Indigenous Australian people in the remote West Kimberley region of Western Australia experience extreme disadvantage as a legacy from 128 years of European colonial rule. I bring to this study a unique insider perspective as a Yimardoowarra marnin, an Indigenous woman from the Mardoowarra, Fitzroy River, researching local people and communities. This research has been a deep personal and shared journey with the Nyikina people, as we made meaning of both the construction of disadvantage and strategies to reduce the impact of disadvantage in the West Kimberley. Utilization of a cultural action research framework, with mixed methods of data collection, opened up an understanding of Indigenous disadvantage and strategies to overcome it in one particular context. Narratives of the Elders and other Nyikina people, plus multiple information sources, identified that the processes of systemic racism, established during the early colonial period, have evolved to maintain an endemic state of structural violence. This process has been responsible for the overwhelming disadvantage experienced by Indigenous people in the West Kimberley.

In this study, relevant in vitro biological activities were evaluated in extracts of Australian medicinal plants used in indigenous traditional medicine for the treatment of wounds, sores and other dermatological conditions. A survey of Australian medical ethnobotanical literature was conducted in order to identify suitable species and plant parts for inclusion in the study and to collect data for systematic and quantitative analyses of Australian indigenous medicinal plant use. Thirty-seven aqueous extracts were obtained following traditional methods of preparation from various parts of 23 plant species representing 15 families. Sequential solvent extracts (hexane-dichloromethane-methanol) were also prepared using material from 5 species of 'Eremophila' to enable comparison of bioactivity with corresponding traditional aqueous preparations. Extracts were screened using in vitro assays for anti-microbial activities, anti-oxidant capacity via DMPD decolourisation and Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) assays, P388D1 murine lymphoblast cytotoxicity, and inhibition of prostaglandin E2 from calcium ionophore-stimulated murine fibroblasts. Total phenolic content of the aqueous preparations was also estimated using a Folin-Ciocalteu type assay.