Updated during the 2025 NIKTT Gathering on Kaurna Yarta, Adelaide, 18-20 February 2025.​

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Delegates, as listed below, attending the 2025 NIKTT Gathering support the continued strategic efforts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, in partnership with advocates, to advance Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights to optimal health and wellbeing through equitable and accessible kidney transplantation. ​

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The delegation, as listed below, endorses the following recommendations to improve care before and after kidney transplantation:

• Establishment of a peak body that leads national efforts to improve care, develops resources, advocates for change, shares knowledge, and monitors research and service delivery;

• Ongoing support and career development opportunities for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kidney health workforce, including nurses, doctors, allied health professionals, patient navigators, transplantation coordinators, Aboriginal liaison officers, and Aboriginal health practitioners;​

• The implementation and expansion of wrap-around support services, including support groups and patient reference groups;

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience healthcare free of racism, through ongoing cultural awareness, training, safety, and accountability;​

• Relevant education and sharing resources created that are designed by and delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people;​

• Transparency of information in an understandable and accessible way, supporting family decision making for live kidney donation and transplantation;

• Young peoples’ kidney health and wellbeing prioritised and improved through transplantation, in the next phase of strategic transplantation equity work;​​

• Identify and address the unmet needs of carers, adult patients, children and young adults, and elders navigating transplant access and care

The delegation endorses the rights of self-determination and leadership by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are best positioned to understand the needs of their own communities.​

The delegates find it crucial that improving kidney failure outcomes through transplantation and partnering effectively with existing health services. Delegates also support the safety and rights of all workers, ensuring the right to work without oppression and racism (overt and convert), as a key foundation of successful partnerships.

Delegates understand that kidney health, including care during kidney replacement therapy (like transplantation), is just one part of overall kidney care and healthcare. It must be supported by a range of services that focus on health and wellbeing as a whole. To improve health outcomes, individual efforts require their own funding and governance, led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership. We acknowledge that without appropriate resources, others may struggle to partner in this work. The NIKTT has learned, through equity and access projects, that improving transplantation equity requires additional funding that isn’t covered by current service procedures.​​​

The delegation, as listed below, therefore endorses the following actions for the next phase of the work to improve transplantation equity:

1. Establishing a body to represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living with kidney disease and transplantation, which will oversee and support networks, resources, reporting, monitoring, and accountability;​

2. Ongoing development of programs to facilitate better access to transplantation with a focus on improving the health of people with CKD so they can be waitlisted;​

3. Monitoring, recording, and reporting (e.g. through an annual score-card) on improvements in workforce, program delivery, and transplant waitlisting and achieved transplantation;

4. Working with workforce partners to grow an experienced, culturally safe, and resourced Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander regional workforce across all levels of prevention, transplant access and post-transplant care​ in Community-controlled health services;

5. Promoting transparency and accountability of funding of kidney health services so that we can know how decisions are made, by whom, and what has been achieved;​

6. Continuing to host Gathering Meetings that raise awareness and facilitate capabilities of national networks

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This Position Statement is endorsed by: