Indigenous Health in Australia

Indigenous Health in Australia

Introduction

Australia is one of the wealthiest nations of the world. The country is facing a lot of problems related and one of those problems includes the issue of indigenous people. Indigenous people are the ones who are different ethically and who have migrated from other places and have settled in the other country. They are the inhabitants of the country were they have migrated now. This creates a lot of problems for the country because the population of the country increases and the country has to meet the demands of the increased population which is difficult. Apart from this, there are a lot of problems that the country faces due to this and which is why there are a lot of laws that have been formulated for overcoming this problem. This paper will discuss in detail the different types of indigenous people and the healthcare issues they are facing while being a part of Australia.

Discussion

Indigenous peoples in Australia Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Australian continent for at least 40,000 years. At the time of colonization which occurred in 1788 inhabited Australia about a million and half people. In June 2006, indigenous people accounted for 2.5% of the Australian population, about 520,000 people. In 1788 indigenous people were living in all areas of Australia(McCollum, 2007, pp. 32-43). Today, most of them live in regional centers (43%) or cities (32%), although some still live in their traditional territories. Despite some recent improvements, the health of indigenous Australians remains below that of the rest of the population. The rate of infant mortality in indigenous groups remains unacceptably high at 10-15%, and their life expectancy is 59 years for men and 65 for women, which means 17 years younger than the rest of the Australian population. Although Indigenous Australians require special considerations, in particular, issues related to health and education, the existing legislation on indigenous issues is minimal, reducing the protection of heritage and Native Title. This is a clear reflection of the idea of the rest of the population according to which Indigenous Australians should not get any "special treatment", a view that is the essential key to global understanding of the issues discussed in this paper. Australia has not ratified ILO Convention 169, but approved in UN convention held in 2009 regarding the rights of Indigenous people (Howart, 2010, pp.91).

Figure: Mortality Rate- Indigenous People

The indigenous people in Australia are of two types. One group is known as the Aboriginal peoples and the other is known as the Torres Strait Islanders. These two groups are different and are divided on the basis of their ethnicity and also due to the differences in their cultures (Sanders, 2002, pp. 14-19). Both the groups have different histories and different backgrounds. But the Illness and health are two internal concepts of each culture. In order to understand clear and better understanding of the distribution and prevalence of illness and health in a society, we need a comprehensive approach that combines ...