The health gap that prevails between the Indigenous Australians and that of the non Indigenous Australians is reported in different articles (World Health Organization, 2018). Over the years, various campaigns had been developed in the nation with an urge to meet the health status gap between the two populations but hardly few had been able to meet their objectives and goals. (Raman et al. 2017). The Indigenous people tend to experience poor health outcomes due to various social determinants of health. These include the poor socioeconomic status, low income, unemployment, lack of education and many others. In addition, they also face discrimination, stigmatization and racism from the non-Indigenous Australians (Weetra et al. 2016). They often tend to make insensitive comments about the Indigenous Australians. This assignment will mainly be based on one such insensitive question that is often asked by non-Indigenous people who are not aware about the different aspects of the Aboriginal lives. The assignment will try to shed light on the viewpoint of the people asking the question. It will also show the real scenario of the Aboriginal population and the main reasons that contributed in their poor health.
Present data shows that the life expectancy of the male Indigenous Australians is 69.1 years while that of the non-native males are the 79.7 years thereby showing a wide gap of 10.6 years. In case of the females, Indigenous Australians are seen to have a life expectancy of about 73.7 years with that of the non-native females who have the life expectancy of about 83.1 years that shows a gap of about 9.5 years. Statistical analysis had shown that chronic disorders affect the Indigenous Australians more in number than the non Indigenous Australians (Miley and Read 2018).
On deconstructing the words in the question, one can ponder on three important phrases that are “Australians”, “nor interested”, “health”. From analyzing the tone of the sentence, it might seem like the speaker is trying to understand the reason for the poor health of the Indigenous Australians but the sense of the question lies much deeper. This question reflects the query of an insensitive speaker who had already accepted the fact that Indigenous Australians are not all interested in the health and thereby have poorer health habits. Such a mentality of the speaker shows the cultural biasness that the speaker possesses against the Indigenous Australians (Gwyene et al. 2016). Lack of cultural awareness, cultural knowledge and cultural sensitivity might make a person speak like this resulting in disrespecting other cultures. The tone of using of the word “Aboriginals” is not positive and exhibits that they do not accept Indigenous Australians as a part of their own nation (Sabbioni et al. 2018).
Discrimination, stigmatization as well as racism are still practiced by the non- Indigenous Australians in the nation against the Indigenous Australians. This had been one of the other reasons about the poor mental health condition of the patient as well as negative health outcomes. A research conducted by Beyondblue had shown that non Indigenous Australians have accepted that they have witnessed acts of discrimination towards the Indigenous Australians by their fellow non Indigenous Australians (Beyondblue, 2014). The research conducted also showed that one in five accounting for about 21% of the non Indigenous Australians have accepted that they would move away if an Indigenous Australian sat beside them. Similar percentage of people had also stated that they tend to notice the actions of the Indigenous Australians in the retails stores as they feel that Indigenous Australians might steal or conduct any criminal offences as they require money and are poor. About 1 in every 10 non Indigenous Australians (accounting for about 12 %) accepted of cracking jokes about the Indigenous Australians and one in 10 people accounting for about 9% of the people stated that they would avoid taking an Indigenous Australians as employees in his or her firms (Boyle 2017). About one third of the non Indigenous Australians states that 37% of the Indigenous Australians are lazy (Durey et al. 2016). Such a kind of thought procedure forces individual make insensitive comments like that of the question that is asked. The survey conducted by Beyondblue also shows that one in five or about 20% of the non-Indigenous Australians are of the opinion that using various terms for calling the Indigenous Australians that are considered racists are acceptable. They believe that calling the Indigenous Australians with names like “black people”, “nomads” and others are acceptable. About one in five percent accounting for about 21 % of the non-Indigenous Australians have accepted the fact that treating the Indigenous Australians as a part of their communities are difficult for them (Brown et al. 2015). Therefore, one can easily conclude that when such high levels of negative feelings are harbored by the non Indigenous Australians, it automatically becomes difficult for them to try to find out the main cause of the poor health of the native people. They consider it as the lack of own interests of the Indigenous Australians in trying to mitigate their own health issues. It also reflects the casual attitude and behavior of the non Indigenous Australians to take individual initiative for understanding the rationale of the health issues of native people and acceptingly help them overcome their issues (Moreton et al. 2015).
