Close+The+Gap,+A+Campaign+200+Years+Late

Name: Ferhat Puris Student Number: n8451541 Tutor: Michelle Newcomb

= Cultural Artefact =



= Present Your Artefact = The cultural artifact is in relation to the “Close the Gap” campaign initiated by various Australian health and human rights organizations, such as Australian Human Rights Commission. It is a poster to promote the national close the gap day and help spread the awareness of the poorer health status that various indigenous communities face. Every year, since 2006, close the gap campaign has held a national day to get people involved to actively fight for a smaller, and eventually, non-existent health and equality gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. While there is a national day to recognize the issue, the campaign is a constant “event”, continuously trying to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous people.

= Name the Public Health Issue Central to Your Analysis =

The public health issue that is being addressed in this wiki is primarily focused on the health status of indigenous Australian and how it compares to that of non-indigenous people. The wiki will endeavor to show that the health differences between indigenous and non-indigenous people is extremely large, and despite improvements to the situation over the past 30 years, there is still room for major improvement (Booth & Carroll, 2005). Some people take the approach that good health is an individual agenda and everyone is responsible for their own health, but as will be explored, when someone has no resources to help them selves, then there is not much they can do.

= Literature Review =

In today’s society, there is constant talk of Australia being a nation with significantly better health outcomes than many other nations. While it is true that Australia performs better than other nations in multiple regions of health and most of the population is represent in the third highest life expectancy (OECD, 2008), there is one small group that is marginalized and their health outcomes sometime neglected.

The indigenous population of Australia is approximately 670 000, or 3% of the total 23 million (Creative Spirits, 2013). It is therefore easy to see why their poorer health is not properly represented within the global statistics. From a statistical point of view, they are outliers and therefore not truly significant in the results. With this in mind however, it raises the question why does such a small percentage of people have such worse health statistics and why enough isn’t being done to prevent these outcomes.

There is sufficient evidence to show the poor health status of indigenous people. There have been various studies by institutions such Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to collect data and compare the health of indigenous to non-indigenous people. Many major aspects of the health of indigenous people are worse than non-indigenous people with the primary concern being their life expectancy. In 2007 the difference in life expectancy was 11.5 and 9.7 years less for indigenous males and females, respectively (ABS, 2010). The life expectancy at birth for non-indigenous males was 79.3 years and for females was 83.5. This means that aboriginals lived on average 70.8 years, which is in comparison with 3rd world nations such as Indonesia (OECD, 2008). To understand why aboriginals live a significantly shorter life, some life style choices must be explored.

Smoking, overweight and physical inactivity has been identified as the top 3 burdens on indigenous health (Vos T, Barker B, Stanley L, Lopez AD, 2007). Alcohol does not affect indigenous health as significantly as the 3 stated life-style risk factors, but is still comparatively high against non-indigenous people.

http://www.uq.edu.au/bodce/docs/6MB-Indigenous-BoD-Report.pdf As stated smoking is a major life-style risk factor. In 2008 45% of indigenous people aged over 15 smoke cigarettes on a regular basis and they are also 2.2 times more likely to smoke than non-indigenous people. This, compared to the 20% of general population Australians that smoke is 2.25 times higher which is a significant difference (Creative Spirits, 2013). This means that nearly half of the entire 670 000 indigenous people chronically smoke.

While weight is a major issue facing indigenous people, it is also a major problem facing the non-indigenous population too. In terms of overweight populations, there are more overweight non-indigenous people compared to indigenous populations. When it comes to obesity however, indigenous people have a significantly higher index of an obese population (ABS, 2008).

Obesity does not occur by it self. It has various risk factors associated with it and the main ones are diet, lack of exercise and substance abuse (including tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking and illicit drug use).

Physical inactivity within the general aboriginal population is generally very high. In 2004-05, 72.2% of indigenous males who were overweight and/or obese were considered to be either sedentary or have low levels of exercise. Women in the same category comprised 82.2 percent of the population (ABS, 2010). This is a massive amount of a population that does not do sufficient exercise and is a major contributor to the weight issue (Better Health Channel, 2013).

Alcohol is another large contributor to both the weight issue and general poor health. As explained, the situation is not as bad as portrayed by the media but is still of concern. In 2008 17% of the indigenous populations over 15 years drank risky/high risk levels of alcohol on a chronic basis, while 37% of the population undertook in “binge drinking” within the 2 weeks prior to the data collection. Both of these groups had lower self reported health status (ABS, 2010)

There are various reasons why indigenous people face struggling problems with the health risk factors mentioned. Cultural factors, genetics and historical factors influence the problems, but researches have been able to find one key issue which is not only exclusive to indigenous people, but seen everywhere (Durie, 2003). Socioeconomic status is a major factor for influencing many health associated behaviors. People of lower socioeconomic status generally have worse health outcomes compared to people of better socioeconomic level (Altman, 2000).

