Towards an Aboriginal Knowledge Place: Cultural Practices as a Pathway to Wellness in the Context of a Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

The Indigenous community in Australia is beset by extraordinary disadvantage, with health outcomes that are substantially worse than those of non-Indigenous citizens. This issue has consequently been the subject of voluminous health research that has given rise to a range of affirmative action policies progressively implemented over the past decade. Statistics, however, remain dire. This paper argues that new models of research practice and policy are required that are inclusive of Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being. It proposes a new framework to promote wellness in urban hospitals for Aboriginal young people and their families modelled on equal, 2-way dialogue between Western and..