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Condom -- No Way! 1990 Aboriginal HIV/AIDS poster - click for larger version
(260kb) | | What
can I do?
Australians
for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) is running the Healing
Hands Indigenous Health Rights Campaign
Sign the
Indigenous Health Rights Statement, and email
or post to ANTaR (instructions on statement). You can also download a PDF
version.Distribute the Statement to your friends and networks.Find
out more about the issues and ways in which you can help by requesting an Indigenous
Health Campaign Kit or by downloading the resources from
this website.Contact your state
and federal politicians and urge them to make the Indigenous health crisis
a priority. A comprehensive National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Health was endorsed by all Australian Governments in July last
year. These same Governments need to be urged to implement their strategy.Download
the Indigenous Health Rights
Statement (PDF, 31K). | | How
bad is it? Overall, Australians enjoy amongst the highest standards
of health and life expectancy in the world, but compared with other Australians,
Indigenous people have: life expectancy is 20 years less;infant mortality
rate is about twice as high;a median age at death of 53 years, 25 years
less than for the population as a whole;in some regions the median age
at death was 47 years.Life expectancy for Indigenous Australians is worse than
in many developing countries. Indigenous children are hospitalised more often
and suffer from high rates of respiratory, eye and intestinal infections - 8%
to over 50% The World Health Organization regards a rate of 4% as a massive
public health problemIn later life Aboriginal people are hospitalised
at about twice the rate of non-Indigenous people. Compared with the population
as a whole: the rate of rheumatic heart disease is 6-8 times higher;rates
of diseases of the circulatory system are about three times higher; respiratory
disease is four times more common. | In
current prices, average health expenditures per person rose by nearly 15% from
1998-99 to 2000-2001 and the growth in 2001-2002 would have approximated 6% at
least. But it occurred mainly in private hospital use, expensive PBS drugs and
high level aged care, the three categories of service which Indigenous people
use least. Australian Medical
Association
Expenditures on Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Health (PDF, 1.5mb) | Health There
is a hidden health emergency in Australia that demands our immediate attention.
Indigenous people now have a life expectancy more than twenty years less
than other Australians, and Indigenous infants are dying at the same rate as babies
in some of the most impoverished developing countries. "Twenty years
is just short of the standard measure of a generation. It represents a tragic
loss and a waste, for Indigenous people and for Australia as a whole." Gary
Banks, Chairman, Productivity Commission, November 2003 This situation affects
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people everywhere in Australia. It is not
confined just to remote communities. Nor is it simply a medical issue
- it relates to the underlying causes of ill health nutrition, employment,
housing, public and environmental health, and the lack of affordable food for
remote Australians. Statement by The
Fred Hollows Foundation The
following thoroughly researched and accessible briefing papers from The Fred Hollows
Foundation provide accurate, relevant information on the current status of Indigenous
health and its underlying causes: Clippings:
- Aborigines watch their hopes betrayed again
June 15, 2004 - New York Times - Black Australian lives, men's especially,
are generally 20 years shorter than white ones. The death last month
of Djerrkura, the great Aboriginal leader from the Northern Territory,
conformed to these statistics. He died early, at age 54. Through three
turbulent years in the mid-1990s, Djerrkura was chairman of the embattled
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. His fight for self-determination
and full participation in the Australian government endures among the
Aborigines. And he was not long gone before they had to begin their
battle anew.
- Western Australian Aboriginal
Child Health Survey
3 June 2004 - Eniar website users may be interested to know about
the first volume of findings from the Western Australian Aboriginal
Child Health Survey released today. This study is the most extensive
survey of Aboriginal families ever undertaken. After five years in the
planning and two years in the field, the findings will be released in
five volumes over the next 18 months. The volumes cover health, social
and emotional wellbeing, education, family and community and Justice.
