Some targets seem easier to meet than others, while some are just plain unreliable. Here are four things we’ve learnt from the last decade of Closing the Gap policy.
Parent uplifting ceremony at Squamish Nation’s Totem Hall.
(Nadia Beyzaei)
A design team at Emily Carr University worked with families from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation to support the development of healthy environments for children.
A history of dispossession and transgenerational trauma underlie the day-to-day struggles of Indigenous people.
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A diagnosis of mental illness is only one in a number of risk factors for suicide. And for Indigenous Australians, a history of dispossession and disempowerment plays a much bigger role.
Morningstar Mercredi, pictured on November 16, 2018, woke up from a surgery at 14 and discovered her developing baby was gone. What remained was an incision from her panty line to her belly button, cut without her permission.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Recent revelations of the coerced sterilization of Indigenous women in Canada are part of a long, complex and disturbing history – in which feminism became a fight to keep one’s own children.
People with disability living in remote communities may receive money for supports, but that doesn’t mean there’s anywhere to purchase them.
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The NDIS has good intentions, but its design doesn’t seem to support the unique needs of Indigenous people living with a disability, particularly if they’re living in remote communities.
The NT government introduced trial restrictions on the availability of alcohol in Alice Springs in 2002.
CameliaTWU/Flickr
Traditional Aboriginal healers are recognised as having special facilities for healing in childhood and are encouraged to develop their skills. They are often taught by their grandparents.
A house at Little Paradise on Groote Eylandt, East Arnhem Land.
Kieran Wong
To deliver better housing for health, we must go back to what we know works, to the proven evidence-based solutions for design, construction, delivery and maintenance.
It isn’t helpful to jump to conclusions about child sexual abuse.
Raj Rabidas/Shutterstock
James Ward, South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute; Belinda Hengel, South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute, and John Boffa, Curtin University
Young people in remote Aboriginal communities have high rates of STIs for a number of reasons, including inconsistent condom use and poor access to health services.
A remote community in the Cape York region of Queensland.
Decent housing underpins the Closing the Gap goals, with a decade-long national remote housing program having made measurable progress. If the Commonwealth pulls out now, hard-won gains could be lost.
If youths with brain impairment had been identified and supported early, their entry into the justice system could have been avoided entirely.
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New research assessing young people in WA detention found 89% were severely impaired in at least one area of brain function. One in three had fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
While death rates from heart and kidney disease have dropped among Indigenous people, death rates from cancer are on the rise.
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Politicians make sweeping statements on how to close the gap. But here’s advice from people working directly with Indigenous communities who have evidence for what actually works.
Members of the James Bay Cree gather around the fire as part of a week-long celebration called ‘wellness week,’ aimed at improving personal health and wellness in their community in northern Québec.
(David DyckFehderau)
Like many Indigenous groups around the world, the James Bay Cree of northern Québec have a disproportionately high rate of diabetes. They’re facing it down with a decidedly Indigenous solution.
Impetigo happens when itching causes the skin to break and let in disease-causing bacteria.
from shutterstock.com
While school sores – or impetigo – is a treatable condition, if left untreated it can lead to much more serious illness such as kidney and heart disease.
Indigenous schoolchildren dance during a launch of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan in Brisbane.
AAP
The latest census data reveals valuable insights into Closing the Gap targets. While there’s some improvement in school attendance rates, all other indicators suggest a radical rethink is required.
An infection prevention and control professional wipes her gloves with a bleach wipe during an ebola virus training in Ottawa.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang)
Infectious diseases pose a continual threat to Canadians. Ensuring the population stays healthy requires increasing investment in our public health system.
“Looking for one girl to share a master room with another 3 girls.”
Screenshot from Gumtree ad, August 19 2017, 11:58
City living costs are driving people to organise themselves to share a room with strangers. These precarious living arrangements hardly qualify as a home.
Outcomes for first peoples in Australia lag behind the non-Indigenous population.
AAP/Dan Peled
Much has been written about success of Indigenous players at elite levels of the game. But perhaps the more important story is one of Indigenous participation in grass roots and community football.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne