Sotiris Vardoulakis 0:09 Good morning, or good afternoon everyone. And a very well Welcome to the inaugural HEAL 2021 Conference, Healthy Environments and Lives Conference. Today is the second day of our event. We had fantastic day yesterday and today we'll have a fantastic programme, great lineup of speakers, great breakout sessions and panel discussions in the next five hours or so. I'm Sotiris Vardoulakis. I'm Professor of Global Environmental and Health at the Australian National University and I'll introduce the first two speakers who are going to give the opening addresses to this to this conference day two. I'm also Director of the HEAL Network, Healthy Environments and Lives Network, which is set to change environmental health and research in Australia and give example internationally on environmental change research, policy and practice. Before moving to the programme, I would like to do some housekeeping announcements. Please keep your microphone off. If you're not speaking, if you are not the speaker. You can keep your camera on, , but please note that all sessions of the conference are recorded. If you don't want to be recorded, you can just turn your camera off and stay online. Please put your comments on the chat box. Please tell us who you are, your affiliation and where you're joining us from. I'm on Ngunnawal Country here in beautiful Canberra and this is the place where I live and work. Please let us know where is the traditional place where you're calling from. I see we have many attendees online, we have over 100 attendees already online and more people are joining. And without further ado, I would like to introduce the first speaker for the Acknowledgement of Country. It's my great pleasure and privilege to introduce Dr. Veronica Matthews, Senior Research Fellow at the University Centre for Rural Health at the University of Sydney, who will deliver the Acknowledgemen of Country. Veronica is co-leading with Auntie Linda Ford the HEAL's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theme, which is the cornerstone of the network. Veronica is also the Co-Director of the Centre for Excellence, for Research Excellence STRIDE. This is strengthening systems for Indigenous Health Equity, healthcare equity. Veronica is also leading the recently founded ARC Indigenous Discovery project, Healing Country, which it set to integrate knowledge systems to meet climate change challenges. Veronica the floor is yours. Veronica Matthews 2:47 Thank you so much, Sotiris. I would like to begin today by Acknowledging that we are all gathered on unseeded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. For me, that's the Widjabal Wia-bal people of the Bundjalung Nation, and give respect to Elders past, present and emerging who have cared for our country for millennia. And also extend that respect to all Aboriginal people joining us today. Often at these types of meetings, we do see a lot of numbers, graphs and statistics that can feel a bit abstract. And may have we heard yesterday the need for more qualitative data, telling it and sharing of stories which makes those numbers real. So I wanted to introduce you to the STRIDE Deadly Poets Society, I'll just share my screen. Within one. I weep for her, my mother. I long to feel her, to be within her. To immerse my body beneath the earth, and swim amongst the tangled roots of an ancient tree. To nestle, curled and safe under the protective rings of 1000 worlds. To be absorbed like the remnants of the beginning of time. To impart my truth, my knowledge, to be sung like the sacred wisdom of my ancestors. Every atom of my soul yearns to stand solid and tall. A single ring within my mother's core. A dreaming possibility, a gift to all to bring life over and over, like the millions of spirits cumulated within my own body. I realise my truth. That with which I crave, is indeed my reality. A universe of knowledge is held within my DNA. As will the everlasting reaches of our world, within this universe. I have always been and always will be, mother. Guni ma calls. Guni ma calls, can you hear? Can you listen? Guni ma calls, can you hear, can you listen. Guni ma calls, it is time. Time to return to her sacred place, dance upon the sacred ground. Guni ma calls. Can you hear? Can you listen? Her drum echoes through spaces in time. In spaces they cannot listen. Guni ma calls. Can you hear? Can you listen? Healing country. 'Proud Gamilaroi yinarr', you told us, my spirit flies to your country. Never mine. So far from home. I return to black soil. Belahs, brigalow scrub. Light filters through dust, setting sun soothes stock. My spirit has trouble finding home. I visited once, apple orchards, marching bands and the river Boyne. That fight is not mine. My heart now hooked in soft greens, turquoise blues. Wangal Djungay embraced by reef, mangroves nursery me. Sotiris Vardoulakis 6:37 Thank you so much, Veronica. That was a very powerful, meaningful poetry and speaks very deeply to everybody in this network, in the HEAL network. And I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands we're all based and also acknowledge and pay my respects to the many Aboriginal researchers who are part of this networks and those who join us in the future. Thank