2025 Special Issue on Indigenous Health

We are very proud that this MJA Special Issue on Indigenous health — “Carving our path with spirit, strength and solidarity” — is the second to be edited by a team of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Guest Editors: Professor Pat Dudgeon (Bardi), Professor Jaquelyne Hughes (Wagadagam), Associate Professor Michelle Kennedy (Wiradjuri), Professor Kelvin Kong (Worimi), Professor Odette Pearson (Eastern Kuku-Yalanji and Torres Strait Islander), and Associate Professor Paul Saunders (Biripi). This Special Issue consists of work led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors and that underwent careful assessment, discussion, and guidance by the Guest Editors across all stages of the editorial and publication process. The final published articles reflect the care that went into this undertaking. The Editorial¹ for this Special Issue is a reflective piece by the Guest Editors, where they examine the vision and impact of this issue. This year, as last,² we received many more articles than could be accommodated in one issue, and we plan to publish additional articles from this Special Issue process later in the year.

At the MJA, we understand the privilege that it is to publish articles from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers. We also understand that a journal like the MJA has a duty to acknowledge and address the imbalance of power that has led in the past to publication in the MJA being a hard and uncomfortable experience for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors. As editors of this Journal, we have an ongoing commitment to ensuring that the MJA is a welcoming and respectful place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors and their publications, and we look forward to receiving future submissions.

For the MJA team, it has been an enormous privilege to work with the Guest Editors, and we thank them for their generosity in sharing their time and expertise. We are also very privileged to have on the cover of this Special Issue the powerful carving by Uncle Paul Scott that describes the issue's purpose (Box). His story is a reminder of a shared future: “a story of resilience, of shared journeys, and of walking together, side by side, with respect for each other and the land beneath our feet”.