast Queensland. Semi-structured interviews were conducted either individually or in groups of two or three, depending on the participants' preference. Thematic analysis of the data revealed six main themes; physical changes, lifestyle improvements, social and emotional well-being, perceptions about the successful features of the program, perceived barriers to the program and changes for the future. This exploratory study found that clients and staff involved in the Work It out Program perceived it as an effective self-management and rehabilitation program for urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Further evaluation with a larger sample size is warranted in order to establish further outcomes of the program. A. Nelson et al. 539

To improve healthcare practices and increase cultural safety when working with First Peoples, it is essential that students engage with challenging discourses that critically engage their social, political, personal, professional and historical positioning. Such engagement may provoke emotional responses in students. However, little is known about the nature of non-indigenous students’ emotional engagement when learning First Peoples health content that integrates cultural safety principles. The pedagogy of discomfort is a process of self-examination that requires students to critically engage their ideological assumptions and may be useful in examining the emotional dimension that occurs when learning this content. Eighty-two non-indigenous health students gave permission for their critical reflective essays, submitted as an assessment requirement of a First Peoples health course to be analysed. Elements of the pedagogy of discomfort informed the analytical and theoretical framework. The emotional engagement by students was captured in the following overarching themes: Acknowledging preconceived ideas; Uncomfortable emotions; Fragile identities; Spectating and Witnessing. Findings highlight how students' emotional engagement may contribute to changes in perspective and frames of reference, transpiring to a ‘call to action’ that challenges systems of differential privilege. While many students expressed discomfort when learning about key cultural safety concepts, the extent of transformative potential varied.

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This paper explores a decolonizing approach to research about Indigenous women's health in Australia. The paper identifies the strengths of decolonizing methodologies as a way to prioritize Indigenous values and worldviews, develop partnerships between researchers and the researched, and contribute to positive change. The authors draw on Laenui's (2000) five-step model of decolonization to describe their work in the Indigenous Women's Wellness Project in Brisbane, Queensland. They argue that Laenui's model presents a valuable framework for conducting decolonizing research projects about women's health with Australian Indigenous women. The authors demonstrate that working within a decolonizing framework offers autonomy and sustainability for women's wellness activities, while continuing to improve a community's health and wellbeing outcomes.