THE MAMBO MOVEMENT
A Nation of Diversity—But Not Yet of Equal Health Outcomes
Australia’s healthcare system is world-class in innovation and clinical excellence—but it is not yet equitable.
With over 51% of Australians born overseas or with a parent born overseas, we are one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse nations in the world. Yet our healthcare system still operates from models that were never designed to reflect this reality.
We are at a tipping point.
While health systems face rising complexity, burnout, and resource strain, multicultural communities continue to experience entrenched disparities in access, treatment, and outcomes. These inequities are not random—they are systemic, deeply rooted in how care is designed, delivered, and measured.
Three Critical Challenges We Can No Longer Ignore:
🔹 Outdated, one-size-fits-all care models: Health systems still rely on standardised, Eurocentric frameworks that ignore cultural and linguistic diversity. The result? Misdiagnoses, delayed interventions, and disengagement—especially in general practice, cancer care, chronic illness, and mental health.
🔹 Invisibility in data, planning, and funding: When data doesn’t reflect race, gender, visa status, or social conditions, multicultural communities are left out of policy and funding decisions. What we don’t see—we don’t solve.
🔹 Cultural safety is not standard practice: Language barriers, stigma, and bias still compromise care quality. For many, navigating healthcare means navigating harm—and too often, it means walking away.
The Mambo Movement: A New Model for Equity in Breast Cancer Care
Nowhere are the cracks in the system more visible—or more devastating—than in breast cancer care for Women of Colour (WOC).
WOC—including Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and multiracial women—face lower screening rates, later diagnoses, more aggressive cancers, and poorer survival outcomes. These inequities are compounded by racism, visa insecurity, language barriers, financial strain, and a lack of culturally safe care.
This is not just a data issue—it’s a human issue. And it’s why The Mambo Movement was born.
Founded by Lilian Musyawa Kikuvi, who personally experienced breast cancer, The Mambo Movement is a purpose-led initiative committed to ending breast cancer disparities for Women of Colour (WOC).
Grounded in lived experience, shaped by intersectionality, and guided by the Kenyan principle of Harambee—pulling together to achieve a shared goal—we centre the voices of those most impacted and lead with the belief: “Not without us, but with us.”
FIVE STRATEGIC PILLARS
We operate across five strategic pillars to create real, measurable change:
Early Detection & Health Literacy
Inclusive Care & System Reform
Workplace & Structural Equity
Representation in Research & Data
Community Voice & Collective Healing
OUR OFFERINGS
1.Keynote: Transforming Pain to Purpose
We are living through a global reckoning—where rapid change, deep fatigue, and personal disruption have become the norm. But this pace of change carries a cost: identity confusion, burnout, leadership disorientation, and a growing sense of helplessness. The gap between performance and purpose is widening. In this climate, grounded resilience, clarity, and self-leadership are no longer optional—they are essential.
Lilian Musyawa Kikuvi meets this moment with lived wisdom and transformational insight. Drawing from her breast cancer journey and deep expertise in leadership, workplace culture, and health equity, she introduces the MAMBO Framework™—a soul-rooted, system-aware model grounded in storytelling, ancestral knowledge, and evidence-based practice. It offers a pathway to transform pain into purpose, fear into clarity, uncertainty into agency, and isolation into meaningful connection.
Ideal for: Leaders, change agents, health professionals, HR teams, and anyone at a crossroads—this is a call to evolve with purpose, resilience, and collective strength.
2. Workshop: Intersectional Healthcare in Action: Moving Upstream to Eliminate Inequities
Australia’s healthcare system is globally renowned for its clinical excellence—but it is not yet equitable. With over half the population born overseas or to migrant parents, we can no longer rely on care models that weren’t built for our cultural and linguistic diversity.
Outdated frameworks, missing data, and lack of cultural safety are not just gaps—they are life-altering failures. The result: delayed diagnoses, poorer outcomes, and broken trust. These are not isolated issues—they are systemic and embedded in healthcare.
This session uses breast cancer care as a powerful case study to show how structural inequities show up—and how to address them. Participants will gain practical tools to embed intersectionality, cultural responsiveness, and collective action into healthcare design, delivery, and policy.
Ideal for: Healthcare professionals and interdisciplinary teams—including GPs, specialists, and allied health providers—as well as government departments, policy leaders, service commissioners, insurers, return-to-work planners, public health researchers, academics, and community health leaders committed to driving systemic, culturally responsive change
3. Healing Circle: Reclaiming Our Breast Health Journey
This is a space for Women of Colour (WOC). A space to speak truth, to be witnessed, and to rise—together.
Led by Lilian Musyawa Kikuvi, breast cancer survivor and founder of the Mambo Movement, in collaboration with a leading healthcare provider, this session invites WOC into a culturally safe and courageous circle of healing, truth-telling, and transformation.
Together, we will centre the realities of breast cancer through our own lens—not statistics, not systems, but lived experience. We will honour the pain, the strength, the silence, the survival—and reclaim our power to shape the care we deserve.
Ideal for: Women of Colour navigating breast cancer, survivors, carers, and those concerned about their breast health—this is a space to listen, speak, and be held in community.
4. Cultural Capability & Inclusion Training
Delivered in collaboration with the Becoming Better Together Collective (BBTC), this transformative training program equips leaders and teams with the tools to embed equity into everyday practice. Grounded in First Nations, Kenyan, and Queer cultural frameworks, it goes beyond awareness to build practical skills in cultural capability, inclusive leadership, and systemic accountability. The training strengthens team cohesion, deepens cultural literacy, and supports the creation of safer, more responsive environments for both staff and service users—laying the foundation for lasting, organisation-wide change.
Ideal for: Board Directors and Executives, Senior and Middle Managers, People & Culture and HR Teams, DEI Councils, Committees, and Working Groups, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and Change Champions, Emerging and Future Leaders, including Graduates and High-Potential Talent and Frontline Staff and Team Leads
5. Strategic Service: Embedding Cultural Responsiveness and Equity into Systems, Policies, and Workforce Practices
This strategic service helps organisations embed cultural responsiveness and equity into their systems, policies, and workforce practices—transforming intent into sustainable, organisation-wide change.
Leveraging lived experience (internal and external), systems thinking, and collective action, it moves organisations beyond siloed diversity efforts to a unified, measurable, and impactful inclusion strategy. Designed for health-focused organisations, the service strengthens access and outcomes for multicultural communities, optimises workforce diversity, and embeds equity into the heart of organisational culture.
At the core of this service is an evidence-based, co-designed action plan, developed through meaningful consultation with staff, communities, and sector leaders. The action plan aligns with national health priorities and organisational values, and is supported by a tailored strategic roadmap that ensures delivery is phased, achievable, and outcome driven.
Implementation follows the proven five-phase framework:
Discover – Gather insights through data, lived experience, and stakeholder consultation
Diagnose – Identify systemic barriers and inequities using intersectional and root cause analysis
Design – Co-create strategic responses and culturally responsive interventions with those most affected
Deliver – Implement solutions with clear governance, KPIs, and workforce capability building
Drive – Embed continuous improvement, community feedback loops, and long-term accountability
This comprehensive service provides the blueprint, partnerships, and tools needed to deliver lasting equity—across workforce, policy, and patient care.
The Mambo movement includes all women—cisgender, transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming—who have faced oppression. "WOC" encompasses non-white women from historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups, including Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, Pacific Islander, and Middle Eastern women.
Are you ready to shift the dial in the healthcare system? Contact the Mambo Movement to move beyond good intentions and lead real, systemic change—centred on cultural safety, lived experience, and community impact. Together, let’s create a healthcare system where no one is left behind.