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For most Australian Aboriginal people, the impact of colonialism was blunt-dispossession, dislocation, disease, murder, and missionization. Yet there is another story of Australian history that has remained untold, a story of enterprise and entrepreneurship, of Aboriginal people seizing the opportunity to profit from life at sea as whalers and sealers. In some cases participation was voluntary; in others it was more invidious and involved kidnapping and trade in women. In many cases, the individuals maintained and exercised a degree of personal autonomy and agency within their new circumstances. This book explores some of their lives and adventures by analyzing archival records of maritime industry, captains' logs, ships' records, and the journals of the sailors themselves, among other artifacts. Much of what is known about this period comes from the writings of Herman Melville, and in this book Melville's whaling novels act as a prism through which relations aboard ships are understood. Drawing on both history and literature, Roving Mariners provides a comprehensive history of Australian Aboriginal whaling and sealing.

Background Health-promoting strategies targeting the food retail environment can influence consumer purchasing behaviour. Most strategies require the healthiness of available food and beverages to be determined. Healthiness classification systems exist; however, no system is linked to remote food retail point-of-sale systems. The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility and validity of a process to identify healthy food and beverages in food retail store point-of-sale systems, as applied in a discount card study in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, Australia. Methods A convergent mixed methods study design was used. Feasibility was explored through semi-structured interviews with project and store team members involved in a process to identify healthy food and beverages in point-of-sale systems across five remote stores. Convergent validity was assessed by comparing alignment of classification of food and beverages via the expert-informed process used, with a technology-driven system underpinned by Australia’s Health Star Rating and discretionary classification, the Thumbs Rating system. Results All eight eligible project and store team members involved in the process were interviewed. The expert-informed process, while implemented successfully overall, was not entirely acceptable to participants. Challenges related to the manual classification of products, with participants recommending exploring automated processes to classify products. There was substantial alignment with technology-driven classification (86% of 6281 unique products). Misalignment was largely related to differences in criteria; the expert-informed process was underpinned by a food-based classification system, including selection of the healthier alternatives within food groups, and the Thumbs Rating system is underpinned by food-based classification with nutrient-profiling. Conclusion Alternative methods to the expert-informed process examined in this study should be considered to classify food and beverages in remote food retail point-of-sale systems. The Thumbs Rating provides a valid classification system and would provide an automated means of classification that could be linked to point-of-sale systems. A shift in classification for a small proportion of products, would need to be considered in applying the Thumbs Rating system to remote food retail interventions, or additional criteria overlaying the system could be implemented to meet specific criteria for targeted strategies.

Background Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in remote Australia have initiated bold policies for health-enabling stores. Benchmarking, a data-driven and facilitated ‘audit and feedback’ with action planning process, provides a potential strategy to strengthen and scale health-enabling best-practice adoption by remote community store directors/owners. We aim to co-design a benchmarking model with five partner organisations and test its effectiveness with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community stores in remote Australia. Methods Study design is a pragmatic randomised controlled trial with consenting eligible stores (located in very remote Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, primary grocery store for an Aboriginal community, and serviced by a Nutrition Practitioner with a study partner organisation). The Benchmarking model is informed by research evidence, purpose-built best-practice audit and feedback tools, and co-designed with partner organisation and community representatives. The intervention comprises two full benchmarking cycles (one per year, 2022/23 and 2023/24) of assessment, feedback, action planning and action implementation. Assessment of stores includes i adoption status of 21 evidence-and industry-informed health-enabling policies for remote stores, ii implementation of health-enabling best-practice using a purpose-built Store Scout App, iii price of a standardised healthy diet using the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healthy Diets ASAP protocol; and, iv healthiness of food purchasing using sales data indicators. Partner organisations feedback reports and co-design action plans with stores. Control stores receive assessments and continue with usual retail practice. All stores provide weekly electronic sales data to assess the primary outcome, change in free sugars (g) to energy (MJ) from all food and drinks purchased, baseline (July-December 2021) vs July-December 2023. Discussion We hypothesise that the benchmarking intervention can improve the adoption of health-enabling store policy and practice and reduce sales of unhealthy foods and drinks in remote community stores of Australia. This innovative research with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities can inform effective implementation strategies for healthy food retail more broadly. Trial registration ACTRN12622000596707, Protocol version 1.

Reporting key dietary indicators from sales data can help us guide store decision makers in developing effective store policy to support healthier customer purchases. We aimed to develop a web-based reporting tool of key dietary indicators from sales data to support health-promoting policy and practice in stores in geographically remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Tool development included identifying key dietary indicators (informed by sales data from 31 stores), community consultation (19 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander store directors and two store managers) and a web-build. Tool evaluation involved feedback interviews with stakeholders (25 store managers and two nutritionists). Key dietary indicators aligned with Australian Dietary Guideline food groupings and recommendations. An online portal for accessing and customising reports was built. Stakeholder feedback indicated that the strengths of the reports were the visuals, ease of interpretation, providing information that was not currently available and potential to increase capacity to support healthy food retailing. Difficulties were defining healthiness classification with alignment to other nutrition guidelines used and ensuring reports reached relevant store decision makers. This tool may be valuable to support store decision makers in identifying and prioritising nutrition issues and optimising the health-enabling attributes of stores.

