Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander refers to persons of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent, who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and are accepted as such by the community in which they live. There are three key factors to be mindful of when exploring concepts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing: the wide-ranging impact of European colonisation; the influence of geographical and cultural dimensions on individuals and communities; and the barriers, historical and current, to obtaining a comprehensive picture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing. 1. Historical Background Any consideration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health must be set within the …show more content…
framework of Australian history. Estimates of the population of Australia prior to European colonisation vary but there may There were many different I Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups and hundreds of languages. However, the population declined rapidly after colonisation and by the 1920s there were only around 60,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. European colonisation had wide reaching effects:have been over one million Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander inhabitants. • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were forced off their traditional lands, away from their active hunter-gatherer lifestyle. • Some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups resisted the seizure of their lands, resulting in violence. • Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died from infectious diseases brought into the country by Europeans. • Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were moved to missions or reserves, where they were forbidden to speak their own language or maintain their cultural practices. • Laws were enacted, limiting the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, segregating them from other Australians and giving them little or no self-determination. • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were forcibly removed from their families and communities, to be raised in institutions or by foster families of European background. • Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people suffered physical or sexual abuse in institutions, or lived in servitude or poverty as labourers and domestic workers. • Many lost their language and cultural identity as they were expected to adopt European dress, language, religion, lifestyle and cultural values. • Many were prevented from having any contact with their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family, even by letter - some later tried to reunite with their families, with mixed results.
2. The current social, political and economic issues affecting Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. At the 2001 Census, there were an estimated 458,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in Australia, comprising 2.4% of the total Australian population. It is estimated that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population will grow to more than 550,000 people by 2011 (Hunter, 2003). In 2001, over half of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population resided in just two states: New South Wales and Queensland. The Northern Territory had the highest proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as a percentage of its total population, at 29%. The majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (69%) lived outside the major urban centres, with one in four Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders living in remote areas. 80% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people speak only English at home while 12% report speaking an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander language at home (HREOC,
2004). Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders live in situations of socio-economic disadvantage, including homelessness, poverty or unemployment. Such settings are associated with higher levels of poor nutrition, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and lack of physical activity (Thomson et al., 2004). These factors contribute significantly to the incidence and severity of physical and mental illnesses in individuals and the community. 3. The way in which Western or mainstream systems and structures can be perceived by and can impact on Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people and their engagement with services. European colonisation, family disruption, cultural displacement and discrimination contributed to a high incidence of poverty, unemployment, homelessness and poor health in Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today continue to experience discrimination and social disadvantage
Indigenous Australian’s health has been a focal point and topic of interest for many members of the government and policy markers. The reasoning for why this topic has been of popular interest for the government and policy makers is due to the startling and atrocious lack of health that Indigenous Australian’s suffer. Indigenous Australian’s are disadvantaged in the Australian healthcare system and have the poorest health out of all Australians. “Between 2004 and 2008, 66% of Indigenous deaths occurred before the age of 65 compared with 20% of non-Indigenous deaths.” (Red Dust, p.1) Indigenous Australian’s experience this major disadvantage and neglect in the Australian society due to the poor health care system and policies that haven’t been able to solve the issue. This essay will explore the significant and negative impact on the Indigenous communities and how policy decisions have impacted and continue to impact the Indigenous communities. This essay will also outline why there have been significant policy shifts over time, the current issues in delivering services to Indigenous Australian’s and why these issues have emerged.
...rial covered in the unit Aboriginal People that I have been studying at the University of Notre Dame Fremantle, Aboriginal people have had a long history of being subjected to dispossession and discriminatory acts that has been keep quite for too long. By standing together we are far more likely to achieve long lasting positive outcomes and a better future for all Australians.
This essay will discuss the Aboriginal Education policies in Victoria and Federally and how these policies impacted upon the children of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. This essay will further analyse the impact these past policies had on the Aboriginal and Torres strait Islanders’ families and children’s education and how current policies were put in place to assist indigenous students’ access to education. Further to this an analysis of how teachers can implement these changes in the curriculum and classroom.
