Healing Country,
Caring for Community
Kwooka builds trusted presence in Aboriginal communities, starting with getting our older people and Elders online — and we use that presence to close the gap in finding disease early.
A Tablet, the Data on It,
and Someone to Sit With You
Plenty of our older people have never had a device of their own. It is not that they don’t want one. The tablet costs money, the data costs more every month, and when something goes wrong there is nobody at home to sort it out.
So we hand over a tablet with a year of data already loaded, and we sit with the person until they are comfortable using it. Some want to video call a daughter who lives three towns away. Some are tired of asking a grandkid to do their myGov for them. Some want to check the footy scores. All of it counts, and none of it is anyone else’s business.
We run small groups over a school term with a local Aboriginal Health Worker and community mentors, with an Elder in the room, at whatever pace suits. Nobody is tested on anything, and nobody has to explain why they never learnt this before.
This is paid for by five Be Connected grants. Be Connected is the Australian Government programme for getting older people online, run through Good Things Australia. Kwooka is a registered Be Connected Network Partner.
We built our own tool to run it — the Kwooka Digital Skills app. Mentors log sessions in it, learners browse the lessons, it works with no internet at all, and the information stays on the tablet in community.
Four Towns,
Three Regions, One Charity
Perth, the Goldfields, the Pilbara and the Kimberley. Every site is funded, contracted and running this year.
The Problem Isn't
a Shortage of Technology
Chronic disease gets picked up late in Aboriginal communities. The tests exist. They are just a long way away, and a service people don't trust is a service people don't walk into.
Shorter life expectancy
The gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians.
Cardiovascular death rate in remote areas
In remote Australia the cardiovascular death rate for First Nations people is 2.3 times the non-Indigenous rate. Nationally it is 1.6. The further from services, the wider it gets.
Cervical screening participation
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women aged 25–74 at Indigenous-specific health services with a cervical screening test recorded in the past five years.
Trust Is the Constraint,
Not Equipment
Screening services have been around Aboriginal communities for decades. Where more people started turning up, it was almost never because someone brought in a better machine. It was because the place felt safe to walk into. Aboriginal staff on the desk. Community protocol respected. And a result that led to someone being seen, not a letter that never got followed up.
That is the part we work on first, and it is why we started with digital rather than with a camera. A term of small groups in Kalgoorlie builds something a device cannot: people who know us.
A mainstream general practice at Inala, Queensland, had 12 Indigenous patients regularly attending in 1994. It employed Aboriginal staff, changed the waiting room, trained its team in cultural awareness, and worked with community-controlled health services. By 2008 it had 3,006 registered Indigenous patients and around 900 consultations a month. No new diagnostic technology was involved.
Hayman NE, White NE, Spurling GK. Improving Indigenous patients’ access to mainstream health services: the Inala experience. Medical Journal of Australia 2009; 190(10).
What We're Building
Towards
Three long-running problems in remote communities. Each card says where that work honestly stands today, so nobody has to read between the lines.
Health Screening
Exploratory · Not in useGetting early-detection screening within reach of remote communities. We are talking to technology providers, holding each against a published standard, and we would run it with the local health service rather than around it.
- Not delivered in community today
- ARTG inclusion required before any use
- Independent clinical review of every result
- Referral pathway agreed before screening starts
Community Laundries
Under assessmentPurpose-built laundries with commercial machines and medicative detergents, free to use. Built to cut scabies, skin sores and rheumatic heart disease, and to put five or more local people into paid work at each site.
- NIAA application (GO8075) under assessment
- No site operating yet
- 5+ local jobs designed into each site
- Solar and water recycling for off-grid sites
Water Solutions
In developmentMachines that pull clean drinking water out of the air, running on solar with no mains connection. This is what we are working towards for communities where water is scarce, unreliable or not safe to drink.
- No system installed yet
- Solar powered, fully off-grid
- Designed to sit alongside the laundries
- Independently tested before community use
How We Choose Technology
We are an Aboriginal-led charity, not a device vendor. We assess technology against a published standard before it goes anywhere near a community.
No screening technology is used in an Aboriginal community by Kwooka Health Services until it is included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods and cleared through the clinical governance process we are establishing with our Clinical Advisor, a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
This applies without exception, including demonstrations and community information days. Where a technology has not met the standard, we say so on this page.
ARTG Inclusion
The device must be included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods for the purpose we intend to use it for. Approval in another country is not sufficient, and neither is a manufacturer’s claim.
Clinical Governance
We are building our clinical governance with a practising GP as Clinical Advisor. No screening pathway runs until it is signed off through it — who operates the device, who interprets the result, what happens with an abnormal finding, and who is accountable.
Independent Review
An algorithm’s output is not a diagnosis. Any image or trace we capture is reviewed by an appropriately qualified clinician independent of the technology provider, and results are returned through a named clinical service.
Community Control & Referral
The local community and its health service decide whether, when and how anything happens on their Country. Screening only proceeds where there is an agreed referral pathway, so a finding leads to care rather than to worry.
Where Each Conversation
Is Up To
Kwooka is not screening anyone in community today. We are in early discussions with technology providers and holding each one against the standard above.
