Indigenous Health and Connection to Country

Abstract

There are an estimated 370 million Indigenous peoples living in more than 70 countries. Indigenous populations are defined as the First Peoples occupying countries or regions at times of colonization, with distinct cultural, religious, and social practices that distinguish them from other populations. Indigenous peoples across the globe have deep, intimate, holistic, localized, and reciprocal relationships and connections to their “Country” (as it is known in Australia), which includes elements of the land, sea, waterways, sky, stars, and living and nonliving entities. This relationship is largely unacknowledged through Western biomedical models of health, which tend to focus on individual risk behaviors and disease outcomes, thereby situating Indigenous health inequities in terms of deficiency and ignoring the ongoing impacts and trauma of colonization. Indigenous concepts of health are holistic, encompassing emotional, physical, cultural, and spiritual health. Country is central to health and is steeped in the harmonized interrelationships that constitute cultural well-being. Models for measuring and understanding health outcomes for Indigenous peoples need to respectfully incorporate the full range of determinants that are relevant to their health that understand the importance of connection to Country.

Gaawaadhi Gadudha: understanding how cultural camps impact health, well-being and resilience among Aboriginal adults in New South Wales, Australia—a collaborative study protocol

“…Cultural camps involve the teaching of cultural lore, learning traditional languages and connection to and understanding of cultural landscapes including identification of medicines and food. The term ‘cultural landscapes’ is used to describe specific sites of cultural and spiritual significance that have been minimally modified by the impact of colonisation and differ from the broader concept of Country 2. The camps aim to promote cultural and kinship connection, decolonisation, healing and agency, through transgenerational and intercultural knowledge exchange and connection to cultural landscapes.…”

“…Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (respectfully hereafter Aboriginal) peoples are custodians to the oldest continuous culture in the world, centred on close kin relationships to ‘Country’ (land) dating back at least 50 000 years 1. The health and well-being of Aboriginal peoples is inextricably linked to the continuation of Aboriginal cultures and connection to Country 2. A key limitation in promoting equity in Aboriginal health outcomes is the dominant use of deficit-based approaches3 to explain inequitable differences in health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.…”

“…A complex array of historical, socioeconomic, cultural and political factors creates barriers to accessing health systems and services for Aboriginal peoples 2 5. It is acknowledged that ‘culture’ is a complex concept that is neither tangible nor static, can refer to a way of life of a group of people, or society, that is shared and learnt, and intersects with many different sources of identity including class, age, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, and religion 6 7.…”

“…A small body of emergent scholarship shows cultural connection and resilience as protective factors, yet how they serve as a mechanism of health and well-being and what those mechanisms are, remains poorly understood. This is because practices that seek to enhance cultural health—such as spending time on ‘Country’ (ancestral lands),2 engaging with ancestral languages, cultural knowledge transmission and exchange, practicing traditional healing methods and using cultural foods and medicines—often (and for good reason) occur outside of health systems 30–32. As a result, a disconnection exists between the rhetoric of culture as a protective factor in health policy, and the reality of funding and resourcing activities that strengthen culture, cultural identity and practices.…”

“… 1 The health and well-being of Aboriginal peoples is inextricably linked to the continuation of Aboriginal cultures and connection to Country. 2 A key limitation in promoting equity in Aboriginal health outcomes is the dominant use of deficit-based approaches 3 to explain inequitable differences in health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. This typically involves comparing incidence or prevalence, morbidity, mortality and treatment outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, with documented differences commonly referred to as ‘the gap’.…”