There are significant health disparities that exist between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians. Being an Indigenous Australian means the person is and identifies as an Indigenous Australian, acknowledges their Indigenous heritage and is accepted as such in the community they live in (Daly, Speedy, & Jackson, 2010). Compared with Non-Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people die at much younger ages, have more disability and experience a reduced quality of life because of ill health. This difference in health status is why Indigenous Australians health is often described as “Third World health in a First World nation” (Carson, Dunbar, Chenhall, & Bailie, 2007, p.xxi). Aboriginal health care in the present and future should encompass a holistic approach which includes social, emotional, spiritual and cultural wellbeing in order to be culturally suitable to improve Indigenous Health. There are three dimensions of health- physical, social and mental- that all interrelate to determine an individual’s overall health. If one of these dimensions is compromised, it affects how the other two dimensions function, and overall affects an individual’s health status. The social determinants of health are conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age which includes education, economics, social gradient, stress, early life, social inclusion, employment, transport, food, and social supports (Gruis, 2014). The social determinants that are specifically negatively impacting on Indigenous Australians health include poverty, social class, racism, education, employment, country/land and housing (Isaacs, 2014). If these social determinants inequalities are remedied, Indigenous Australians will have the same opportunities as Non-Ind...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have some of the worst health outcomes in comparison to any other indigenous community in the world (AIHW, 2011). According to United Nations official Anand Grover, Aboriginal health conditions are even worse than some Third World countries (Arup & Sharp, 2009), which is astonishing, considering Australia is one of the worlds wealthiest countries. Thoroughly identifying the causes and analysing every aspect behind poor health of indigenous Australians, and Australian health in general, is near impossible due to the complexity and abundant layers of this issue. Even within the category of social determinants, it is hard to distinguish just one factor, due to so many which interrelate and correspond with each other. The aim of this essay is to firstly identify and analyse components of the social determinants of health that impact the wellbeing of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, and demonstrate how they overlap with each other. By analysing the inequalities in health of Aboriginal and non-indigenous Australians, positive health interventions will then be addressed. Racism and the consequences it has on Indigenous health and wellbeing will be discussed, followed by an analysis of how and why social class and status is considered a determining factor when studying the health of the Aboriginal population. The issue relating ...
... To provide Indigenous people with adequate health care, emphasis needs to be placed on understanding indigenous beliefs and the social detriments Indigenous communities are faced with. Applying a suitable model of health to each individual situation will provide the best outcome. This was evident in the case study discussed in the essay. Rodney’s experiences within the medical world ended with a positive and desirable result, but if the appropriate transcultural care was not given, that positive result would have created a negative outcome, which could have been detrimental to Rodney’s future health.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have faced disadvantages in various areas, particularly housing. The disadvantages these people face now are the result of policies introduced by the European settlers, then the government. The policies introduced were protection, assimilation, integration and self-determination. It is hard to understand the housing disadvantages faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people if their history is not known.
Poor living conditions are a major health determinant throughout the indigenous population. Most Indigenous Australians are known to live in rural parts of Australia which are commonly not close to major cities and services. People living in these areas generally have poorer health than others living in the cities and other parts of Australia. These individuals do not have as much access to health services and good quality housing. In 2006 roughly 14% of indigenous households in Australia were overcrowded unlike 5% of other households (AIHW, 2009a). Overcrowded and poor quality houses are commonly associated with poor physical and mental health between the people living in them. The indigenous are n...
The education of Aboriginal people is a challenge that has been a concern for many years and is still an issue. However, it remains the best way young people can climb out of poverty. With the colonialization and the oppression of Aboriginals, there have been many lasting side effects that continue to be affecting the Aboriginal youth today. “While retention and graduation rates have improved among urban Aboriginal population, an educational gap still remains between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth in urban settings” (Donovan, 127). Many suffer from a diminished self-worth, as they do not feel valued and feel inferior to their classmates. In this essay I am going to outline the reasons Aboriginals are struggling, discuss what is being done
Ever since the foundations of modern Australia were laid; there has been a disparity between the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and rest of the Australian community (Australian human rights commission, n.d.). This essay will discuss how this gap can be traced back to the discriminatory policies enacted by governments towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’s throughout history. Their existing impacts will be examined by considering the social determinants of health. These are the contemporary psycho-social factors which indirectly influence health (Kingsley, Aldous, Townsend, Phillips & Henderson-Wilson, 2009). It will be evaluated how the historic maltreatment of Aboriginal people leads to their existing predicament concerning health.
Thank you for taking time to read my letter. As a nursing student of University of Technology Sydney, I studied contemporary indigenous subject this semester. In this letter I want to illustrate 3 main social determinants of health that impact indigenous Australian health which I found and analysed during my recently study. And also offer some suggestion that could help the government improve aboriginal Australian mental health conditions in the future.
Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.
From 2001-2005, deaths of Indigenous infants represented 6.4% of the total Indigenous male deaths and 5.7% of the total Indigenous female deaths. While only 0.9% and 0.8% for the total non-Indigenous deaths. (A statistical overview of Aboriginal peoples in Australia, < http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/statistics/index.html>)
Racism and social disadvantage being the by-products of Australian colonisation have become reality for Aboriginal people from the early beginnings as well as being prevalent to this day. There exists a complex and strong association between racism and Aboriginal poor health, assisting in the undermining of the emotional and social wellbeing of this Indigenous group. Racism has an adverse and insidious effect upon the psychological and physical health of the Aboriginal people, as it gnaws away on the mental state of the individual, having detrimental consequence upon the standard of acceptable health in today 's modern society. The effects of this discrimination become the catalyst towards the undermining of one 's self esteem which leads to detrimental stress levels, self-negativity and having the potential
Immigration is an important feature of Australian society. Since 1945, over six million people from 200 countries have come to Australia as new settlers. Migrants have made a major contribution to shaping modern Australia. People born overseas make up almost one quarter of the total population. About its ethics distribution, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people totaled 410 003 at the last census, nearly 2.2 per cent of the population. Two thirds of the indigenous people live in towns and cities. Many others live in rural and remote areas, and some still have a broadly traditional way of life.(Ning)