Practising culture on Country can improve Aboriginal people’s health and wellbeing

Despite decades of policy interventions, the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is declining against defined targets. And yet, health and wellbeing continue to be measured against deficit-focused “gaps” between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians in health research and policy.

Our new research, published in The Lancet challenges these approaches with Aboriginal cultural ways of knowing, being and doing. We do so by exploring the impact of “cultural camps” on Aboriginal people’s health and wellbeing.

Our study shows that when Aboriginal people are facilitated by cultural knowledge holders to practise culture on Country, they feel a positive impact.

Framing Aboriginal health and wellbeing in terms of ‘gaps’

The “gap” in health outcomes is often expressed in life expectancy. Aboriginal women’s and men’s lives are 8.1 and 8.8 years shorter than those of non-Aboriginal women and men.

When it comes to social and emotional wellbeing, suicide is the primary way disparity is measured nationally. Suicide rates are highest among Aboriginal men, at 2.6 times that of non-Aboriginal men. For Aboriginal women, the suicide rate is 2.5 times that of non-Aboriginal women.

Assessing individual health outcomes against non-Aboriginal counterparts inadvertently positions Aboriginal people as deficient. These figures also neglect Aboriginal ways of understanding health.

In Aboriginal knowledges, the health of people, family, Mob, culture and Country are symbiotic, and involve spiritual, emotional and physical dimensions. While comparative epidemiology remains a useful tool in addressing health inequity, it is not the only way.

From deficit to cultural strength

Aboriginal peoples have sustained their cultural practices for more than 60,000 years. However, dominant Western models of living, shaped by ongoing colonisation and dispossession, influence health care in Australia.

Mainstream health systems do not sufficiently recognise cultural ways of being and thinking about health. For example, a recent study found traditional cultural healing programs are not supported by health systems in Australia as they are in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Another review of research highlighted the “untapped potential” of connection to Country as a way to improve social and emotional wellbeing.

What is ‘cultural health’?

Cultural health considers how the interdependent and equally important elements of Country, people and culture act to protect and enhance health and wellbeing.

This concept also helps us see that if Country is not cared for, or culture is not practised and maintained, there is a negative impact on people’s health and wellbeing.

This way of understanding health and wellbeing is shared by Indigenous peoples across the world.

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