I’d really love to hear the thoughts of anyone else working in this space on what we’ve said here and the suggestions we’ve made to improve systems and processes

We share some reflections on our experience with a recent Indigenous-targeted grant application and offer some feedback on improving the process for small or regional community-controlled partners. We hope this can be a constructive contribution to ongoing discussions on this topic

Stephanie again emphasises that congenital syphilis is an systems failure requiring systemic solutions: investment in sexual health infrastructure, system change, normalisation of testing, reduction of stigma, and meaningful partnerships #ASRH2025

The text on the slide about partner notification is too small to photograph, but Stephanie says it’s very poorly done in the antenatal setting and systemic change is needed to better facilitate communication between services to reach, test and treat partners to prevent reinfection #ASRH2025

Stephanie’s key principles of prevention emphasise early and repeat screening and timeline treatment, but also the importance of partner notification and treatment - it’s not enough to just tell women to tell their partners #ASRH2025

Now speaking on the changes in the Australian testing guidelines (more tests recommended). Stephanie’s keynote is largely clinical, but here she’s talking about the vital role these guidelines play in normalising syphilis testing, which is a neat link for the social and cultural attendees #ASRH2025

Notification data in Australia - the key detail in this graph is that the red represents congenital cases resulting in infant death #ASRH2025

Tying the cross-cutting themes together now into a framework for Indigenous sexual and reproductive justice, highlighting the role of discourse at the core of many health inequities and the role of Indigenous knowledges in addressing them #ASRH2025

Le Grice’s final study is on infertility in the Māori context and the intersections here of medical fertility treatment and cultural values around family, pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing #ASRH2025

Particularly interested in the adaptation of the cultural practice of burying the placenta after birth to incorporate burying remains after termination #ASRH2025

Le Grice now speaking about her research on abortion among Māori women. Historically framed around some awful racist stereotypes, but in a the modern context more accepted in the community and often supported with cultural practice #ASRH2025

The closing Q&A is tying the four presentations together really neatly, with Joanne Bryant specifically citing examples from each of the other three speakers that reflect the “relational” strengths-based approach she introduced at the start of the session #HIVAIDS2025 #ASRH2025

Simon Graham taking a novel angle on strengths-based approaches to sexual health research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by opening talking explicitly about funding - how things are done, how they should be done, and some examples of doing it well #HIVAIDS2025 #ASRH2025

Margaret explains many use the “duty of care” to justify “protecting” people with disability FROM sex but a strengths-based approach involves balancing duty of care with the dignity of risk to facilitate healthy risk enablement - neither overprotection or neglect #HIVAIDS2025 #ASRH2025

Whoops I borked my threading

Next speaker Margaret Spencer now articulating the principles of strengths-based approaches to reproductive rights with women with intellectual disability - a three-way combination that many working the sexual and reproductive health space might find challenging #HIVAIDS2025 #ASRH2025

JJ refers to “script breaking” as the process by which study participants accessed the authenticity, care and reciprocity encapsulated by “queer and trans sexual joy” #HIVAIDS2025 #ASRH2025

JJ Wright joining remotely from Canada to share some incredible work on queer and trans joy as disruptive to heteronormativity, patriarchy, shame and rape culture. Delighted to see pleasure foregrounded as a strength at conference that often has a heavy biomedical focus #HIVAIDS2025 #ASRH2025