Shawana Andrews

Shawana is a Palawa Trawlwoolway woman and is Associate Director of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Melbourne. Shawana has a long history working across Aboriginal communities in Victoria with 20 years experience working in Aboriginal health. Beginning as an Aboriginal hospital liaison officer at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Shawana established a co-designed Koori mental health program, an Aboriginal child and family health case management program and a comprehensive Aboriginal child outpatient clinic. Shawana has since held policy, project management and teaching roles across the health and higher education sectors.

Her current research interests include Indigenous health and mental health, Aboriginal women’s experiences of family violence and cultural revitalization. She is currently a CI for the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, a five-year program funded by the NHMRC to lead research into family violence and an AI for the Healing the Past by Nurturing the Future Study, funded by NHMRC and the Lowitja Institute, which is co-designing perinatal strategies for Aboriginal parents experiencing complex trauma. Shawana is also undertaking a PhD titled: Cloaked in Strength – An exploration of Aboriginal mothers’ experiences of family violence and the role of cultural practice as a tool of engagement, resilience and resistance.