The document discusses several key points about Indigenous Australian culture and history: 1) Indigenous Australians had a deep connection to the land and understood it as their place of belonging rather than ownership, which shaped their laws, behaviors, and way of life. 2) This connection to the land created a holistic system of health, well-being, and ongoing teaching of knowledge through ceremonies and rituals. 3) The wisdom and practices of Indigenous Australians were not understood by colonizers and their universities continue to be ignored today.

2. 2
Source: www.yolngu.net
Relationships Australia (SA)

3. Spirit of the Land
• Having a sense of Place, belonging to the Land,
not owning it, reading, listening and interpreting
the stars, the moon, the sun, the animals and the
wind, hearing and feeling what was around and
how to sense the changes to the Landscape and
all that belongs to it. This sense of belonging
created a connection which fundamentally
shaped Aboriginal Law: our behaviors, our
relationships, our practices, and our way of Life.
3Relationships Australia (SA)

4. Learning Practices
• This deep sense of knowing and belonging
created a Holistic system of Health and Well-
Being, for the generations of Aboriginal people
who were at one with the Land and were
Custodians of the Rituals and Ceremonies, which
was the means for this ongoing teaching of this
knowledge and wisdom.
• These practices were regularly performed, as
they are an important reminder of our Ethical
obligations and duty of care.
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5. 5
Towns
Massacre Sites
(<100 people killed)
Significant Massacre Sites
(> 100 people killed)
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6. Epidemics,
severe mortality
Higher birth rates but
elevated mortality
Immigration
Immigration, declining
mortality
Immigration, declining
mortality, higher birth rate
6
Scarlet fever in 1875–76 &
Asiatic flu in 1890
Sources: ABS, Smith, L.R.; 1980, Butlin; 1983)
Relationships Australia (SA)

