It's never too late to salute America

How I actually 'celebrated' the 4th of july: thai, tim tams and bubble gum. Once a month we have staff day at the CHETRE offices where the different research streams (community & primary health care services; disadvantaged communities; early childhood; aboriginal health; and HIA and healthy public policy) come together and discuss recent work, bounce ideas off each other, rehearse ppts. It's really informal, but it kind of drags on. We're moving to a new building at the Liverpool Hospital at the start of August so most of the 5 hr meeting was dominated by discussions about parking vouchers and seating arrangements at the new location.

Yesterday's meeting was more festive than usual, owing to the american flag printouts and red, white and blue streamers that decorated the conference room when I arrived. I love the folks I work with! I snapped a blurry photo.

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]

 

We snacked on tim tams (an Australian biscuit named after the winning horse at the 1958 Kentucky derby-so there's the American connection), oranges and bubble gum.  I got to choose lunch-we ordered Thai takeout. Before we broke for lunch the early childhood group, in preparation for an upcoming conference, presented the preliminary results of the Gudaga project - a five year federally funded project that is following a birth cohort of Aboriginal children from birth to 5 years in order to describe their health, development and service. The focus of the presentation was on developmental outcomes at 1 yr., 3 yr. and pre-school. They provided a very brief overview of the history of settler colonization/ resistance through the 20th century, most of which was familiar territory but nonetheless deeply disturbing. I did learn that it wasn't until 1972 that the Department of Education was no longer allowed to refuse Aboriginal students entry into public schools! The presentation stimulated a really interesting conversation about engaging history more critically in public health research, and representing marginalized voices. The day offered a parallax view of the history and current practices of the U.S. that I was meant to be commemorating. Like studying U.S. history in Northern Ireland.