Between 2018 and 2023, researchers, service providers and remote Kimberley communities collaborated to conduct the SToP Trial, a large stepped-wedge cluster randomised controlled trial of a holistic package of ‘See’, ‘Treat’ and ‘Prevent’ skin health activities to decrease Strep A impetigo. Guided by The Kids Research Institute Standards for the Conduct of Aboriginal Health Research and overarching principles of Indigenous data sovereignty (IDS) and reciprocity, we aimed to include communities at every stage, including prioritising co-interpretation of trial outcomes with participating communities for the first time in remote Australian research history.
Over 11 community sessions, more than 90 community members and remote service providers came together to discuss and reflect on community-specific and trial-wide results prior to sharing these with service providers and the broader scientific community. These iterative sessions were cofacilitated where possible by local community members and supported by a graphic recorder who captured conversations in real-time, creating a visual resource in the form of unique, community-specific books describing the quantitative and qualitative project results. With no previously established processes for IDS in the communication of clinical trial results, we aimed to create and prioritise space for the inclusion of community perspectives. In this context, we have incorporated our understanding of Aboriginal culture, developed through two-way learning throughout the course of the project, to pilot a visual and verbal method for bringing community member perspectives to the forefront of trial outcomes. Experiences in doing so will be shared with the audience to strengthen Strep A research globally.