Communities In Central Australia Research Articles

High level of genomic divergence in orf-I p12 and hbz genes of HTLV-1 subtype-C in Central Australia

BackgroundHuman T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infection remains a largely neglected public health problem, particularly in resource-poor areas with high burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, such as some remote populations in Central Australia where an estimated 37% of adults are infected with HTLV-1. Most of our understanding of HTLV-1 infection comes from studies of the globally spread subtype-A (HTLV-1a), with few molecular studies reported with the Austral-Melanesian subtype-C (HTLV-1c) predominant in the Indo-Pacific and Oceania regions.ResultsUsing a primer walking strategy and direct sequencing, we constructed HTLV-1c genomic consensus sequences from 22 First Nations participants living with HTLV-1c in Central Australia. Phylogenetic and pairwise analysis of this subtype-C proviral gDNA showed higher levels of genomic divergence in comparison to previously published HTLV-1a genomes. While the overall genomic homology between subtypes was 92.5%, the lowest nucleotide and amino acid sequence identity occurred near the 3′ end of the proviral genome coding regulatory genes, especially overlapping hbz (85.37%, 77.46%, respectively) and orf-I product p12 (82.00%, 70.30%, respectively). Strikingly, the HTLV-1c genomic consensus sequences uniformly showed a defective translation start codon for the immune regulatory proteins p12/p8 encoded by the HTLV-1A orf-I. Deletions in the proviral genome were detected in many subjects, particularly in the structural gag, pol and env genes. Similarly, using a droplet digital PCR assay measuring the copies of gag and tax per reference host genome, we quantitatively confirmed that provirus retains the tax gene region at higher levels than gag.ConclusionsOur genomic analysis of HTLV-1c in Central Australia in conjunction with earlier Melanesian HTLV-1c sequences, elucidate substantial differences with respect to the globally spread HTLV-1a. Future studies should address the impact these genomic differences have on infection and the regionally distinctive frequency of associated pulmonary disease. Understanding the host and virus subtype factors which contribute to the differential morbidity observed, is crucial for the development of much needed therapeutics and vaccine strategies against this highly endemic infection in remote First Nations communities in Central Australia.

What Do We Know About Threshing Traditional Grains in Australia?

This article reviews ethnographic descriptions of Australia's First Nations people's grain threshing to inform future grain research and revival of practice in south-eastern Australia. The processing of grain requires many steps, and while harvesting, winnowing and grinding are comparatively well-documented, the threshing stage, which involves the removal of the husk and other nonedible parts of the seed head before the seed is winnowed and ground, remains poorly understood. In south-eastern Australia much of the threshing knowledge has been lost through the impacts of colonization; whereas communities in Central Australia have retained this knowledge in relation to their traditional grains. However, these species are not common in all areas. As different species require different threshing processes, only some of this knowledge can be directly applied in south-eastern Australia. Ethnographic descriptions have the potential to contribute additional First Nations knowledge to the revitalization of this practice. This article brings together ethnographic descriptions of traditional threshing to facilitate the revival of practice and further native grains research.

'COVID on Country': an innovative model safely supporting high-risk patients in Central Australia.

In January 2022, as the COVID pandemic reached remote communities in Central Australia, The Northern Territory Health Central Australian Regional Health Service and the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) executed 'COVID on Country', a program designed to triage cases and to implement treatment and clinical review of individuals in their community without the need to be relocated to larger centres for safe provision of care. The program assessed patient factors and community/capacity factors to triage and enact pathways. Remote living people who qualified for the program or who declined aeromedical retrieval, were provided with comprehensive clinical support, including administration of intravenous sotrovimab by daily scheduled visits to all affected communities by a doctor transported on an RFDS plane. Evaluation of the program demonstrated that it was a safe and effective way to provide complex care in a culturally safe manner.

