Darwin Man Wins Medical Journal of Australia Essay Prize

The winning essay, "Fish traps — a significant part of our health and wellbeing", links the outlawing of a popular fishing method in Darwin to changes in the traditional diet of Indigenous people, which are, in turn, linked with rising rates of diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even delinquency, substance abuse and other social problems. "If we were to turn back the clock or gather data from yesterday", writes Geoffrey Angeles, "the answer or solution to many of today's chronic ailments may lie in waiting".

Geoffrey ("Jacko") Angeles is a Kungarakan man on his grandfather's side and a Gurindji on his grandmother's. He works as an Indigenous Research Officer at the Menzies School of Health Research, but is better known in Darwin and beyond for his passion for fishing and preparing "bush tucker" on the ABC program Message stick.

According to Medical Journal of Australia editors Ruth Armstrong and Martin Van Der Weyden, the inaugural running of the Dr Ross Ingram Memorial Essay competition resulted in "an impressive haul of high quality essays from students, academics, nurses, Aboriginal health workers and others from all over Australia". However, the final decision, aided by an external panel of judges, was unanimous.

The winning essay is published in the 16 May 2005 Indigenous health issue of the Medical Journal of Australia. Geoffrey Angeles will receive his prize of $5000 (donated by the Australasian Medical Publishing Company) at the Australian Medical Association's national conference in Darwin in late May. Later this year, the Journal will publish three further essays of very high merit from the competition entries.

CONTACT Geoffrey Angeles (08) 8922 8196 / 0419 684 822 preferred

Dr Ruth ARMSTRONG 0414 556 415

Judith TOKLEY, AMA Public Affairs, 0408 824 306 / 02 6270 5471