- Indigenous doctors urged to take on leadership
role
1 June 2004 - Medical News Today (UK) - Aboriginal leader
Lowitja O'Donoghue has told an international health conference in far
north Queensland that Indigenous Australians are at a dangerous point
in history.
- Every day is a sorry day for indigenous health:
Australian Medical Association
26 May 2004 - Medical News Today (UK) - AMA (Australian Medical
Association) President, Dr Bill Glasson, said the AMA today acknowledges
the plight of many Indigenous Australians and the impact that past events
have had on the health and wellbeing of many Aborigines and Torres Strait
Islanders.
- Aboriginal health needs $300m: AMA
May 26, 2004 - The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has used the
annual Sorry Day to renew its call for increased indigenous funding.
The AMA is calling for an injection of an extra $300 million into Aboriginal
health, with the government having committed just $10 million a year
over four years in this year's budget.
- UN Forum: Indigenous Women Need Rights, Health
Care
May 11, 2004 - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Native women die earlier,
have more children and are more frequently attacked by the men in and
out of their community, according to delegates attending a U.N. forum
on indigenous people.
- UN to hear Aboriginal plight
28 April 2004 - Aboriginal health workers will tell the world just how
bad indigenous health services are in Australia at a meeting with the
United Nations next month. The chairman of the National Aboriginal Community
Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) Tony McCartney said the group
would raise its concerns about indigenous health during a major presentation
to a UN sub-committee in May.
- Study: Australian Aborigines die younger
than other indigenous populations
April 27, 2004 - Associated Press - Australian Aborigines are dying
much younger than indigenous people in the United States, Canada and
New Zealand, a study by Canada's University of Western Ontario revealed
Tuesday.
- Mainstreaming still unworkable
17 April 2004 - EDITORIAL - Even with special focused services -
such as Aboriginal medical services - designed to deal with some of
the practical consequences of the gap in such consumption, net per capita
assistance from government falls well below Australian averages, even
the averages of comfortable middle- class areas such as, say, John Howard's
own Sydney seat of Benelong.
- Suffer The Children
April 14, 2004 - Muriel Cadd couldn't believe it had happened again.
As head of Victoria's only Aboriginal child protection agency,
she was used to bad news. But when she got a telephone call last October
alerting her that another two-year-old boy, Daniel Thomas, was missing,
suspected murdered, she was devastated. Ten months earlier, she had
taken a similar call when Mildura toddler Joedan Andrews vanished from
a settlement just over the Victorian border in NSW.
- Institutional racism in Australian healthcare:
a plea for decency
5 April 2004 - The way forward that we propose is recognising and addressing
institutional racism. This would provide a framework for improving Aboriginal
health. We believe, however, that acceptance of the need to address
such racism can only come about through building a more compassionate
and decent society.
- Indigenous health 'below third world standards'
March 30, 2004 - Key health standards for indigenous Australians were
below those of poor countries such as Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nepal,
the Fred Hollows Foundation said today. The medical aid group said Aboriginal
health standards were not improving and, in some areas, declining, despite
years of national prosperity.
- Information briefings about 'Indigenous
Health in Australia'
30 March 2004 - The Fred Hollows Foundation - There is a hidden health
emergency in Australia that demands our immediate attention. Indigenous
people now have a life expectancy more than twenty years less than other
Australians, and Indigenous infants are dying at the same rate as babies
in some of the most impoverished developing countries.
- An 'intolerable' sickness
February 21, 2004 - A new indigenous health initiative might have been
more appropriately launched this week in Redfern than at Government
House but the Governor, Marie Bashir, pointed out that Aborigines were
among the healthiest people in the world when the first governor stepped
ashore down the hill.
- Amanda Vanstone: The political quick
fix is not the solution to Aboriginal problems
February 20, 2004 - The problems facing indigenous Australia are many
and varied. And they are very long term. They did not happen overnight
and they will not be solved quickly. There is no magic wand. I don't
say that to thwart the hopes of indigenous Australians who want improvements
and want them soon. Nor do I say it as an excuse for turning a blind
eye to current events.