7. 7
Indigenous women are more likely than non-Indigenous women to be unemployed, to have carer
responsibilities for children other than their own (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, 2004). And
they are also more likely to be a victim of violence and to live in communities where violence is prevalent.
HEALTH STATUS
In 2004-05, 39% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women aged 18 years and over reported their
health as excellent or very good and 26% reported their health as fair or poor. This compared with 41%
and 21% respectively for Indigenous men (Thomson, 2006).
After adjusting for the differences in age structure between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous
populations, Indigenous women were twice as likely as non-Indigenous women to report fair/poor
health.
LONG-TERM HEALTH CONDITIONS
In 2004-05, 85% of Indigenous women aged 18 years and over reported at least one long-term health
condition, compared with 77% of Indigenous men (Thomson, 2006). The prevalence of multiple conditions was
also higher among Indigenous women, with 68% reporting two or more long-term conditions compared with
58% of Indigenous men.
The most common types of health conditions reported by Indigenous women in 2004-05 were eye/sight
problems (54%), back pain/symptoms (23%), heart/circulatory diseases (23%) and asthma (22%).
After adjusting for age differences between the two populations, Indigenous women were more
than 10 times as likely as non-Indigenous women to have kidney disease; more than four times as
likely to have diabetes/high sugar levels; and nearly twice as likely to have asthma.
Sources: ABS 2009
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8. The Indigenous population faces a 17 year life expectancy gap; action is
required across a wide range of social issues
Indigenous
All Australians
Source: ABS 4704.0, The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples 2005; ABS, Census Tables; Productivity Commission, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage
2007 "Strategic areas for action“, ref. Australia 2020 Summit, the future of Indigenous Australia; 2008
Early childhood
development and
growth
Economic
participation and
development
Effective
environmental
health systems
Functional and
resilient families
and communities
Substance
use and
misuse
Positive childhood
and transition
to adulthood
Early school
engagement and
performance
Life
expectancy
64.8
59.4
82.0
76.6
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Men Women
Life expectancy at birth1 (years)
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9. Indicators of disadvantage are severe across all Indigenous populations
Indigenous
Non-indigenous
1. Age standardised 2. Based on the Canadian National Occupancy Standard for housing appropriateness
Source: Productivity Commission, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage 2007, ref. Australia 2020 Summit, the future of Indigenous Australia; 2008
400
303
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Non-
Indigenous
Aboriginal Torres Strait
Islander
Median individual income - people aged
18 or over: 2004-05 ($/week)
-42%
-23%
48
45
19
32
16
1111
12
0
10
20
30
40
50
QLD WA SA NT
Intentional self-harm (suicide) deaths
per 100,000 population1: 2001-05 (number)
27
63
31
26
1415
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Proportion of Indigenous population living
in overcrowded households2: 2004-05 (%)
TotalMajor
cities
Very
remote
RemoteOuter
regional
Inner
regional
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10. Education outcomes in particular differ significantly between Indigenous
and non-Indigenous students
Source: ABS 4713.0, Population Characteristics, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Australians (2008), ref. Australia 2020 Summit, the future of Indigenous Australia; 2008
Non-indigenous
Indigenous
0
20
40
60
80
100
15 years old
Australian secondary school
attendance by age: 2006 (%)
16 years old 17 years old
73
49
0
20
40
60
80
100
Indigenous Non-Indigenous
Secondary school retention rates
between ages 15 and 17: 2006 (%)
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11. Disadvantage carries into Indigenous peoples' working lives
1. Includes 23,200 Indigenous people aged 15-24 years (25.2%) who were still at school and 689,400 non-indigenous people aged 15-24 years (26.2%) who were still at school
Source: Productivity Commission, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage (2007), ref. Australia 2020 Summit, the future of Indigenous Australia; 2008
Non-Indigenous
Indigenous
707071
50
53
46
0
20
40
60
80
Proportion of population with no post-school qualification –
people aged 15 to 24 years1: 2004-05 (%)
Male Female All Persons
33
27
66
55
31
23
22
40
48
26
16
12
0
20
40
60
80
Total 15
to 64
Long term unemployment –
people aged 15 to 64 years: 2004-05 (%)
Age (years)
35-44 45-54 55-6415-24 25-34
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12. Ancient Universities Destroyed
• The wisdom of the Old people, the lessons
learnt from the ancestors and the teaching
from the Land were not comprehensible to
the invaders.
• And today, the ancient Aboriginal Universities
continue to be trodden on, unacknowledged
and not valued.
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13. Collective Trauma
• Research tells us that collective trauma affects
not only personal lives but also communal
structures. The very fabric of community life is
undermined; the ability to find place and
meaning is eroded. There is enormous loss of all
that sustains a sense of belonging. What has
been called an ‘existential confusion’ occurs,
where basic assumptions about previous moral
and ethical ‘givens’ are questioned. The
community’s ability to heal itself is hugely
compromised.
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14. Denial of Participation
• Judith Raftery (2006) argues that public policy
for Aboriginal people in South Australia has
not only disadvantaged Aboriginal people, but
it has demarcated Aboriginal people firmly as
the “Other”- as “Not even part of the Public”.
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15. Spirit of Well-Being
• The problems of Aboriginal Health and
dis-ease in western terms are framed as
economic, physical or social. Aboriginal
Health needs to be understood as
holistic, which embraces the Spirit,
connection to country and participating
in the Practices of Law and Duty of Care.
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16. Health Making
• The time and the space for these teachings
and practices have to be allowed into the
process of Health - Making. Aboriginal people
need to be allowed to make their
contemporary relationships with the
ancestors and the Lands. We need to be
allowed to attend our Ancient Universities.
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17. Learning Blackfulla Way
• Time to genuinely learn about Aboriginal
Culture that starts with the acknowledgement
and recognition of the devastation
perpetrated, requires conscious learning and
listening, and action.
• Doing it “whitefella” way has not worked,
doing it “blackfulla” way needs to be given
more space and time.
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18. The Spirit of the Land
• The spirit of the Land needs to flow through our
working partnership and the implementation of
the work. This spirit needs to replace the
arrogance of conquest and domination; to
replace the centering of western experts and the
sense of white fellas being a superior civilisation
that must ‘educate’ us.
• No amount of strategic plans, key performance
indicators or white fella training can connect us
to this spirit of place.
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19. • To the Ancestors and the Land, I honor you
and walk in silence with respect.
• Thank you for listening
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