On deconstruction of the question and analyzing the knowledge of the speaker who have asked the question, an interesting fact can be found. It seems that a complete lack of idea about the history of the Indigenous Australians might have contributed in making such comments. The present day citizens need to know about the exploitation that the ancestors of the Indigenous Australians in the present generation had faced (Bird et al. 2016). These would help them to understand the reason for the poor health condition and well as low health literacy of the native people. Since the time of colonization of the nation of Australia by the British, it was seen that the colonizers harbored a feeling that the native people were much superior to them and inevitably, they tried to exploit them until the race perishes out (Alber 2016)). There had been history about native people being removed from their own land by severe exploitation that carried mental harassments, physical tortures, sexual crimes and rapes. The late 19ths and the 20th century witnessed the legislation of separating the missed race people and thereby “empower the protectors” by the removal of the children from their families (Adams et al. 2017). This is often considered in history as one of the cruelest tortures that human had done against another cohort of their same species (Collins et al. 2017). The exploitation and oppression reached a phase when the Indigenous Australians were included in the flora and fauna act that reflected the cruelty that the Indigenous Australians might have faced. Therefore, this oppression and exploitation of financial conditions along with physical and mental tortures that went for many generations had degraded the living conditions of the Indigenous Australians. Therefore, they are affected by poor social determinants of health in the present generation and cannot develop knowledge and gather resource for development of their health conditions.
Evidences are present which show that the colonizers used to poison the food to lessen the population of the Indigenous Australians. Colonizers introduced the drinking of alcohol to the native people. However, they had not disclosed about the various types of ill effects that drinking of alcohol could result on the health. Moreover, the colonizers had brought a number of different types of diseases with them like that of the common cold, influenza, small pox, measles and many others (Griffiths et al. 2016). They were not aware about how to cure themselves from such ailments that caused deaths of the Indigenous Australians in large numbers (Goodman et al. 2017). Therefore, all such exploitations and its associated outcomes have accumulated over the years that had resulted in the poor health condition, financial turmoil, emotional downfall of the Indigenous Australians. Dispossession, displacement, violence and exploitation had affected them over the centuries giving them very poor scope of education, employment and health literacy development (Fisher et al. 2016). This had made them develop poor health behaviors and habits that had affected their health over the years. The speaker might not have enough knowledge about the history that had made them make such comments.
The deconstruction of the essay question also reflects the fact that the non-native people have ignored the differences in the health status gap that exists between the two populations. In the present generation, with the different governmental and private sectors trying their best to bridge the gap and overcome the negative impacts of the social determinants of health, such a question from the speaker is not only insensitive but also unethical and proves their ignorance (Mitrou et al. 2014).
The Indigenous Australians have poor education in comparison to that of the non- Indigenous Australians. Most of them are not seen to complete the higher education unlike the non- Indigenous Australians. Therefore, they are not able to learn about the importance of proper health habits, good balanced diets, importance of exercises and many others. Therefore, they are seen to be affected by many chronic conditions. If they have been enough educated, they would have better knowledge about the correct ways of health management and chances of disorders worked have reduced in the cohort. Therefore, nursing professionals have to educate them about the different aspects that lead to healthy living and in turn help in overcoming the barrier of poor education. Moreover, they are seen to have low income and employment rates are very low. Financial crisis make them to compromise with healthy living ways and tend them to eat cheap calorie containing foods, live in poor quality house and unhygienic sanitation and many others. They are also seen to engage themselves with addiction. All these aspects lead to poor health in the cohort. Therefore, nurses need to advocate for their issues to the government and help in development of their health. They should arrange for health promotion programs and make them understand the various ways of healthy living. It is to every one’s knowledge that the Indigenous Australians do not get the same rights in the nation like that of the non-native people (Treolar et al. 2016). The various social determinants of health that affect the native people health are well controlled in case of the non-native people. The gap between the literacy rates of both the population, the low opportunities of employment for the non native people, their low socioeconomic status, their financial turmoil, poor health literacy skills, improper housing and sanitation and many others are some of the domains that have affected their living over the years.
From the above discussion, it can be understood that the question actually reflects the insensitive comment of a non-native person who is culturally insensitive and lacks culture awareness. Racism, stigmatization and discrimination have made the non Indigenous Australians make such comments about the Indigenous Australians. The history of colonization had been the other source of exploitation that had accumulated over the years resulting in poor quality life of the Indigenous Australians. Moreover, improper support services for controlling the social determinants of health of the Indigenous Australians had resulted in negative health outcomes. Nurses need to develop interventions for effective management of the social determinants of health that affect the health of the Indigenous Australians. These would help in developing the quality of life of the Indigenous Australians in the nation.
References:
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