- Indigenous good governance begins with communities
and institutions
October 13, 2003 - Communities that make a conscious decision to go
back to the beginning and explore where their institutions are out of
sync with their cultures - not only traditional culture but the day-to-day
culture of how the community actually operates - are the ones that prosper
over the long term.
- Greater fairness needed in opening up Indigenous
medical knowledge
15 July 2003 - In part, Aboriginal reluctance to share traditional knowledge
is a reaction to the wider injustices they have been subject to and
to their desire to retain cultural identity. Critics, however, say moves
to lock up useful knowledge denies it to those who are suffering.
- Indigenous Health - the Growing Crisis
July 2003 - ANTaR NSW - Champion swimmer and former Young Australian
of the Year, Ian Thorpe, has joined the growing ranks of prominent people
and health experts pleading for attention to the crisis in Indigenous
health. Thorpe recently returned from a visit to remote communities
in the Northern Territory, and said he was shocked by the living conditions
and poor health of his fellow Australians.
- Darren Godwell - Give white patronising
heave-ho
27 June 2003 - Indigenous affairs are killing my people. Women and children
are copping the brunt of it. Kids are killing themselves because of
sexual abuse and because they see little hope for a better future. Yet
black men and women struggle to get real help to confront their demons.
And the best John Howard's Government can offer is to hand out more
welfare payments.
- Aboriginal Politics Hits Crisis in Australia
18 June 2003 - Reuters - A crisis in Australia's key indigenous group
is spilling over into other areas of black politics, hampering Aborigines
from tackling horrifying rates of disease, abuse and neglect, a new
report said on Wednesday.
- Professor Mick Dodson -11 June 2003
11 June 2003 - Professor Mick Dodson Address to the National Press Club
on Violence Dysfunction Aboriginality.
- We can cut black death rate: expert
26 March 2003 - The death rate among indigenous Australians could be
cut by as much as 30 per cent in 10 years with an adequate level of
investment in health services, ANU Professor Ian Ring said yesterday.
- Aboriginal treatment is racism: Professor
Stanley
22 March 2003 - The appalling health and living conditions endured by
many indigenous Australians was a denial of their human rights, says
Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley
- There are plenty of medical problems,
but only one real crisis
20 March 2003 - Fixing the disgraceful state of indigenous health
conditions would benefit us all in the long-term, writes Professor Jim
Hyde.
- Public Report Card 2003 - Aboriginal & Torres
Strait Islander Health Time for Action
6 March, 2003 - Australian Medical Association - One Year after
the release of the AMA's first report card on Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander health not much has changed. The 2003 AMA Report Card
presents new information about the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people.
- Fears for health of Aborigine children
26 December, 2002 - BBC - Doctors in Australia's rugged Northern Territory
say the number of malnourished Aboriginal children is rising sharply.
Figures released by the Royal Darwin Hospital show a 25% increase in
those diagnosed with malnutrition and diarrhoea in the past three years.
- Aboriginal health ills still bleak
December 9 2002 - There was little or no improvement in Aboriginals'
health between 1990 and 2000, according to a report in today's Medical
Journal of Australia. The Australian Medical Association study found
that death rates for Aboriginals were three times higher than the rest
of the population.
- Death by Neglect
11 November 2002 - A decade after a royal commission to stop Aboriginal
deaths in custody, Edward Russell's story is proof not enough has changed.
Edward Russell lies in a grave without a headstone. A rough wooden cross
and framed photograph suggest an unremarkable life and death.
- A New Deal? Indigenous development and
the politics of recovery
October 4 2002 - Dr Charles Perkins Memorial Oration. Delivered
By Marcia Langton.
The crisis of underdevelopment that catches up each new generation of
Aboriginal people is a global phenomenon that constantly transforms
itself along with those it sweeps up, and is not one that is easily
amenable to pulling the economic levers. Aboriginal people
are enjoined with hundreds of millions of people around the world in
their poverty, hunger and short life spans.