Inequality and access to services for remote populations: An Australian case study

Almost half of the world population lives in rural and remote areas facing more challenging and hazardous life conditions than the rest of the population. This paper and proposed method contribute to addressing an apparent gap in modelling travel-related decisions of rural and remote populations to enhance equitable access to basic amenities (e.g., education, health services, retail) for these populations. The application of these models is highly relevant for planning and policy purposes in remote communities. This paper uses data obtained from a mobility survey of remote Aboriginal communities in Central Australia to estimate purpose-specific destination choice models for access to basic services. The analysis is based on stated preference data to measure the attractiveness of destinations. Then, the models are used to analyse the impact of increasing the number of services provided in the remote communities. A better understanding of the impact of local development on travel patterns in remote communities is provided by analysing three aspects: attracted trips to the destinations, reduction of distance travelled by travellers in all the communities and improved equity in the distribution of travel distance among the communities. The case study illustrates the method successfully determines the most relevant parameters in the decisions of the surveyed individuals and determines potential destinations for local development, with the final objective of contributing to the alleviation of accessibility and inclusion problems in remote areas.

The Association between Diabetes and Human T-Cell Leukaemia Virus Type-1 (HTLV-1) with Strongyloides stercoralis: Results of a Community-Based, Cross-Sectional Survey in Central Australia.

In central Australia, an area that is endemic for the human T-cell leukaemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1), the prevalence of Strongyloides stercoralis and its association with other health conditions are unknown. A cross-sectional community-based survey was conducted in seven remote Aboriginal communities in central Australia, from 2014 to 2018. All residents aged ≥10 years were invited to complete a health survey and to provide blood for Strongyloides serology, HTLV-1 serology and HTLV-1 proviral load (PVL). Risk factors for Strongyloides seropositivity and associations with specific health conditions including diabetes and HTLV-1 were determined using logistic regression. Overall Strongyloides seroprevalence was 27% (156/576) (children, 22% (9/40); adults (≥15 years), 27% (147/536), varied widely between communities (5–42%) and was not associated with an increased risk of gastrointestinal, respiratory or dermatological symptoms. Increasing age, lower HTLV-1 PVL (<1000 copies per 105 peripheral blood leucocytes) compared to the HTLV-1 uninfected group and community of residence were significant risk factors for Strongyloides seropositivity in an adjusted model. A modest reduction in the odds of diabetes among Strongyloides seropositive participants was found (aOR 0.58, 95% CI 0.35, 1.00; p = 0.049); however, this was lost when body mass index was included in the adjusted model (aOR 0.48, 95% CI 0.48, 1.47; p = 0.542). Strongyloides seropositivity had no relationship with anaemia. Exploring social and environmental practices in communities with low Strongyloides seroprevalence may provide useful lessons for similar settings.

Phyllode fall and nutrient content in a mulga (Acacia aneura F.Muell. ex Benth.) community in central Australia in response to rainfall

The fall of phyllodes from Acacia aneura F.Muell. ex Benth. (mulga) in central Australia was studied over 22 months from mid-1958 at four locations within a livestock reserve north of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, in order to identify rainfall or seasonal triggers. Phyllode fall increased by at least an order of magnitude for short periods following rain of 15–20 mm or more on a ‘mature’ mulga site and similar trends were apparent for ‘young’ and ‘desert form’ mulga on the same site, and on a second, independent, ‘mature’ site. When rates of phyllode fall were high after substantial rain, at both ‘mature’ locations, ~30% of nitrogen and ~50% of phosphorus were withdrawn before abscission, suggesting that mulga was markedly conservative of these nutrients. Conversely, under dry conditions, when phyllode fall was relatively low (&lt;200 mg m−2 day−1), concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in fallen phyllodes were higher. Concentrations of potassium, calcium, magnesium and sodium did not vary consistently with increasing rate of phyllode fall, although overall levels of calcium and potassium were considerably higher in the second ‘mature’ location. This legacy study is of renewed interest given the potential of mulga communities to contribute to national carbon stocks, and the consequent need for robust field-based data on growth dynamics and carbon fluxes.

