AmandaJones

As health professionals, we need to look beyond the individual attributes of Aboriginal Australians to gain a better understanding and possible explanation of why there are high rates of health problems such as alcoholism, Depression, abuse, a shorter life expectancy and a higher prevalence of diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and obesity in our indigenous population. With respect to the individual aspects and the biomedical health model, we do not have the context of Aboriginal health. That is why we need to explore in more detail what events may have created such inequalities in Aboriginal health. Other details that we should consider are historical and cultural factors such as terra nullius, dispossession and social Darwinism, the first attempts at genocide against Indigenous Australians, segregation and "protection" legislation, politics Assimilation, self-determination and the emergence of the indigenous manifestation (Psychology and Indigenous Australians, Foundations of Cultural Competence, 2009, p.84) as well as the limiting factors of being part of a small status group Socioeconomic and health statistical differences between Indigenous Australians and non-Aboriginal Australians Compared to other indigenous and non-indigenous populations. By embracing all these details, we can begin to identify why Aboriginal people tend to have more health problems and what can be done to improve these health inequalities.