The Gaawaadhi Gadudha logo artwork is by Laurance Magick Dennis. It represents the meeting of fresh (Yuwaalaraay and Gamilaraay) and salt (Yuin-Djirringanj) water. The horseshoe-like shapes are people sitting around a fire. The oval image at the centre is a coolamon (traditional carrying vessel). The dots around the image are ancestors looking on.

While we use the word ‘Aboriginal’ to explain the terminology of ‘the health gap’ in current research and policy, we would like to acknowledge it as a colonised term. We advocate for shifting to the use of cultural group names as identifiers. Where this is not possible, we use ‘Indigenous’.

Research

From a deficit-based approach to cultural connections

Historical injustices affect health today
Indigenous people’s physical, mental and spiritual health and wellbeing has always been shaped by relationships with culture and Country. However, systematic efforts to erase Indigenous peoples and cultures in Australia have deeply disrupted connection to Country. This has hindered the continuity of cultural knowledges and practices. These historical genocides, Stolen Generations and and the enforced adoption of Western ways of life have health impacts today.

Re-centring culture in health
Our research aims to re-frame the dominant and deficit-based approach to Indigenous peoples’ health. We do this by exploring how cultural health, facilitated by Knowledge Holders, is associated with Indigenous peoples’ health and wellbeing. We would ultimately like to see cultural health embedded in Australia’s health and social systems and policies.

Moving beyond the health ‘gap’
Growing evidence shows that culture is positively associated with health and social and emotional wellbeing. Yet, research and policy in Indigenous health tend to focus on deficit-based frameworks which compare disease outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.