The silence of the donkeys: Sensorial entanglements between people and animals at Willowra and beyond

AbstractAn indelible memory of visitors to Willowra Aboriginal community in Central Australia is the sound of donkeys braying as they roam the village in search of sustenance and are chased by barking dogs. While Warlpiri people view donkeys as an integral part of their sonic landscape, outsiders typically perceive the animals as a noisy, land‐management ‘pest’ and want them removed. Recently, the arrival of a stranger in a truck towing a donkey trailer provoked concerned discussion. Talk intensified when, for a few days, the donkeys disappeared, and the silence of the donkeys echoed throughout the community. Tracing emergent social relations and mimetic connections that entangle donkeys and people in the Willowra region, this paper explores why donkeys matter to local Warlpiri, sensorially and otherwise. I contrast Warlpiri coexistence with donkeys to the treatment of donkeys by conservationists as feral animal and by capitalists as commodity. Linking the silence of donkeys at Willowra to the global trade in ejiao, a glue made from donkey hides used in Chinese medicine and cosmetics, I engage with Michael Taussig's (2019) ‘The cry of the burro [donkey]’ to examine differing senses of being and predicaments that the sound of donkeys evoke cross‐culturally. I conclude with a call to listen differently to other‐than‐human beings when considering multispecies assemblages. Attending to the sonic range of donkeys as an expression of their agency, I suggest that we learn from Warlpiri and heed the cries of donkeys and their global silencing if we are to ensure our mutual survival.

Moving away from the deficit perspective: Aboriginal child development in partnership with families

ABSTRACT A “diversity as fundamental heterogeneity” approach is required to contest the widely held perspective that Aboriginal children in remote communities in central Australia are growing up in deficit and disadvantage. This article discusses the current language perpetuating the deficit model of Aboriginal child development that is failing to recognise strengths of Aboriginal children growing up in remote communities in central Australia. Through stories about daily life in Papunya, this article argues that to understand and measure Aboriginal child development, it is necessary to also understand the child’s cultural context in which they are living and learning. Participant selection was conducted using key participants who became community researchers in the research project. The main findings were Aboriginal children in Papunya must grow up with a “two-ways” approach to education that prioritises their own culture and language.

‘Next Generation Youth Well-being Study:’ understanding the health and social well-being trajectories of Australian Aboriginal adolescents aged 10–24 years: study protocol

IntroductionAustralian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (hereafter referred to as ‘Aboriginal’) adolescents (10–24 years) experience multiple challenges to their health and well-being. However, limited evidence is available on factors influencing...

Making Space for Knowledge Intersections in Remote Teacher Education Research – Ways of Being and Tools for Doing

ABSTRACTThe doctoral research that this paper is based on focused on the low number of young Aboriginal teachers currently undertaking and completing teacher education in remote communities in central Australia. What became clear from the research was that the biggest barrier to Aboriginal people becoming qualified teachers is the legacy of settler colonialism and the ongoing neocolonial structures of education and knowledge systems. What also emerged is that there are powerful possibilities for co-creation of knowledge if participants and researchers are willing to engage in a process of decolonising the knowledge work done in intercultural spaces. In addition to the findings of the research the thesis also became a documentation of how the teacher participants and I intentionally inhabited this decolonising way of working. Through this process we were able to discover ways of working together in what Helen Verran calls ‘good faith’. This paper explores the knowledge intersections that are possible if we intentionally work in decolonising ways. It offers a number of ways of ‘being’ and a number of ‘tools’ that help researchers and participants to work together in ways that allow knowledge systems to co-exist and co-create new knowledge without one blocking or erasing the other.

Child protection outcomes of the Australian Nurse Family Partnership Program for Aboriginal infants and their mothers in Central Australia.

