401206 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health

In my reading in the previous module, I have learned about colonization in Australia. Before the colonization, Australia was home to mainly aboriginal people. Before British colonization begins in Australia, there were 500 indigenous groups lived in this region, and the total population were 750000. They lived there for more than 60000 years. The colonization begins with Lieutenant James Cook when he arrives in Australia in 1770 and claimed authority over the east coast of Australia. Following this, in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip arrived here along with 1500 convicts, civilians, marines and crew. After this, within 10 years the indigenous population was decreased by 90% (Australianstogether.org.au, 2020).

Feeling

Before this, I did not know about this incident quite well. As a minority group, most of the time indigenous people are neglected in our community. Very few people show interest to learn about their culture and history. The first thought that comes to my mind was the struggle they have to face. This land originally belonged to them for generations and suddenly they were just abandoned from their island.

From my study what I found that the main reason for the decline in the aboriginal population was due to poor socio-economic condition (Griffiths et al., 2016). After the British come into this area, they take total control of this region and didn’t give them proper respect. Also, as new people, they bring new kinds of disease such as influenza, measles, and smallpox, which are not used to this community. Additionally, they have to face gruesome brutality in many conflicts during colonization (Australianstogether.org.au, 2020). While I was reading, I found it quite heartbreaking. I come across some pictures where a group of aboriginal people were chained in their neck. The British government does not consider them the owner of this land; while, actually they were the rightful owner of this region.

Critical evaluation

This colonization process created a large gap among the aboriginal and non-aboriginal community. To this day, these aboriginal groups are experiencing social discrimination in several sectors. The Australian government has taken several initiatives such as the "Closing the gap” activity (Braithwaite, 2017). However, in reality, these groups of people have to face many socio-economic problems. According to the survey, the prevalence of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes is high among this group. The occurrence of this disease is closely associated with poor social determinants (Couzos et al 2020). Aboriginal people have to face racism in the healthcare sectors. This racism increasing the gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal community (Kairuz et al., 2020). Also, aboriginal children have to face racism and increased bullying in the education sectors, which causing their low level of education. As evidenced by Reading, (2018), joblessness, poor diet, poor mental health, and health inequality are still very common among the aboriginal community.

While learning this topic, I thought despite the effort, why the condition of the aboriginal community is not improving. With some research, I come to know that, aboriginal people sometimes cannot establish a connection with the non-aboriginal people due to their belief and cultural gap (Goodman et al., 2017). I think only aboriginal people can better bond with other aboriginal people and can promote the condition of aboriginal communities. Hence, we need a good aboriginal leader who has a good reputation throughout the aboriginal and non-aboriginal community.

Analysis

Learning about aboriginal history greatly influenced my thought process. According to my understanding, we need to improve the education, health and job status among the aboriginal community (Couzos et al 2020). Education and health are correlated to each other. Better education can improve the health perception of an individual. It will improve the lifestyle factors of a person. Also, good education will help them to communicate with other people. Health is important as there is a significant difference between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. These health disparities stated from the colonization period which is still present nowadays. Also, creating a good job opportunity will improve their socio-economic condition.

Conclusion

Closing these gape and respecting their culture is important. One has to understand the hardship they have to face from the colonization period. A non-aboriginal person needs to help aboriginal people by providing them with additional support. Also, I think everybody should learn about colonization, as it was an integral part of Australian history.

In future, I would like to support this community by organizing campaigns. I will organize community-based intervention to promote aboriginal health as well as their education. Also, buying aboriginal items and donating to charity would be great to help them.

References

Australianstogether.org.au. (2020). Colonisation | History Of When Australia Was Colonised. Retrieved 1 May 2021, from https://australianstogether.org.au/discover/australian-history/colonisation/#colonisationref1

Braithwaite, V. (2017). Closing the gap between regulation and the community. Regulatory theory: foundations and applications, 25-42. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/31596/626829.pdf?sequence=1#page=61

Couzos, S., Smith, D., Stephens, M., Preston, R., Hendrie, D., Loller, H., ... & Biros, E. (2020). Integrating pharmacists into Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (IPAC project): Protocol for an interventional, non-randomised study to improve chronic disease outcomes. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 16(10), 1431-1441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2019.12.022

Goodman, A., Fleming, K., Markwick, N., Morrison, T., Lagimodiere, L., Kerr, T., & Society, W. A. H. R. (2017). “They treated me like crap and I know it was because I was Native”: The healthcare experiences of Aboriginal peoples living in Vancouver's inner city. Social Science & Medicine, 178, 87-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.01.053

Griffiths, K., Coleman, C., Lee, V., & Madden, R. (2016). How colonisation determines social justice and Indigenous health—a review of the literature. Journal of Population Research, 33(1), 9-30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-016-9164-1

Kairuz, C. A., Casanelia, L. M., Bennett-Brook, K., Coombes, J., & Yadav, U. N. (2020). Impact of racism and discrimination on the physical and mental health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in Australia: a protocol for a scoping review. Systematic reviews, 9(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-020-01480-w

Reading, C. (2018). Structural determinants of Aboriginal peoples’ health. Determinants of Indigenous Peoples' health: Beyond the social, 1.

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