Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health

Indigenous Australians and Health assists the reader, through simple and practical strategies, to appreciate and understand the importance of 'Getting it right', when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in urban and remote areas.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are more likely to have poorer health than other Australians. Indigenous people are more exposed to health risks such as smoking, poor nutrition, alcohol abuse, overcrowded housing and violence. Whilst there have been some improvements in the health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, more needs to be done to 'close the gap' between the health status of Indigenous Australians and that of non-Indigenous Australians.

Goldenberg is a white, middle-aged doctor, worked as a relieving doctor for Aboriginal communities in remote places. On these visits he observed and recorded Aboriginal Australians lives. He writes: 'Aboriginal Australians are not at peace. They are variously unwell, underfed, overfed, afflicted excessively by our lifestyle diseases, confused by our drugs and drink, endowed with income but not with work, living in sickening poverty in paradisaical places; and distracted from their serious cultural business by the trappings of our serious cultural emptiness."