- Aboriginal welfare still complicated
August 9, 2002 - ATSIC money is not supposed to be the prime provider
of basic services ... but, because all too often other levels of government
are not fulfilling their responsibilities, ATSIC has to pay the bill
and then face accusations of ineffective use of the money.
- Aboriginal abuse inquiry tabled
August 1, 2002 A landmark report into child sex abuse in Aboriginal
communities was handed to West Australian Premier Geoff Gallop yesterday
after a six-month inquiry.
- 500 more doctors and 650 more nurses needed
June 25 2002 - Australia needs another 500 doctors and 650 nurses to
tackle the woeful ill-health among indigenous people, according to a
draft report to the federal Department of Health.
- While ideologues bicker, indigenous Australians
die
May 24, 2002 -In 1996, the Howard Government came to power trumpeting
its commitment to free speech, especially in the area of indigenous
affairs. Last week, Aboriginal social justice commissioner William Jonas
accused it of seeking to "shut down debate" about reconciliation.
- Aboriginal health 'scandalous'
24 May 2002 - BBC - A new report by the main doctors' group in Australia
says the country has failed to improve the health of its 400,000 Aborigines
and Torres Strait Islanders.
- Finding the future: three approaches to the
problems in Aboriginal communities
15 May, 2002 - By Hal Wootten, former Royal Commissioner into Aboriginal
Deaths in Custody. It is not for us or our governments to pre-empt the
myriad choices that open to Aboriginals as they seek their futures,
whether as individuals or as members of communities. There are enough
constraints imposed by the real world, where choices are always limited
by scarce resources, by the rights and interests of others, by law,
by the needs of ones family, by the trade-offs in every decision
that is made.
- Lack of education 'deadly'
April 29, 2002 - Poor education rather than crime and poverty is killing
Aborigines. A new report has found higher education places taken by
Aborigines are disappearing at a rate of 3000 a year.
- Self-determination: distraction or solution?
April 2, 2002 - Is the push for self-determination a distraction from
the real needs of indigenous communities? Can independence provide improved
quality of life for indigenous Australians?
- Black communities in a mess, warns Aboriginal
minister
March 8, 2002 - It is almost impossible to find a functional Aboriginal
community in the Northern Territory, the first indigenous minister to
serve in the Territory's Parliament said yesterday.
- Aborigine deaths linked to poverty
12 December 2001 - Scotsman - Australian Aborigines are dying 25 years
younger than white Australians and about 15 years before indigenous
people in New Zealand and the United States, according to the findings
of a recent study.
- Secret abuse shame of Aboriginals women
22 April 2001 -Independent (UK) - "They tell us that it's
none of our business, it's their cultural way," said one white
domestic violence counsellor. "But the elders have told me that
these things were never part of their culture. We have to get rid of
the romantic view of the Aboriginal way of life, because they don't
believe it themselves. It's just white do-gooders being politically
correct."
- Money that's black and white and spent all
over
March 16, 2001 - The dollars may appear black, but there are
plenty of "grey" areas. Not all native title dollars are being
used to Aboriginal advantage. They are being used to help those opposing
native title claims. They are being used to help other landholders and
the nation deal with the fallout of a High Court decision - the landmark
Mabo finding in 1992 that native title exists.
- Black Australia: a picture of despair, rage
and violence
February 16, 2001 - Aboriginal people are 45 times more likely than
other Australians to be victims of domestic violence, while their risk
of being murdered is eight times greater, the most comprehensive research
into indigenous community violence reveals.
- UN reports finds Australian aborigines disadvantaged
September 1, 2000 - BBC - A United Nations report says that Australia's
Aboriginal people continue to be disadvantaged in employment, housing,
health and education.
