Mechtilde holding her bub, Gordon

IUIH North couldn't go to Cairns, so they brought Cairns to them. 

Thanks to Zoom, up to 120 Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program staff and guests from across Australia and from overseas connected virtually for our annual conference in October. 

Many of the ANFPP teams had been looking forward to flying to Cairns in North Queensland for the conference, so were disappointed when the face-to-face event had to be cancelled due to COVID. 

Even though the program's main priority is keeping our vulnerable First Nations’ communities safe, the staff were sad they couldn't see each other in person. 

Held over two mornings, conference highlights included yarns from program founder, Professor David Olds from the University of Colorado, and International Nurse Consultant Gail Radford-Trotter from Edinburgh, Scotland. 


Bringing Cairns to IUIH North

To keep the tropical flavour for the conference, Administration Officer Cody Apted put on a Cairns themed morning tea for her ANFPP mob at Institute of Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) North. 

"We were all looking forward to getting to Cairns and seeing everyone,” said Palawa woman, Cody.

“So, to bring a little Cairns to our office, I made up a fruit platter and, balloons and some pretty plates. 

"It wasn’t much, in comparison to Cairns, but it was a nice little touch here in our office. 

"Regarding the ANFPP Conference, it was the first I had been involved in and it was lovely experience.” 

Deadly Dads 

The Deadly Dads Showcase was a hit with presentations from Men's Aboriginal Family Partnership Worker, Trent Turner, from Nunkuwarrin Yunti in Adelaide and David Edwards from SMS4DADS. 

From all the feedback the National Support Service has received so far, it looks like Trent has a fan club! 

Trent Turner, presenting on his work as a Men's Family Partnership Worker.


“So inspiring to see what Trent is doing with the men,” said one attendee. "He is a great role model: showing insight, great organisational skills, self-directed. He obviously stays very busy to have achieved what he has in his time with the ANFPP. Great job.” 

Quit Smoking 


The Quit Smoking Showcase was also popular, as one of ANFPP’s main goals over the next 12 months is to reduce smoking rates amongst clients. 

Associate Professor and First Nations’ woman, Sandy Campbell gave deadly updates on the ANFPP annual data report, including smoking data. 


ANFPP National Support Service Systems Manager, Associate Professor Sandy Campbell, speaking from Cairns. 


And Professor Gillian Gould and Cultural Consultant Joley Foster Foster yarned about ISISTAQUIT (Supporting Indigenous Smokers to Assist Quitting).

ISISTAQUIT will enable ANFPP staff to complete online training and access a range of resources to help our mums quit smoking. 

“With smoking in pregnancy having a major impact on the lifelong health of mother and child, including birth complications and low birth weight, quitting smoking early in pregnancy would help to close the gap on Indigenous health,” said Associate Professor Gould. 

Yarning about quitting smoking can be challenging, so it was great that Emily May, Senior Practitioner (Perinatal Mental Health and Parenting) gave us tips on 'How to have Courageous Conversations about Smoking Cessation'. 

Here's hoping we will all get to see each other face-to-face at next year's conference! 

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