With her new University of Western Australia Honorary Doctorate under her wing, Annette Stokes AM is flying back to WA’s Goldfields with a new research goal in her sights.
The senior Wongutha, Mulba-Ngadu and Anagu woman is a chief investigator for the Heavy Metal Tooth Fairy Project, an Australian-first study identifying childhood exposure to heavy metals in regional and remote communities.
The project builds on Annette’s work for the Western Desert Kidney Health Project with her sister-in-law and paediatrician, Dr Christine Jeffries-Stokes PhD, which investigated the causes of diabetes and kidney disease across 10 remote communities.
Image: Annette Stokes practising blood sugar testing with daughter Ada in Kalgoorlie.
Now dubbed the “Heavy Metal Tooth Fairies,” Annette, Christine and their fellow UWA researchers will gather evidence next year of heavy metal exposure in children in remote areas using geochemical analysis of deciduous (baby) teeth.
The team will also lead an interactive school-based program to support the collection of baby teeth from 125 Perth children and 125 children from remote Wiluna to the Central Desert, which it hopes will highlight the inequities and health implications of exposure to environmental contaminants.
Annette says community members will be invited to discuss their results with UWA scientists and will be taught on site how to easily test and purify their water, and to look after their teeth.
“We want to empower Aboriginal communities with the skills and tools to assess their own drinking water qualities so they can advocate for improvements,” Annette explains.
Image: The Heavy Metal Tooth Fairies. From left, Dr Christine Jeffries-Stokes, Dr Annette Stokes, Dr Sarah Bourke, and Prof Yulia Shiikha at UWA Perth.
It is well established that people in rural and remote areas of Australia have poorer health outcomes and shorter life expectancy than their urban counterparts [1-3]. There is growing evidence that elevated solute concentrations in groundwater-derived drinking water can generate toxic exposures and adverse health outcomes [4-9].
Most remote towns and communities in WA rely on groundwater that can be naturally elevated in solutes at concentrations above drinking water safety guidelines (for example heavy metals) [10,11]. Knowledge of the cumulative exposure to environmental contaminants in remote Australia over the life course, particularly in childhood, is limited.
Annette has spent more than three decades working to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal women and children, including establishing one of Australia’s earliest Aboriginal Play Groups in Laverton in 1997, and working with the Ngunytju Tjitji Pirni Aboriginal Corporation in Kalgoorlie as a qualified Maternal and Child Health worker.
Later, she decided to work full-time in medical research while assisting Dr Deborah Lehmann with an otitis media (middle ear infection) research project and has since worked with research luminaries including Professor Fiona Stanley and Professor Jan Payne.
“There has often been conflict between the Aboriginal way of doing things and the university way of doing things, but we have found a way through and achieved great things together,” Annette says.
“We have made great changes because of our research. I am grateful for the support of my family and for the faith that Aboriginal people have put in me that has made our research possible.”
Image: Dr Annette Stokes at her UWA honorary doctorate ceremony 2024.
Taking researchers, doctors and medical students out on Country for cultural education and giving them a first-hand experience of working with Aboriginal people, has been very rewarding for Annette and those she has inspired.
The respected artist and musician has also shared her culture and research findings with diverse audiences around Australia, as well as in the UK, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands.
The Heavy Metal Tooth Fairies are seeking more public and private sector investment in their research and are grateful for the existing support of the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation, the Tzu Chi Foundation, and the Rural Clinical School of WA.
For further information, contact [email protected]