Associate Professor Lisa Whop (Gumulgal, Wagadagam) says her Mob deserves better.

“I want my family and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to live long, healthy lives,” she says.

Her work advocating for better health supports Australia’s target to be one of the first countries to eliminate cervical cancer. While this is an exciting goal, Whop says this vision won’t be realised for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for many years after other Australians, with the disease currently affecting Indigenous women at more than twice the rate of the overall population.

“We still see disproportionate rates of cervical cancer for Mob, despite having organised screening programs and vaccinations for the human papillomavirus – a common infection that causes almost all cases of cervical cancer. So this obviously tells me that something's not working,” she says.

Whop explains that 70% of people who contract the disease have never been screened for cervical cancer or human papillomavirus (HPV), or haven’t been screened in the previous ten years leading up to diagnosis. This is often due to limited access to screening, feeling uncomfortable with the screening test, i.e. a speculum examination.

Whop is determined to change this.

Currently leading the Cervical Cancer Elimination program at Yardhura Walani, the National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Research at the Australian National University, Whop and her team have worked extensively with Indigenous women to assess the acceptability of self-collection for HPV screening, and with communities to provide locally tailored evidence and strategies. They hope that a do-it-yourself test for HPV will increase screening rates for Indigenous women.

Since the universal introduction of self-collection, approximately 43% of all cervical screens undertaken are using this self-testing method, with higher uptake in remote and very remote areas.

This research, implementation, and evaluation by Whop and her team have informed national policy and practice around self-collection for HPV testing as part of national cervical screening program.

Now Whop has been celebrated for these efforts by the Lowitja Institute with their prestigious Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Researcher Leadership Award 2025.

“We don’t do this work for the awards, but it is humbling to be recognised by your peers and colleagues, and in particular by Mob. The recognition by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is probably what means the most to me,” says Whop.

Professor Tom Calma AO is an Elder from the Kungarakan people and member of the Iwaidja people and social justice campaigner, and wholeheartedly supports Whop receiving this award.

“Lisa is an uncompromising advocate for Indigenous health justice, self-determination, and research excellence. She has shaped policy, built capacity, and transformed Indigenous-led research in ways that will have lasting generational impacts,” he says.

However it’s not just her research impact that makes Whop’s work so meaningful. Her guidance to the next generation of researchers is also hugely important.

“Lisa is also a visionary leader and mentor. As Associate Director of Research at Yardhura Walani… she has been central to developing the next generation of Indigenous researchers. She has directly mentored over 20 early-to-mid career Indigenous researchers, and under her leadership, the research team at Yardhura Walani has quadrupled in size,” says Calma.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Lisa Whop for receiving this nationally recognised award.