- Australia's treatment of Aborigines 'appalling'
September 2000 -Survival International (UK) - As athletes and spectators
arrive in Sydney from all over the world, Survival today condemned Australia's
treatment of Aborigines as 'appalling'.
- UN censures treatment of aborigines
July 31, 2000 - Guardian Unlimited - Australia has come under renewed
fire from the United Nations for the way it treats its Aboriginal population.
- Australia attacked over Aborigine treatment,
The UN says Australia must redress years of injustice
July 21, 2000 - BBC - Australia has come under attack for its treatment
of Aborigines at a UN Human Rights Committee. The committee, which is
due to publish its official recommendations next week, expressed concern
at the marginalisation and discrimination of Aborigines in Australian
society.
- Aborigines suffer social deprivation
March 2, 1999 - The Telegraph (UK) - In the Gibson Desert an Aborigine
tribe is restoring its pride at a time when other groups of Australia's
indigenous people are suffering vast social disadvantage.
External
sites:
- ANTaR
Healing Hands Indigenous Health Rights Campaign
- Australian
Indigenous Health InfoNet
- Indigenous
drug and alcohol database
- Australian
Indigenous HealthInfoNet
Contributing to improving the health of Australia's Indigenous people
by making relevant, high quality information easily accessible.
- Aboriginal
Health Au
Clinical articles, health links, and a mailing list.
- The Indigenous
Online Network
Has several databases that are regularly updated with information and
resources of interest and use to Indigenous people in the higher education
sector and to people interested in Indigenous issues. Includes: Announcements,
Current News and Events; Employment and Research Opportunities; Scholarships;
Educational Resources; Contacts; Conferences, and; Discussion Groups.
- National Aboriginal
Community Controlled Health Organisation
The National Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO)
is the peak Aboriginal health body in Australia. It has a membership
of 120 Aboriginal community-controlled health services throughout Australia,
which operate in urban, rural and remote areas. Aboriginal communities
around Australia have been establishing such services since the 1970s
in response to a range of barriers inhibiting Aboriginal access to mainstream
primary health care services, and as an expression of self-determination.
- Kimberley Aboriginal
Medical Services Council
A health resource body for a group of independent Aboriginal community
controlled health services.
- WA
Aboriginal Disability Network
- Apunipima Cape
York Health Council
- Culture
Training Manual for Medical Workers in Aboriginal Communities,
Medicine Au
- Danila Dilba
Health Service
- Derbarl
Yerrigan Health Service
- Nunkuwarrin Yunti
- Port Lincoln Aboriginal
Health Service
- Wirringa
Baiya
- Danila Dilba
Health Service
Aiming to provide culturally appropriate primary health care services
of the highest quality to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples of the greater Darwin area.
- Kalgoorlie Bega Garnbirringu
Health Service, Western Australia
Providing a range of medical and social health services including general
health, health promotion, sexual health program, health worker training
courses and sobering up services.
- Young Nunga
Health
Information about health issues that effect young Nungas (Aboriginal
youth) living in Murray Bridge.
- Indigenous
Health Cultural Exchange Group
A network of Indigenous health and medical degree students.
- Australian Indigenous
Doctors Association
- Mt Theo - Yuendumu
Substance Misuse
- Congress
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses
Recommendations to develop strategies for the recruitment and retention
of Indigenous peoples in nursing.
-
First National Indigenous Male Health Convention
- Yooroang
Garang
School of Indigenous Health Studies, University of Sydney, facilitating
improvements in indigenous health and well being through innovation
and excellence in teaching and research.
- Indigenous
Psychological Services
- Australian
Government Directory - Indigenous Organisations Central
Australian Aboriginal Congress
- Katherine West Regional
Health Board
- Aboriginal Medical
Services Alliance N.T.