A form of food retail regulation called the Stores Licensing Scheme was introduced by the Australian Government in 2007–2022 to ensure food security in remote Indigenous communities of the Northern Territory. We examined evaluations of this Scheme implemented under the Northern Territory National Emergency Response and Stronger Futures Northern Territory Acts. Grey literature search identified nine primary source evaluations. Reported outcomes were extracted and thematic analysis utilised to determine barriers and enablers. Outcomes included improved availability and quality of groceries, financial structures, and retail practices, albeit not consistently reported. Governance and food cost were perceived barriers. Future policy aimed to improve food security through community stores should consider food cost subsidy, measures to incentivise all stores to improve standards, and improved governance arrangements enabling self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Store Directors.

Background The commercial determinants of health is a rapidly expanding field of research; however Indigenous perspectives remain notably underrepresented. For Indigenous peoples the intersection of globalisation, colonialism and capitalism may amplify commercially-driven health inequities. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of Aboriginal leaders regarding the influence of commercial activities on Aboriginal health and wellbeing in Victoria, Australia. Methods Semi-structured interviews with 23 Aboriginal leaders from across five sectors ( n  = 15 urban, n  = 8 rural/regional) were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. Results Three overarching themes were identified encompassing (i) harmful commercial practices and processes, (ii) improving corporate engagement and (iii) opportunities for self-determination through business. Participants expressed concern over aggressive marketing by the gambling industry, commercial exploitation of Aboriginal culture, the privatisation of public services, and lack of oversignt of corporate social responsibility strategies. Simultaneously, Aboriginal-led businesses were viewed as opportunities for cultural connection, and financial empowerment and self-determination. Conclusion Numerous commercial entities and activities are perceived to influence Aboriginal health and wellbeing. This study highlights the need for stronger policy and regulation to mitigate harmful industry practices while incentivising the potential positive impacts of the commercial activities on Aboriginal health and wellbeing.

Background The health and wellbeing impacts of commercial activity on Indigenous populations is an emerging field of research. The alcohol industry is a key driver of health and social harms within Australia. In 2016 Woolworths, the largest food and beverage retailer in Australia, proposed to build a Dan Murphy’s alcohol megastore in Darwin, near three ‘dry’ Aboriginal communities. This study examines the tactics used by Woolworths to advance the Dan Murphy’s proposal and understand how civil society action can overcome powerful commercial interests to protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing. Methods Data from 11 interviews with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal informants were combined with data extracted from media articles and government, non-government and industry documents. Thematic analysis was informed by an adapted corporate health impact assessment framework. Results Woolworths employed several strategies including lobbying, political pressure, litigation, and divisive public rhetoric, while ignoring the evidence suggesting the store would increase alcohol-related harm. The advocacy campaign against the proposal highlighted the importance of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups working together to counter commercial interests and the need to champion Aboriginal leadership. Advocacy strategies included elevating the voices of community Elders in the media and corporate activism via Woolworths’ investors. Conclusions The strategies used by the coalition of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups may be useful in future advocacy campaigns to safeguard Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing from commercial interests.

This volume seeks to contribute to the body of anthropological and historical studies of Indigenous participation in the Australian colonial and post colonial economy. It arises out of a panel on this topic at the annual conference of the Australian Anthropological Society, held jointly with the British and New Zealand anthropological associations in Auckland in December 2008. The panel was organised in conjunction with an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant project on Indigenous participation in Australian economies involving the National Museum of Australia as the partner organisation and the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at The Australian National University. The chapters of the volume bring new theoretical analyses and empirical data to bear on a continuing discussion about the variety of ways in which Indigenous people in Australia have been engaged in the colonial and post-colonial economy. Contributions cover settler capitalism, concepts of property on the frontier, Torres Strait Islanders in the mainland economy, the pastoral industry in the Kimberley, doggers in the Western Desert, bean and pea picking on the South Coast of New South Wales, attitudes to employment in general in western New South Wales, relations of Aboriginal people to mining in the Pilbara, and relations with the uranium mine and Kakadu National Park in the Top End. The chapters also contribute to discussions about theoretical and analytical frameworks relevant to these kinds of contexts and bring critical perspectives to bear on current issues of development.

This paper estimates the cost-effectiveness of a 20% price discount on healthy food and beverages with and without consumer nutrition education, as trialled in remote Northern Australia. Changes in actual store sales, from the pre-discount baseline period, were analysed for population impact on consumption of fruit and vegetables, water and artificially sweetened soft drinks, in addition with total dietary weight (grams), energy (Mega Joules), and sodium (milligrams). Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), arising from changes in dietary risk factor prevalence in the population, were estimated as the primary health outcome in a multi health-state Markov model. The costs of the strategies were sourced from paid invoices and time estimates of staff providing store-based discount promotion and consumer education. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio adopted a partial societal perspective, (including health and retail sector costs), as cost per DALY averted and was presented in 2011 Australian dollars. The price discount, helped address a gap in food price equity for residents of remote communities. However, the discount strategy, with or without consumer education led to a net loss of population health -36 95%CI (-47,-25) or -21(-28, -15) DALYs respectively, at increased cost to the retail and health sectors, of AUD860000 95%CI (710000, 1million) or AUD500000 (410000, 590000). The strategies trialled were thereby categorised as dominated by current practice while acknowledging considerable uncertainty surrounding the health outcome estimates. The 20% discount on limited targeted products appeared to need to be considered in conjunction with other marketing strategies to support healthy food choices, if remote Australian Indigenous population health is to be improved.