FIRST NATIONS: (Symposium session) Sleep health of First Nations peoples: Initiatives to empower community members and service providers
Tracks
Track 1
| Saturday, October 11, 2025 |
| 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM |
| Hall L |
Details
Community-led, co-designed initiatives are critical to advancing sleep health equity and improving sleep health outcomes for First Nations peoples. This symposium will share findings from the Let’s Yarn About Sleep program and insights on culturally responsive sleep health care. Speakers in this session will cover best practices for community engagement and leadership in sleep research, share insights into community understandings of sleep health and its impact on daily life, examine clinician-identified factors impacting culturally safe sleep healthcare, and showcase a screening tool to improve service delivery for First Nations peoples. Attendees will gain insights into community and clinicians' perspectives and practical approaches to improve sleep health care for First Nations peoples.
Speaker
Prof Simon Smith
Professor
The University of Queensland
Chair and Introduction
11:00 AM - 11:05 AMBiography
Mr Wayne Williams
First Nations Cultural Mentor
University Sunshine Coast
Best practices for community engagement
11:05 AM - 11:25 AMBiography
Ms Roslyn Von Senden
Community Research And Engagement
University Sunshine Coast
Best practices for community engagement
11:05 AM - 11:25 AMBiography
Ms Roslyn Von Senden is a proud Kalkatungu/Kalkadoon woman from Mount Isa in North West Queensland, with ancestral ties to the Gungalida people of the Gulf of Carpentaria. With 29 years of dedicated advocacy, she has championed the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, child rights, and human rights. Roslyn is committed to fostering inclusion and advancing Aboriginal research ethics and methodologies. Her expertise spans early childhood education and care, advisory systems, and public speaking. She currently serves as the Community Research and Engagement Manager for the Let's Yarn About Sleep Program.
Prof Yaqoot Fatima
Professor of Sleep Health
University of the Sunshine Coast
OSA in First Nations communities
11:25 AM - 11:45 AMBiography
Professor Yaqoot Fatima is a social epidemiologist, sleep scientist, and specialist in co-designing First Nations sleep health programs and services. Her research is dedicated to advancing sleep health equity in First Nations communities through multidisciplinary and translational research and co-designed initiatives.
Ms Markesh Fanti
Community Research Assistant
University of Sunshine Coast
OSA in First Nations communities
11:25 AM - 11:45 AMBiography
Markesh is a Community Research Assistant with the Let’s Yarn About Sleep (LYAS) program at the Thompson Institute remotely based in Mount Isa, North West QLD on Kalkadoon Country. Markesh is a proud Kukatj, Waluwarra/Kalkadoon woman of the Gulf of Carpentaria and NW QLD.
Markesh has completed the Sleep Coach and Sleep Technologist training with the University of Western Australia.
Dr Bushra Nasir
Senior Research Fellow
University of Queensland
Culturally responsive OSA service delivery for First Nations peoples
11:45 AM - 12:05 PMBiography
Dr. Bushra Nasir is the lead researcher on multiple large-scale, national studies, and a mid-career researcher with a substantial career trajectory in health research. Her expertise and instrumental involvement in multiple large-scale grants are demonstrated through numerous top-tier publications, media and news citations, and recognition in national and international policy documents. She has contributed to developing several global health policy recommendation publications, including a World Health Organisation review investigating the retention of the health workforce in rural and remote areas. Her contribution to this discipline is further substantiated by her peer-review activities and international and national collaborations with wide outreach and engagement initiatives.
Prof Subash Heraganahally
Director And Head
Royal Darwin Hospital
OSA screening in primary care
12:05 PM - 12:25 PMBiography
Prof Subash Shanthakumar Heraganahally, is the Director and Head of Respiratory and Sleep service at the Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin, NT. He is also affiliated with the Flinders and Charles Darwin University. He has published over 100 peer reviewed papers, mostly addressing respiratory and sleep health issues in the adult Indigenous Australians. His noticeable contribution to research includes - the development of sleep assessment scale for adult Indigenous people the “Top End Sleepiness Scale”, in 2021 and the new GPSS – “General practice sleep scale” in 2025.
Dr Timothy Howarth
Post-doctoral Researcher
Darwin Respiratory and Sleep Health
OSA screening in primary care
12:05 PM - 12:25 PMBiography
Dr. Howarth is an early career researcher at Darwin Respiratory and Sleep Health, and the University of Eastern Finland. Dr Howarths interests are in the epidemiology of chronic respiratory diseases, including OSA, among Indigenous Australians, and the development and utility of novel metrics for defining the severity of OSA.
