September 14-16, 2014, Alice Springs, NT, Australia
The inaugural World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Viral Hepatitis was held back‐to‐back with the 9th Australasian Viral Hepatitis Conference in September 2014.
The conference was the first of its kind dedicated to examining the health burden of viral hepatitis in Indigenous peoples. It provided a forum to share common experiences and innovative solutions and to develop new relationships to enable collective responses into the future.
The program reflected the breadth of work underway in this area, spanning human rights, development, community engagement, basic science research, clinical service provision, healthcare delivery and public health and prevention. The involvement of Indigenous peoples in all aspects of the project was key to its success.
The outcome of the conference was the adoption of the Awernekenhe Consensus Statement which aims to promote greater visibility, action, knowledge and accountability by nation-states in recognising viral hepatitis as a major chronic disease in Indigenous peoples, within an Indigenous and human rights framework.