On breast screening. Kwooka does not offer, and is not pursuing, thermography or thermal imaging for breast cancer detection. The Therapeutic Goods Administration has advised that thermography should not be relied on for the early detection of breast cancer, and Cancer Australia and BreastScreen Australia hold position statements to the same effect. Women should continue to use BreastScreen Australia and to see their doctor about any breast change.
On our interests. Kwooka holds commercial discussions with some medical technology suppliers, including in relation to distribution in Australia. We disclose this so that our assessment of any technology is read in that light. Our standard is published above and applies regardless of any commercial relationship, and no technology is used in community on the basis of a commercial interest.
This page describes our organisation’s activities and partnerships. It is not advice about any medical device or treatment. Speak with your doctor or your Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service.
Theory of Change
Every service is designed to create a clear chain from what we do to what changes, traceable to Closing the Gap targets.
Community Co-Design
Presence & Trust
On-Country Delivery
Connected Care
Measurable Outcomes
The People
Accountable for This
Kwooka is led by Aboriginal people, for Aboriginal communities. Cultural authority and lived experience sit at the heart of everything we do.
Michael Little
A Noongar Yamaji Nyikita man born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. A seasoned entrepreneur with a distinguished career across various industries throughout Western Australia, with a deep-rooted connection to Country and expertise in relationship-building, community engagement and Indigenous culture.
Karen Morich
An experienced Aboriginal Cultural Advisor with strong cultural authority and community connections. A member of the Cultural Advice Committee for the Whadjuk Aboriginal Corporation, committed to cultural integrity, knowledge sharing and respectful engagement between First Nations communities and organisations.
Dr Gautam Khanna
A practising general practitioner, Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Clinical Lecturer at the University of Western Australia. Dr Khanna advises Kwooka on clinical governance for our screening work — the standards any technology must meet, and the referral pathways that have to exist before screening begins.
Our directors, our governing document and our reporting are published on the ACNC Charity Register. Kwooka Health Services Ltd is a public company limited by guarantee, ABN 89 692 351 796, ACN 692 351 796, registered as a charity since 29 October 2025. Two of our three directors are Aboriginal, including our Chair and our Cultural Advisor, and cultural authority sits with them. Look us up →
Funding & Partnerships
Every grant and partnership we hold, and where each one is up to. We put this up so nobody has to guess. If you are a community deciding whether to work with us, or a funder deciding whether to back us, you can see what has money behind it and what is still only a conversation.
How to Check Us,
and How to Complain
A small charity asking communities to trust it should be easy to look up and easy to complain about. Here is how to do both.
Complaints and concerns
If something we have done is wrong, or someone from Kwooka has behaved in a way that troubles you, tell us. Phone or email a director and we will acknowledge it within five working days and tell you what we are doing about it. If you would rather not come to us, you can raise a concern directly with the ACNC.
Money and donations
Kwooka is not endorsed as a deductible gift recipient, so donations to us are not tax deductible, and we are preparing that application. We are not running a public fundraising appeal and are not licensed to collect donations from the public in Western Australia, which is why there is no donate button on this site.
Safe to work with
Nobody delivers a Kwooka session in community without a current Working with Children Check and National Police Clearance. That is our rule and it has no exceptions. We work with Elders and older people, so we treat safeguarding as part of the job rather than as paperwork.
Your privacy, and your data
We use your details only to reply to you and to keep a record of the conversation, and we do not sell or share them. Anyone taking part in our digital program is told what we record before they start, and can ask us to delete it. Learner records stay on the tablet in community and are only ever used for the reporting our funder requires — information about Aboriginal people stays governed by Aboriginal people.
Three Doors In
Community, funder or partner — we would rather have the conversation early than late. Tell us what you are dealing with and we will tell you straight whether we can help.
Bring It to Your Mob
We do not turn up anywhere we have not been asked. If your community or service wants digital skills sessions, you provide the room and we bring everything else.
- Trained mentors, Be Connected curriculum, loan devices
- Small groups over a school term, at your pace
- Run with a local Aboriginal Health Worker
- Free, and open to everyone
Back a Delivery Record
Five awarded grants, four locations, contracts accepted. We report against what we said we would do, and we publish the register above so you can check.
- ACNC registered — income tax exempt, GST concession, FBT rebate
- Not currently DGR endorsed — application in preparation
- Open to auspice arrangements where DGR is required
- Outcome reporting against CTG Targets 1, 2, 7 and 8
Work Alongside Us
We are looking for ACCHOs, remote health services and technology providers who want to extend what already works rather than build a parallel service.
- Joint delivery with ACCHOs and health services
- Technology evaluated against our published standard
- Reconciliation action plan partnerships
- Cultural advisory services
Contact Us
We answer within two business days. If it is urgent, ring — you will get a person.
Kwooka Health Services works on Whadjuk Noongar Boodja, and we acknowledge the Whadjuk people as the Traditional Owners of the land our office stands on. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of all the Countries we are invited onto — Wongatha, Ngarluma and Yawuru among them — and their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reading this. Sovereignty was never ceded.