( MENAFN - The Conversation) Despite decades of policy interventions, the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is declining against defined targets . And yet, health and wellbeing continue to be measured against deficit-focused“gaps” between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians in health research and policy. Our new research, published in The Lancet challenges these approaches with Aboriginal cultural ways of knowing, being and doing.
We do so by exploring the impact of“cultural camps” on Aboriginal people's health and wellbeing. Our study shows that when Aboriginal people are facilitated by cultural knowledge holders to practise culture on Country, they feel a positive impact. The“gap” in health outcomes is often expressed in life expectancy.
Aboriginal women's and men's lives are 8.1 and 8.8 years shorter than those of non-Aboriginal women and men.
When it comes to social and emotional wellbeing, suicide is the primary way disparity is measured nationally. Suicide rates are highest among Aboriginal men, at 2.6 times that of non-Aboriginal men.
For Aboriginal women, the suicide rate is 2.5 times that of non-Aboriginal women. Assessing individual health outcomes against non-Aboriginal counterparts inadvertently positions Aboriginal people as deficient.
These figures also neglect Aboriginal ways of understanding health. In Aboriginal knowledges, the health of people, family, Mob, culture and Country are symbiotic, and involve spiritual, emot.
