Our Dawn Whitten and her daughter Cerri are participating in the 2026 Takayna run, an annual fundraiser event organised by the Bob Brown Foundation raising funds and awareness to protect Takayna.

Whatever you pay for this webinar, the full amount will be donated to the Bob Brown Foundation and will go towards the campaign to protect Takayna, a place of cultural and conservation significance and one of the Earths’ few remaining wild places that needs our help to protect it from logging and mining.

Maternal dietary exclusion practices seem to have gained new momentum, perhaps fuelled by the rise of social media support groups. When working with these families, several areas of focus are of import, including ensuring good medical workup, assessing red flags, breastfeeding, psychological and practical support, and unpacking the story of the potential food sensitivity. Often there is an opportunity to encourage broadening of the diet by exploring the infant presentation in the context of the normal infant physiology and behaviour, as well as considering that some infants will have mild reactivity presentations on the way to becoming tolerant. Further, new insights into the time taken for food proteins to enter and leave breastmilk can help to discourage lengthy exclusions.

If you haven’t heard of Takayna (the Tarkine), it’s one of Australia’s last great wild places — a landscape of crisp clean rivers, rugged coastline, and the nation’s largest temperate old-growth rainforest. This ancient ecosystem is a stronghold for biodiversity, providing refuge for threatened species such as the Tasmanian Masked Owl, Spotted-tailed Quoll, and the Giant Freshwater Crayfish. It also plays a vital role in regulating our climate and maintaining clean air and water.

Takayna holds deep cultural and spiritual significance for the First Nations people of Lutruwita/Tasmania. Yet despite its ecological and cultural importance — and its clear eligibility for World Heritage protection — this irreplaceable wilderness remains under threat from destructive industries. Takayna needs our voices and our care.

(Photo by Seeboundy)

Dawn has worked in the area of functional and naturopathic medicine in perinatal and early life health for over twenty years. She is a clinician, researcher, educator and clinical mentor in this area. She is trained as a Naturopath and a Lactation Consultant and brings these two fields together .

Dawn’s work in this area includes peer reviewed publications and textbook contributions. She authored the Breastfeeding chapter in the seminal text Advanced Clinical Naturopathic Medicine (2020) and co-wrote the Infancy Chapter in this same text. She has taught in academic institutions since 2004 and co-created the Post Graduate Evidence-Based Natural Medicine program at the University of Tasmania.