you. I would like now to welcome the Honourable, the Excellency, the Honourable Dr. Jeanette Young, Governor of Queensland, who kindly agreed to give an opening address to the day two of the HEAL 2021 Conference. It's my great privilege and honour to introduce Dr. Jeannette Young. Many of you will know Dr. Young from her previous role as Chief Health Officer for Queensland, and all she tirelessly served from 2005 till last month. The responsibilities include lead the state's preventative health and public health agendas, including response to public health emergencies. Dr. Young guided Queensland through the Coronavirus pandemic. In January 2020, the governor became the State Health Incident controller. During his illustrious career, Dr. Young has been appointed Fellow of numerous and education and research institutions, has received honorary Doctorates from two Queensland universities, and has received an Australian Day achievement medallion, as well as the public service medal. Dr. Young has spent a lifetime dedicated to public health and 16 years as Chief Health Officer of Queensland. She's the first Chief Health officer appointed to the role of State Governor and it's a great honour to have her opening address at the inaugural HEAL conference today. We are really grateful to Dr. Young for coming to open the second day of our conference. The floor is yours, Your Excellency. Jeannette Young 8:39 Thank you very much, Professor. It's a great pleasure to join this inaugural Healthy Environments and Lives Conference this morning by live teleconference. At the outset, I'd like to thank Veronica and those moving words that we all listened to, it's Acknowledgement to Country. I acknowledge First Nations people not just here in Brisbane, where I am the **Tureeboo** and Yuggera people. But wherever else around Australia and indeed the world you may be today. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken us all into the world of virtual conferences. To an extent we would not have thought possible only a few years ago. This two day HEAL Conference has brought together more than 100 researchers from universities, research institutes and non-government organisations across Australia to share virtual conversations with policymakers, health practitioners, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, charities and community members. And I think it's a brilliant concept. And to realise this hybrid multi-node conference, it's such scope and scale is certainly a significant technical achievement. Extremely well done. However, of course, the most important feature of any conference is the quality and relevance of the presentations and the conversations that then take place. To gather so many important voices and diverse views requires quite an inspired vision and a dedicated effort. And I congratulate the Conference committee on bringing this unique event to fruition. I may, as you've heard, no longer be Queensland's Chief Health Officer. But today's focus on regional concerns and priorities for environmental change and health remain very close to my heart. So close, in fact, that in my swearing in address is Queensland 27th governor, only a few short weeks ago, I did make a public pledge to do all I can to promote a healthy and active Queensland during my term of office. I also publicly set myself some other goals, one of which is to visit every single public hospital, no matter how small or large in our state, around 179 of them, they span our state from ranging from Orbetello to Worabindah. And I intend to listen very carefully. As we have listened today to the words of Acknowledgement of Country, I intend to listen very carefully to my previous colleagues delivering health services across our state. I hope that it will enable frank and open conversations and give me an armoury of firsthand experiences and the stories not just the data, the anecdotes that will mean that I can advocate for the concerns and aspirations of both the staff and the communities that they serve. I'm very well aware that the impact of changes in climate and the environment are likely to be among their primary concerns. We need to ensure that our regional and rural health system remains resilient and sustainable. We need to consider the impact of extreme weather events on the health of communities, we need to tap into the ancient knowledge and experience of our indigenous people in addressing those challenges. Although I can only be with you for a very short time this morning, it's been a real privilege and a pleasure to declare these sessions open today. And I hope that this day brings robust and fruitful debate and I look very forward very much to seeing the outcomes and the recommendations of your deliberations. Thank you very much. Sotiris Vardoulakis 12:51 Thank you very much, Your Excellency. It's really, very important, meaningful for us to have the Chief Health Officer and Governor of Queensland opening the second day of our conference. And as you said, today we're going to be focusing on the on the regions. Yesterday we focused on different themes of the network, and today we'll be discussing the regions and of course we have also a breakout session great meeting organised in Queensland.