Senior Medical Advisor, Apunipima Cape York Health Council

Dr Mark Wenitong (Adjunct Associate Professor, James Cook University, School of Tropical Public Health, Medicine and Health Sciences) is from the Kabi Kabi tribal group of South Queensland.

Dr Wenitong the Senior Medical Advisor at Apunipima Cape York Health Council where he continues to practice clinical medicine and remote health service program delivery.

Prior to returning to Apunipima, Dr Wenitong was the PHMO and acting CEO at NACCHO (National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation) in Canberra, as well as the Senior Medical Officer at Wuchopperen Health Service in Cairns for nine years.

Dr Wenitong was the medical advisor for Rural Remote Indigenous Health Unit (OATSIH) in Canberra and past president and founding member of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association. He was a member of the National Health and Medical Research Committee – Principal committees for the past 4 triennia, and chairs the Andrology Australia- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Male Reference group.

He is s board member of Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, and the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine Advisory Board, and sits on the National Health Performance Authority – Primary Health Care Committee. He sits of the Queensland Mental Health Commission Council, and is a ministerial appointee on the national General Practice Training Advisory Group.

He has studied at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Summer School Program, on International Indigenous Health.

Dr Wenitong has had a long involvement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce initiatives and was Chair of the committee which developed the Blueprint for Action – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workforce Strategy.

He was a member of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review Expert Advisory Group in 2008.

Dr Wenitong received the 2011 Australian Medical Association Presidents National Award for Excellence in Healthcare and the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Council Hall of Fame Award in 2010. The Medical Journal of Australia recognised Dr Wenitong and his  colleagues’ (all Chief Investigators) multi – centre, randomised control trial on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander antenatal smoking cessation as their Best Research Publication of 2013.

Dr. Wenitong along with Professor Victoria Hovane, will be delivering the keynote address Intergenerational trauma and family violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities: State of knowledge and implications for policy and practice. This session will draw together the various literature that is currently available about intergenerational trauma and its impacts, and how this issue relates to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The session will link intergenerational trauma and family violence, and the implications this may have for policy and practice.