While not all aboriginals are of lower socioeconomic status, the majority fall below the average non indigenous Australian. With a lack financial wealth, accessing health services becomes harder. So if someone is to become sick, it would be struggle for them to get advice and help for their illness (Durie, 2003). People of lower socioeconomic status also have generally less education. With less education comes less knowledge of what, in layman’s terms, is good and bad. Lower educated people usually get blue collar jobs, and being within a labor job is another precursor to poor health.

The methods used by researchers to define and find issues within the indigenous community have been in the past limited due to one reason. Identifying someone as aboriginal or Torres strait islander is not a formal process, relying on self identification and sometimes acceptance from a specific indigenous group (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, n.d.). Due to racial stigmas attached to aboriginality in the recent past, some people who were indigenous did not wish to declare them selves as aboriginal or Torres Strait islander, in fear of prejudice. This meant that there were gaps and missing information in the data collected. Recently, due to the lessening racial prejudices, more people of indigenous background have started revealing them selves as such, and has made it better for a health perspective to better allocate resources to tackle the issues facing their community (ACT Health, 2007).

= Cultural and Social Analysis =

Indigenous culture and society date back thousands of years, and is the oldest, surviving culture. When European settlers came to Australia and started taking the land away from the indigenous people, it affected and changed their culture (Cultural Survival, 2013). It is vital to understand the aboriginal culture and then see how the European settlers changed it.

The recent 200 year history of European settlement of Australia is an important thing to analyze to understand why aboriginals have worse health status. Indigenous society and culture has a strong emphasis on respect to the land but western culture has less focus on it and is more about being happy with material things (Australian History Timeline, 2013). When the settlers started cultivating the land for farming, started clearing forest for housing and mining it for resources, this contradicted the aboriginal culture. This conflict of ideologies has caused much tension between Europeans and aboriginals over the past 200 years.

Because of this neglect, indigenous people had rightfully gained a mistrust of Europeans and non-indigenous people. This mistrust can be seen through multiple contexts in health. Sometimes indigenous people do not trust the word of a non-indigenous health professional, and will not listen to their advice. Mainstream media and education gives the perception that the European settlement of Australia was peaceful and had little impact on the identity of indigenous people. This is however very wrong and there have been numerous massacres and stealing of land and most predominantly, the stolen generation.

Because of this misleading perception of a peaceful invasion, non indigenous people can get a false idea that aboriginals do not trust “white” people just because they are afraid to assimilate. Therefore it is essential that the proper history of European settlement of Australia is known, to help non indigenous people understand where the lack of trust comes form, and show indigenous people that non indigenous people are making an attempt to try and understand the true nature of the last 200 years.

To shed light on this situation would be very helpful for all of Australia. Before the 60’s and 70’s, there was little discussion on the health of aboriginals and almost nothing was done to help them preserve not only their health and well being, but their culture too (Cultural Survival, 2013). Only by discussion is action taken. It is vital to increase the efforts in closing the health and social gap between indigenous and non-indigenous people because all humans are equal. To neglect one group has social and economic impacts. Economically their lack of good health and by extension lack of ability to work effectively can mean that the lives of these indigenous people are “wasted”. Socially, it puts a bad image on Australia as an equal and multi-cultural nation and makes the lives for the effected people a struggle. Within the past 30 years there have been improvements in the recognition of aboriginals and Torres Strait islanders as equals in Australia, but there is still room for major improvement (Booth & Carroll, 2005).

= Analysis of the Artefact and Your Own Learning Reflections =

The artefact represents a step towards better understanding issues facing indigenous people and actively attempting to try and resolve the problems. It highly represents this because the “Close the Gap” campaign was made by various organizations to combat the worse health faced by indigenous people and has been active for the past 7 years and it isn’t losing any momentum. To me personally, while it is great that such an initiative has taken place and it shouldn’t be stopped, it has been started 200 years late. Why is it only now, that after 200 years of neglect to the indigoes society have people realized the consequences of treating a group of people as a minority. Understandably the racist and xenophobic western culture of the 18th and 19th century would have hindered and not allowed something like this to take place but Australia was still late in recognizing indigenous people as people. Only in the 70’s were aboriginals started to be given rights, and this should have started earlier. With the negatives in mind, as stated the formation of the Close the Gap campaign is still an excellent step towards improving the lives of indigenous people.

