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Talking about the 'r' word: a right to a health system that is free of racism.

dc.contributor.authorParter C.
dc.contributor.authorMurray D.
dc.contributor.authorMohamed J.
dc.contributor.authorRambaldini B.
dc.contributor.authorCalma T.
dc.contributor.authorWilson S.
dc.contributor.authorHartz D.
dc.contributor.authorGwynn J.
dc.contributor.authorSkinner J.
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-19T05:30:31Z
dc.date.available2024-11-19T05:30:31Z
dc.date.copyright2021
dc.date.issued2021-04-10en
dc.description.abstractAustralia's local, state, territory and federal governments have agreed that the 10-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians will be closed by 2031. However, annual Closing the Gap reports tabled by the various prime ministers in the Australian Parliament (for the past 12 years) have consistently indicated that the life expectancy gap continues to widen. Australia has seen more than three decades of government policies since the landmark 1989 National Aboriginal health strategy. What has been missing from these policy commitments is the genuine enactment of the knowledges that are held by Indigenous Australians relating to their cultural ways of being, knowing and doing. Privileging Indigenous knowledges, cultures and voices must be front and centre in developing, designing and implementing policies and programs. The sharing of power, provision of resources, culturally informed reflective policy making, and program design are critical elements. In this paper, we provide a conceptual model of practice, working at the cultural interface where knowledges are valued and innovations can occur. This model of practice is where knowledges and cultures can co-exist, and it could be the answer to Closing the Gap in life expectancy by 2031. Despite a growing willingness and need to consider these models, there remains a deep-seated resistance to identifying and addressing institutional and systemic racism and racist attitudes, including unconscious biases held by individuals. Further, western non-Indigenous worldviews of ways of being, knowing and doing continue to dominate the decisions and actions of governments - and consequentially dominate public health policies and practices. There is an unacceptable standard approach, for and about Indigenous health instead of with Indigenous peoples, resulting in the neglectful dismissal of Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous cultures of ways of being, knowing and doing. Copyright © 2021 Sax Institute. All rights reserved.
dc.identifier.citationPublic Health Research & Practice. Vol.31(1), 2021.
dc.identifier.doihttps://dx.doi.org/10.17061/PHRP3112102
dc.identifier.institution(Parter, Rambaldini, Calma, Gwynn, Skinner) Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
dc.identifier.institution(Murray) Indigenous Allied Health Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia
dc.identifier.institution(Mohamed) Lowitja Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
dc.identifier.institution(Wilson) Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia
dc.identifier.institution(Hartz) Molly Wardaguga Research Centre, College of Nursing and Midwifery, Charles Darwin University, NT, Australia
dc.identifier.institution(Gwynn) Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
dc.identifier.urihttps://lowitja.intersearch.com.au/handle/1/795
dc.relation.ispartofPublic Health Research & Practice
dc.subject.keywordsSocial determinants of health
dc.titleTalking about the 'r' word: a right to a health system that is free of racism.
dc.typeArticle

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