Indigenous Health Assignment Essay

Aboriginal people are a steady beating heart at the centre of our Australian spiritual identity,” quoted by the famous journalist, Caroline Jones regarding the indigenous population of the country. But the ‘heart’ is gradually being affected which raises doubts about the health status of this community. Indigenous people are a community having a set of particular rights based on their historical bondage to a territory or nation. They are culturally and historically distinctive from other population of the nation. They were facilitated with special set of rights as they are very much vulnerable to exploitation and oppression. Since their settlement is spread all over across the globe, it is very difficult to compile and estimate their population. A report suggested that their population ranges from 300 million to 350 million as of the start of the 21st century. Indigenous population varies in levels, patterns and courses of health. But there is an alarming concern regarding their health profile. It is reported that there is a huge gap in the life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous populations of several countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States (Claydon et al., 2007). They also have higher rates of ill health as compared to other groups. Indigenous Health Assignment Essay Due to their inaccessible habitat at remote places, it is very challenging for the governmental authorities to supply better healthcare facilities to them. Moreover, they rely much on their traditional medicines, which are generally derived from plant and animal products. Due to lack of awareness about current advancement of medicine, they are reluctant to practice it. Our current research proposal focuses on the child sector of these indigenous people. The present assignment will try to address the cause of higher infant mortality rates among such people as compared to the national average of Australia. It will also enlighten the plans and measures for improvement in this field.