This assignment has given me greater insight to the true problems faced by the indigenous community and that they are not only to blame them selves. Historical influences have a great impact on their health as well as current social stigmas. Knowing the true history of European invasion of Australia clearly shows that some of these problems are almost being masked by a portrayal of peaceful colonization. Therefore on the future, when I undertake my future job in the health profession and even now, I know that when hearing of problems facing the indigenous community, it is much in-depth and complex than is comply told.

= References =

ACT Health. (2007). //Asking Patient – “Are you of Aboriginal and/or// //Torres Strait// //Islander Origin”//. Retrieved from ACT Government health website http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CDgQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.health.act.gov.au%2Fc%2Fhealth%3Fa%3Dsendfile%26ft%3Dp%26fid%3D-1741244373%26sid%3D&ei=u6VYUuzHFsSUiAec4YD4Bg&usg=AFQjCNF_YK1cf5qfZLn37aGf643Ye8vxrg&bvm=bv.53899372,d.dGI

Altman, J.C., (2000). The Economic Status of Indigenous Australians. //Centre for// //Aboriginal Economic Policy Research//, 1-28. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/40098/2/2000_DP193.pdf

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). //Overweight and Obesity - Aboriginal and// //Torres Strait Islander people: A snapshot, 2004-05//. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4722.0.55.006

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2010). //The Health and Welfare of// //Australia////'s Aboriginal// //and// //Torres Strait// //Islander Peoples//. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/lookup/4704.0Chapter218Oct+2010

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2010). //The Health and Welfare of// //Australia////'s// //Aboriginal and// //Torres Strait// //Islander Peoples, 2008//. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/D059DE84AB99BE60CA2574390014BE51?opendocument

Australian History Timeline. (2013). Australian History Timeline. Retrieved from http://www.aushistorytimeline.com/

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. (n.d.). Proof of Aboriginality. Retrieved from http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/fhu/aboriginality.html

Better Health Channel. (2013). Aboriginal health, barriers to physical exercise. Retrieved from http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Aboriginal_health_physical_activity

Booth, A., Carroll, N. (2005). The Health of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians. //IZA//, 1-32. Retrieved from http://cbe.anu.edu.au/research/papers/ceprdpapers/DP486.pdf

Cultural Survival. (2013) Aboriginal Australians — The State of Play. Retrieved from http://www.culturalsurvival.org/australia?gclid=CM6uqoPvwLoCFQgcpQod4RIAnQ

Creative Spirits. (2013). Aboriginal population in Australia. Retrieved from http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/people/aboriginal-population-in-australia

Creative Spirits. (2013). Aboriginal smoking: A serious health problem. Retrieved from http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/aboriginal-smoking-a-serious-health-problem

Durie, M.H. (2003). The Health of Indigenous People depends on genetics, politics, and socioeconomic factors. //BMJ//. doi: 10.1136/bmj.326.7388.510

MacRae, A., Thomson, N., Anomie, Burns, J., Catto, M., Gray, C… Urquhart, B. (2013). //Overview of Australian Indigenous health status, 2012.// Retrieved from http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/overview_2013.pdf

Organisation for Economic Co-operation. (2011). //Life Expectancy//. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/berlin/47570143.pdf

=Reflections=

“Social Norms” – Are They Really Normal? http://healthcultureandsociety2013.wikispaces.com/share/view/64697538

This is an amazing wiki page to read, it really sheds light on a major issue facing society. It shows how stereotyping people based on their "gender" can lead to some major health issues. A great example of this stereotyping is when you explained that no journal or research article states that identifying as another gender is normal, but is rather a "disorder". It is also shocking to learn that relatively developed nations such as Turkey make it illegal to identify as transgender.

Your wiki has made me realize that there are some real issues within society in terms of their non-acceptance of transgender people, but it is good to know that things are being done to make a more accepting society. The use of multi-coloured headings to represent the LGBT colours was a clever feature. Overall a great article and was delightful to read.

Angel's Among Us. Geography's affect on morbidity and mortality. http://healthcultureandsociety2013.wikispaces.com/share/view/64697644

It was very interesting to learn that there has been a steady decline in people living in rural regions since the 50's, and how this has affected the governments disposition to help, or not help, people in rural areas. The artefact you used is very good as it clearly exemplifies the issue that people living in rural area face. The distances they have to travel for health services is astounding.

It was also interesting to see how the problem is amplified by the said fact of less people living in rural areas. When there are less people to use the services the government will be less likely to invest. It was very interesting to realize this sad truth. I found this wiki very informative and has opened my eyes on the real issues facing people living in remote and rural regions