Healthy aboriginal communities.

Abstract

Improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations is the greatest challenge facing public health in Australia today. The gains in the health of the population overall have not been matched by gains among these communities. Much of the information about the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and people is negative, and little information is available about what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves consider to be indicators of healthy people and healthy communities. This paper identifies some successful programs and highlights the need for community ownership of decisions about goals, services and programs. By looking to ways that Aboriginal people view their health (and its determinants), and to the examples of successful action to date, it is possible to begin to develop a vision of healthy Aboriginal communities in which the relationship between body, land and spirit has been restored. The need, now, is to build the partnerships that will be necessary to turn the vision into reality.