- The Aboriginal
and Islander Community Health Service Brisbane
- Kalwun Health
Service (QLD)
- Queensland Aboriginal
Islander Health Forum
- Walgett Aboriginal
Medical Service Co-Op
- Darah Gibinj
Aboriginal Medical Service (NSW)
- The Ord Valley
Aboriginal Health Service
- Aboriginal Health
Council of SA
- Cooperative Research
Centre for Aboriginal and Tropical Health
Provide a cross cultural framework for strategic research into Aboriginal
and tropical health. Publications, research projects, and education
and training programs described.
- Curtin Centre
for Developmental Health
- Royal Australian
College of General Practitioners
Indigenous
Health Education and Resources Guide
- Australian Medical
Association (AMA)
AMA, Public Report Card 2003 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Health:
Time for Action
- Doctors' Reform Society
of Australia
- Indigenous
Health Cultural Exchange Group
- The Fred Hollows
Foundation
- ABC Western Australia - Health and Reconciliation: Ted Wilkes and
Fiona Stanley - The Institute of Child Health is carrying out a survey
of Aboriginal children and adolescents to improve our understanding
of what they need to develop in healthy ways. Professor Fiona Stanley
and Ted Wilkes talk about the importance of reconciliation in relation
to health. And we even get to hear Ted sing! Audio
in RealMedia format
- Indigenous
Health Program,
University of Queensland (UQ)
- Working with Indigenous
Peoples with Disability,
Centre for Remote Health
-
Eye Health in A&TSI Communities
Ophthalmology, University of Melbourne
- Kokotinna
Flinders University
- Office
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
Federal Government
-
A&TSI Health in Queensland,
HealthInfoNet
-
A&TSI Health Special Interest Group,
Public Health Association (PHA)
-
A&TSI Nutrition,
Student Dietitian WWW Gateway
-
Aboriginal Health,
NT Health
- Koori
Health in Victoria
Department of Human Services, Victoria
- Koori
Health Research & Community Development Unit
VicHealth
- Victorian
Aboriginal Health Service
- Regional
Aboriginal Health Team, SA
- Violence
in Indigenous communities
Indigenous Australians are by far over represented as both victims and
perpetrators in all forms of violent crime in Australia. The cost of
this to their communities is horrific. Addressing such violence is not
quickly nor easily solved. This report summarises past research and
consultations on issues relating to the prevention and reduction of
violence in Indigenous communities. Promising approaches, and basic
principles for effective intervention, are identified.
Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Women's Taskforce on Violence Report
(PDF)
Moving
On: Thinking about violence on Aboriginal communities - NACCHO
- National
Indigenous Family Violence Grants Programme
- Putting
the picture together (PDF)
Inquiry into response by Government agencies to Complaints of Family
Violence and Child Abuse in Aboriginal Communities, Department of Premier
and Cabinet (Western Australia), 2002
- Aboriginal
health: why is reconciliation necessary?
- Black
Search for Meaning: Aboriginal Suicide
- Hospital
statistics relating to Indigenous people, Occasional Paper, 1997-98
- Self-assessed
health status of Indigenous Australians, Occasional Paper, 1994.
- The
Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Peoples
R W Edwards & Richard Madden, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001
- Indigenous
mothers and their babies - health statistics, 1994-96
National Perinatal Statistics Unit, Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare, 1999
- National
Indigenous Gay & Transgender Consultation Report and Sexual Health
Strategy
- Anwernekenhe
Reports
Reports from the Indigenous Gay men and Sistergirl conferences
- HIV/AIDS
and Us Mob
Information resource for Indigenous people living with HIV.
- Investigating
indicators for measuring the health and social impact of sport and recreation
programs in Indigenous communities (PDF 1.7Mb)
Research commissioned by the ASC to help improve services offered under
the Indigenous Sports Program by state and territory governments and
mainstream sporting organisations has been released in a report prepared
by the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal and Tropical Health.
- Measuring aboriginal well-being
in four countries (Word document)
An application of the UNDPs human development index to aboriginal
people in Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia
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