Gunawuna Jungai Ltd is proud to be a community partner in the SPARC Research Project (Shared Power for Advocating for Reform Collectively), a landmark initiative designed to strengthen Indigenous leadership, shared decision-making and community-driven reform under Australia’s Closing the Gap Priority Reform Areas.
The SPARC project emerged in response to the continued failure to meet most Closing the Gap targets, despite national commitments. With the gap in recurrent health costs alone estimated at $4.4 billion annually, SPARC seeks to address the underlying social, cultural and systemic factors impacting First Nations health and wellbeing by placing Indigenous leadership at the centre of reform.
Gunawuna Jungai, representing the Doomadgee community, is one of four Queensland-based community leadership coalitions partnering in the project, alongside Yarrabah Leaders Forum & Jabu Mugay Ltd, Woorabinda Leaders Group, and Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good (DIYDG) in Cairns. Government partners include the Queensland Health Reform Office and the Queensland Department of Women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships and Multiculturalism.
Using a collective impact framework, SPARC brings together community leadership groups, government partners and a dedicated research team to co-design, implement and evaluate approaches that create real change across the four Closing the Gap Priority Reform Areas:
Through SPARC, Gunawuna Jungai is contributing to the strengthening of community-led governance structures, improving transparency and accountability in service delivery, and ensuring communities have access to the data and information needed to make informed decisions for their futures.
Community partners have united around a shared vision: “Igniting Collective Power for Self-Determined Change”, and a manifesto that affirms Indigenous sovereignty, cultural integrity, intergenerational strength and the right of communities to lead decisions that affect their lives.
SPARC is a movement grounded in unity, advocacy and collective knowledge-sharing.
By working together across communities and systems, Gunawuna Jungai and its partners are reclaiming power, reshaping reform and ensuring Indigenous-led solutions are heard and implemented.