BackgroundThe Nurse Family Partnership Program developed in the USA, designed to improve mother and infant/child outcomes, has reported lower rates of child protection system involvement. The study tested the hypothesis that an adapted Nurse Family Partnership Program implemented in an Aboriginal community in Central Australia (the FPP) would improve Child Protection outcomes.MethodsThis was a retrospective and prospective cohort study drawing on linked administrative data, including birth registry, primary health care client information system, FPP program data, and child protection data. Participants were children of women eligible for the FPP program (an exposed and a control group of women, eligible but not referred) live-born between 1/3/2009 (program commencement) and 31/12/2015. Child protection data covered all reports, investigations, substantiations and out-of-home care placements from the time of the child’s birth to 31/12/2016. Generalised linear modelling was used to estimate the relative risk (RR) of involvement with child protection and type of involvement (report, investigation, substantiation, out-of-home-care placement) among FPP and control children.ResultsFPP mothers (n = 291) were on average younger, were more likely to be first-time mothers and experiencing housing instability than control mothers (n = 563). Among younger mothers ≤20 years, FPP children had statistically significantly lower rates of involvement with child protection (ARRreport = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.29 to 0.82; ARRinvestigation = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.19 to 0.64; ARRsubstantiation = 0.45, 95% CI: 0.21 to 0.96) and experience fewer days in care (ARR = 0.10, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.48). Among children of first-time mothers, FPP children also had statistically significantly lower rates of involvement with child protection (ARRreport = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.30 to 0.83; ARRinvestigation = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.19 to 0.67; ARRsubstantiation = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.18 to 0.80) and fewer days in care (ARR = 0.06, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.27).ConclusionStudy results suggest a modified Nurse Family Partnership delivered by an Indigenous community-controlled organisation may have reduced child protection system involvement in a highly vulnerable First Nations population, especially in younger or first-time mothers. Testing these results with an RCT design is desirable.

"Not looking at us level": Systemic barriers faced by Aboriginal teachers in remote communities in Central Australia

This essay is based on doctoral research that examined the reasons behind the low number of young Aboriginal teachers currently undertaking and completing teacher education in remote communities in Central Australia. By listening to the stories of a group of fully qualified and experienced Aboriginal teachers, this doctoral research explored the complex array of barriers, as well as supports, that Aboriginal people from remote communities encounter as educators. The seven teacher participants in this research have each spent between 20 and 35 years working in their respective schools in their home communities (see map below) and have undertaken and completed the requisite study to become fully qualified teachers. The purpose of this essay is to focus exclusively on the examples of systemic barriers experienced by these teachers through the theoretical lens of race, using settler colonial theory, whiteness theory and critical race theory (CRT).

Yulyurdu: Smoke in the Desert

ABSTRACTI begin this paper with a nod to ‘the beginning’ by linking smoke to fire, and fire to humankind. Bound up in this deep history of smoke and humanity is a dichotomy cleaving humans from animals and the west from the rest. Taking smoke at Yuendumu, a Warlpiri community in central Australia as my subject, I aim to destabilise some of the certainties entrenched in this dichotomy. Smoke, of course, is nigh impossible to pin down, literally as well as conceptually. So rather than trying to immobilise it, I follow in smoke’s own fashion and waft across different kinds of fires and different kinds of analytical approaches. Ethnographically, I draw a narrative picture of the different ways in which smoke at Yuendumu permeates everyday life by considering the smoke of breakfast fires, signalling fires, cooking fires during storms, caring-for-country fires, and the scent of cold smoke on blankets, clothes, and bodies. Analytically, I move from smoke and how it relates to embodied Warlpiri ways of being in the world, to smoke and childhood socialisation, including baby smoking rituals. From there I shift to the smoke of caring-for-country fires, and on to smoke, memory, odourphilia, and odourphobia. I conclude by pondering the potential of a smoke-like approach.

Disability Services and Carer Program Gaps in Central Australian Indigenous Communities

Abstract My research objective was twofold: to gather valuable information regarding the gaps in disability and carer services provided to Indigenous Australian communities of Central Australia and to evaluate plans for expanding these services to better meet the needs of all disabled persons and their carers in the region before the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in 2018. A questionnaire was personally administered to each of the ten disability or carer agency managers participating in the study, and the managers' responses analyzed. Gaps were found in the transport of Indigenous Australian people to and from Alice Springs to receive services. Gaps were also found in the provision of services for disability housing, outreach accommodation, residential respite, and carer support, as well as for assessment, treatment, counseling, and case management. These gaps increased for all areas of Central Australia the farther the areas were from Alice Springs.

