First Nations Health - Subject - Health

Welcome to the First Nations Health Guide. This guide will help you to find and use all the available useful sources to help you get just what you need fast!

Starting Your Search

Here you can access helpful searches where we've completed some of the first steps to get you started in your searching.

Featured resources

Lowitja Institute Resource Database - Published materials including reports, journal articles, policy briefs and other resources produced from Lowitja Institute funded research projects. Search by title, research category, type of resource, author/s and year.

Lowitja Institute is Australia’s national institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research.

Short video: Jennifer, Anne and Chris: Listening to Aboriginal people's stories.

Torrens University Australia acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.

Torrens University Australia respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present.

This is just a selection of the thousands of ebooks available

Burda-Burda Balayi Health Professionals and Indigenous Health: Working at the Interface by Wendy Edmondson Presents a strengths-based focus to help students and practitioners build their understanding of self and others in professional practice to ensure better health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The text includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous contexts of history, society and culture, and topics include cultural safety, truth telling, colonialism and shared futures.
Publication Date: 2022
Health Care and Indigenous Australians : Cultural Safety in Practice by Kerry Taylor; Pauline Thompson Guerin Now in its third edition, this core textbook offers a comprehensive framework for creating a culturally safe environment and enhancing health outcomes for Indigenous Australians. Through case studies, discussions, reflections and critiques of health issues in Australia today, Health Care and Indigenous Australians offers a starting point for learning about cultural safety in an Indigenous health context, and is essential for students, academics and practitioners alike.
Publication Date: 2019
Australia's rural, remote and indigenous health by Smith, J.D. This book examines the economic, social and political forces that shape healthcare in rural and remote Australia. With limited current resources to support studies in rural and remote healthcare, this title bridges the gap by offering valuable insights into Indigenous life and social determinants of health through the use of storytelling. It is the perfect guide for anyone working in or planning to work in rural, remote or Indeginous Australia; and for those undertaking culturual studies, or social policy.
Publication Date: 2016
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' Health & Wellbeing by Brett Biles and Jessica Biles Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Health and Wellbeing addresses the need to reorient mainstream health to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ ways. It focuses on the philosophy of Indigenous Australian cultural competence, where the onus of responsibility is not on the patient but instead on the clinician. By providing students with the skills of reconciliation, cultural competence and cultural safety it aims to strengthen healthcare delivery and ensure that all Australians have equal and equitable access to healthcare.
Publication Date: 2019
Yatdjuligin : Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander nursing and midwifery care by Odette Best (Editor); Bronwyn Fredericks (Editor) Introduces students to the fundamentals of health care of Indigenous Australians, encompassing the perspectives of both the client and the health practitioner. Written for all nurses and midwives, this book addresses the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and mainstream health services and introduces readers to practice and research in a variety of healthcare contexts. This new edition has been fully updated to reflect current research and documentation, with an emphasis on cultural safety. Three new chapters cover Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing, social and emotional wellbeing in mainstream mental health services and quantitative research.
Publication Date: 2021
Working Together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice (2nd Ed.) by Pat Dudgeon, Helen Milroy and Roz Walker (Editors) Intended for staff and students and all health practitioners working in areas that support Indigenous mental health and wellbeing. Includes high quality comprehensive examination of issues and strategies influencing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and social and emotional wellbeing. Examines issues across the life course, with a focus on children and young people; the significant impacts of mental health in the justice system; the cultural determinants of social and emotional wellbeing and intellectual and developmental disabilities. It includes holisitic models of care, as well as interdisciplinary and inter-professional approaches and working with carers to deliver an even more robust text and resource.
Publication Date: 2014
Binan Goonj: Bridging cultures in Aboriginal health by Ann-Katrin Eckermann; Toni Dowd; Ena Chong; Lynette Nixon; Roy Gray; Sally Margaret Johnson It has been well documented that the health status of many Aboriginal people remains the poorest in Australia despite many years of research, policies and interventions. The third edition of Binan Goonj: Bridging Cultures in Aboriginal Health 3e explores the processes and practices which have created this situation and looks to provide practical strategies to work towards redressing it. Extensively adopted as a teaching text across Australia, Binan Goonj provides coverage of essential Aboriginal health topics in an accessible manner. This edition challenges the reader to examine their own values, the relativity of values and the use of power in society with a writing style that will engage readers from a range of backgrounds. Thoroughly updated and revised the third edition of Binan Goonj: Bridging Cultures in Aboriginal Health 3e provides current up-to-date literature addressing the complexity and multidisciplinary topics of Indigenous Health. thoroughly updated to reflect major policy change since the second edition explores the collaboration between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people presenting both issues and concerns uses real life case studies and critical incidences to bring academic discussion and analysis to life includes processes that have been successfully incorporated into 18 years of cross-cultural workshops Evolve website provides support material for students and lecturers: Discussion questions Suggested reading Weblinks Instructors manual: course delivery tips including topics such as adult learning, attitudal change, colonisation, government policies, indigenous media sites, cross cultural education resources Video links specific to chapters
Publication Date: 2010
The Little Red Yellow Black Book by AIATSIS; Bruce Pascoe (As told to) Originally published in 1994, The Little Red Yellow Black Book has established itself as the perfect starting point for those who want to learn about the rich cultures and histories of Australias First Peoples. Written from an Indigenous perspective, this highly illustrated and accessible introduction covers a range of topics from history, culture and the Arts, through to activism and reconciliation.
Publication Date: 2019
Original Australians by Josephine Flood Everything you'd like to know about Aboriginal Australia past and present, presented in an accessible, authoritative and straightforward style. An updated edition of a national bestseller.
Publication Date: 2019
OECD Rural Studies Linking Indigenous Communities with Regional Development in Australia by OECD Indigenous Australians play an important role in the development of regional economies. Compared to the non-Indigenous population, Indigenous peoples are more likely to be located in predominantly rural regions. However, significant gaps in socio-economic outcomes with non-Indigenous Australians remain and these gaps are larger in rural regions. The report provides three key recommendations to improve economic outcomes for Indigenous Australians.
Publication Date: 2020
Fatal Contact by Peter Dowling Fatal Contact explores the devastating infectious diseases introduced into the Indigenous populations of Australia after the arrival of the British colonists in 1788. Epidemics of smallpox, tuberculosis, influenza, measles and sexually transmitted diseases swept through the Indigenous populations of the continent well into the twentieth century. The consequences still echo today in Aboriginal health and life expectancy.
Publication Date: 2021
Social Determinants of Indigenous Health by Bronwyn Carson (Editor); Terry Dunbar (Editor); Richard D. Chenhall (Editor); Ross Bailie (Editor) A systematic overview of the impact of social and political factors on the health of Australia's Indigenous population. Australia's Aboriginal and Islander groups suffer 'Fourth World' standards of health: this book explains the causes for such poor health outcomes and approaches behind health programs which have been successful.
Publication Date: 2007
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health by Healey, J. (Ed.). Since 2006, the OCyclosing the gapOCO campaign has been pursued in collaboration between government and health, welfare and rights agencies to close the health and life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation. This book evaluates the uneven progress being made towards closing the gap. How can Indigenous outcomes be improved across a range of key social and economic determinants of health and wellbeing?
Publication Date: 2014
Indigenous Children Growing up Strong : A Longitudinal Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Families by Maggie Walter, Karen L. Martin, and Gawaian Bodkin-Andrews This edited collection by leading Australian Aboriginal scholars uses data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) to explore how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are growing up in contemporary Australia. The authors provide an overview of the study, including the Indigenous methodological and ethical framework which guides the analysis. They also address the resulting policy ramifications, alongside the cultural, social, educational and family dynamics of Indigenous children's lives
Publication Date: 2017

