Moving Forward Together in Aboriginal Women's Health: - Theses ...

Moving Forward TogetherJanet KellyDiffering concepts of health and health careBefore focusing on health care approaches, I begin by discussing the verydifferent concepts of health and health care that have existed betweenAboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, and Indigenous and Western basedhealth approaches. These differences impact on people’s expectations of healthcare provision. In 1989 Aboriginal people from urban, rural and remote areascollectively defined what health meant for them in the National AboriginalHealth Strategy (1989, p. x) as;Not just the physical well-being of the individual but the social, emotionaland cultural well-being of the whole community. This is a whole-of-lifeview and it also includes the cyclical concept of life – death - life.This definition continues to guide contemporary Aboriginal health servicestoday. Similarly, a group of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal health educatorswho provide collaborative cross cultural training programs for non-Aboriginalhealth workers to work in remote areas have identified the importance ofexpanding understandings of health in post-colonial Australia to include;Family, community, land, ties with the past and a vision of the future,hope and stability, dignity and freedom from anxiety, the right to makechoices, economic security and absence of abuse (Eckermann et al. 2006,p. 149).They identified that health cannot be dissociated from self-determination, landrights, cultural vitality, inclusion and equity (Eckermann et al. 2006). Thisviewpoint was reinforced during community consultations for this researchwhen urban Aboriginal women identified that even when they have similareducation and economic status to non-Aboriginal women, they find themselvesbeing treated in discriminating and exclusionary ways. Their experience is thatinteracting with Western health and related services can be a mentally,emotionally and spiritually unhealthy activity for them (Communityconsultations 2005). .While many non-Aboriginal people also hold concepts of health as beingholistic mental, emotional, physical, spiritual well-being, the Western health66