Edible Insect Larvae in Kaytetye: Their Nomenclature and Significance

Insects have traditionally constituted an important source of food in many cultures, but changes in dietary practices and other lifestyle traits are threatening the transmission of insect-related knowledge and vocabulary to younger generations of Indigenous Australians. This paper describes the rich cultural and culinary traditions surrounding an important insect group, namely a class of edible insect larvae consumed by a desert community in central Australia. Twenty-nine different edible insect larvae are named in the Kaytetye language, with the names encoding the identity of the host plant on which the larvae are found. We describe the complexities involved in the naming system, paying special attention to cultural and linguistic factors. The difficulties in the scientific identification of these ethnotaxa are discussed, as are the significance of our data to (1) questions of universal patterns in ethnoclassification and nomenclature and (2) the purported lack of binomially-labeled folk species in the languages of hunter-gatherer societies.

Clinical outcomes associated with albuminuria in central Australia: a cohort study.

BackgroundChronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage-kidney disease (ESKD) continue to be under-diagnosed and a major burden for Aboriginal communities in central Australia. The aim of this study was to examine the risk of poor clinical outcomes associated with elevated albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) among Aboriginal people in central Australia.MethodsCox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the risk of end stage kidney disease (ESKD), dialysis, CVD (cardiovascular disease) and mortality associated with participants’ baseline albuminuria reading from a 10-year cohort study of Aboriginal people (n = 623) from three communities in central Australia. Predictors of progression of albuminuria were also examined in the context of the Kidney Health Australia (KHA) Risk Matrix.ResultsA baseline ACR level of ≥3.5 mg/mmol was associated with an almost 10-fold increased risk of ESKD (95%CI 2.07-43.8) and a 15-fold risk of dialysis (95%CI 1.89-121). Albuminuria ≥3.5 mg/mmol was also associated with a borderline 63 % increased risk of CVD (95%CI 0.98-2.71). No significant association was observed with mortality from all-causes or chronic disease. Diabetes and a waist-to-hip ratio ≥0.90 independently predicted a two-fold increased risk of a progression to higher ACR levels.ConclusionsA single measure of moderately increased albuminuria was a strong predictor of renal failure in this population. A single spot urine ACR analysis in conjunction with the KHA Risk Matrix may be a useful and efficient strategy to screen for risk of CKD and progression to dialysis in remote communities. A focus on individuals with diabetes and/or central obesity for strategies to avoid increases in albuminuria may also prevent future CKD and CVD complications.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12882-016-0328-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Youth programmes in remote indigenous communities: context matters

A diversity of programmes seeks to develop youth’s capacities and connection to the communities in which they live. Some focus on ameliorating a particular issue, or ‘deficit’, whilst others, such as sporting, recreation and youth groups, are more grounded in the community. This article reports findings from 60 qualitative interviews conducted with a range of stakeholders involved in a diversity of youth programmes in three remote Indigenous communities in Central Australia. ‘Youth centred–context specific’ is found to provide a positive frame for programme delivery, encouraging explicit focus on programme logic, content and processes and relational, temporal and spatial aspects of practice context to enhance youth programme planning and delivery in remote communities. Culturally safe service planning and delivery suggest locally determined processes for decision-making and community ownership, at times offering service access for all ages for culturally relevant activity engagement.

P10.20 Digital droplet pcr (ddpcr) quantification of human t-lymphotropic virus type-1 clade c in peripheral blood and lung infiltrates of indigenous australian bronchiectasis patients