Cultural Safety for Health Practitioners

A Cultural Safety Approach to Health Psychology by Kerry Taylor; Pauline B. Thompson First developed in New Zealand by Maori midwives, cultural safety can be understood as both a philosophy and a way of working within a social model of health as an alternative approach to understanding health and illness. The authors explore the social determinants of health; the practices and pitfalls of intercultural communication; and community capacity, resilience, and strengths as correctives to discourses of deficiency. The book concludes with a comparative look at cultural safety in different national contexts, and a discussion of the value of critical reflective practice.
Publication Date: 2021
Burda-Burda Balayi Health Professionals and Indigenous Health: Working at the Interface by Wendy Edmondson Presents a strengths-based focus to help students and practitioners build their understanding of self and others in professional practice to ensure better health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The text includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous contexts of history, society and culture, and topics include cultural safety, truth telling, colonialism and shared futures.
Publication Date: 2022

Cultural Safety in Research with Indigenous Participants

Professional Organisations

Useful Websites

Government

Health Statistics Resources

ABS. Our numbers, our health stories-2018-19 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (YouTube)

Rural Health Channel

Rural Health Channel
The Rural Health Channel (RHC) was an Australian channel which showcased non-commercial health related programs. Owned by the Rural Health Education Foundation, it broadcast programs from 21 May 2012 until 2014 . The National Rural Health Alliance continues to make available these resources.

Indigenous Health Databases

Featured Database

Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet is helping to close the gap by providing the evidence base to inform practice and policy in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Fully searchable database produced by Edith Cowan University.

How to search HealthInfonet