Background Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus type-1 (HTLV-1) infects an estimated 20 million people worldwide causing a fatal T- cell leukaemia and inflammatory conditions, such as HTLV-1-associated myelopathy, resulting from a dysregulated inflammatory response to the virus. HTLV-1 is highly endemic to remote indigenous communities in Central Australia where infection contributes to racial disparities in morbidity and mortality. HTLV-1 related complications are associated with elevated numbers of T-cells in which the HTLV-1 provirus integrates (HTLV-1 proviral load, PVL). Digital-droplet PCR (ddPCR) is capable of absolute quantification of PVL, offering low variability between assays with few cell numbers. We measured HTLV-1 PVLs from buffy coat cells (BCCs) of infected individuals, and bronchoalveolar lavage (BALs) infiltrates from a bronchiectasis patient to determine the range of HTLV-1 copies/cell relative to illness. Methods All samples were from Alice Springs Hospital HTLV-1 cohort (8 BCCs, 1 BAL) and obtained following ethics approval and patient consent in first language. Genomic DNA was extracted from BCCs for ddPCR PVL quantification. HTLV-1 gag/tax primers and FAM/MGB probes were optimised using temperature gradient amplification. Samples were tested in duplicate relative to an internal reference gene standard, RPP30, or negative threshold controls that used VIC/MGB probe. QuantaSoft software was used for data analysis. Results Of the 8 samples from BCCs, the PVL fell between 320 – 8,040 proviral copies per 10 6 cells. The BAL sample PVL was 1,110 DNA copies per 10 6 cells. The sensitivity (or limit of detection) of our ddPCR assay is 2 copies of proviral DNA per 10 4 cells. Conclusion The ddPCR assay demonstrates extremely high sensitivity, low assay-variability and the capability to reliably quantify HTLV-1 PVL. This technique offers logistic advantages in studying relationships between PVL in HTLV-1 patient’s BCCs and BAL. Disclosure of interest statement No Conflicts of interest. ISSTDR and IUSTI recognise the considerable contribution that industry partners make to professional and research activities. We also recognise the need for transparency of disclosure of potential conflicts of interest by acknowledging these relationships in publications and presentations. No commercial contributions have been received for this research project.

O17.4 Development and validation of a human t-cell lymphotropic virus type-1 proviral load assay

<h3>Introduction</h3> Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV-I) infects approximately 20 million people world-wide_. Transmission requires cell to cell contact and infection can be acquired through breast milk, exposure to HTLV-1 contaminated blood products or sexual contact with an infected person. The HTLV-I proviral load (PVL) is a strong predictor of the risk of transmission and may also serve as an indicator of those most at risk of acquiring significant complications following infection. The Australo-Melanesian variant (HTLV-I subtype c) is endemic amongst indigenous communities in Central Australia and demonstrates a highly divergent sequence from other known HTLV-I subtypes. Currently, there are no commercially available HTLV PVL assays and published methods fail to reliably detect HTLV-1c. <h3>Methods</h3> We developed and validated a quantitative, real time PCR (qPCR) assay, specific for the current circulating strains of HTLV-I. Primers and probes were designed by sequencing the <i>gag gene</i> from HTLV-1c samples. A highly conserved region of the <i>gag gene</i> which did not cross-react with HTLV-II was chosen. A dilution series of SP cells which contain 1 copy of the HTLV-I genome, was used for quantification. The standards and specimens were run in parallel throughout the entire extraction and qPCR process, allowing us to eliminate variations due to extraction efficiency, PCR amplification and detection. The albumin gene, was used to determine the number of cells/sample and the PVL expressed as HTLV-I copies/cell. <h3>Results</h3> We have now fully validated this assay using both clinical specimens and cultured cell lines. Clinical specimens consisting &nbsp;of buffy coats, whole blood specimens and dry blood spots have been tested on the HTLV-I PVL assay and demonstrated good concordance with results obtained using gold standard serology assays. <h3>Conclusion</h3> We have developed and validated an assay that can reliably quantify the HTLV PVL which may serve as a predictor of the risk of transmission and disease progression. <h3>Disclosure of interest statement</h3> The authors and their affiliated organisations have no conflicts of interests. This work has been funded through the NHMRC.

With or Without Speech: Arandic Sign Language from Central Australia

Australia is home to Indigenous sign languages of varying degrees of complexity. In this paper we describe some of the features of the sign language(s) used in Arandic speaking communities of Central Australia. These sign languages have been referred to as ‘alternate’ because they are semiotic systems that are not usually the primary mode of communication of a community, but rather a form of communication used alongside other semiotic systems, including speech and drawing practices. We give examples of sign use in different contexts—both with and without co-occurring speech. We draw attention to examples where the contribution that sign makes to complex utterances is in addition, or complementary, to that provided by other semiotic means. A better understanding of alternate sign languages in comparison with spoken languages on the one hand, and primary sign languages and other semiotic systems on the other will help us conceptualize the limits and powers of the human semiotic capacity.