Aboriginal Health: Past to Present

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2009:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

Through the use of case studies located along a historical timeline, this subject provides students with a foundational understanding of Aboriginal health from pre-invasion to the present. Along this continuum, Aboriginal health issues are examined in terms of their socio-economic origins, the clash of Aboriginal and settler values, aspirations and outcomes, and comparative demographical trends. Key topics include: colonisation and infectious disease; loss of land/economy & health impacts; war and health; impacts of segregation; cultural oppression, identity and health; inter-generational health effects of family separations; and, institutional racism and health. Students will also consider the development of Aboriginal-led strategies, including Aboriginal leadership and community control of health services. The subject draws on a range of rich archival material in the form of a multimedia role-play, recent research, audio-visual materials as well as contemporary Indigenous community perspectives on Aboriginal health and wellbeing.

• Identify historical antecedents of contemporary Koori health status;
• Explain the historical basis of key socio-economic and demographic trends central to contemporary Koori health issues
• Apply understandings of history to Koori experiences of health and illness and analyse the potential of public health interventions.
• Appraise professional and popular representations of Koori health disadvantage, own standpoint as an informed ethical public health practitioner and implications for own professional practice

Essay of 1500 words due mid-semester (40%). Essay of 2500 words due at end of semester (60%)

A set of recommended readings will be available for purchase.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completion of this subject students should have developed the following generic skills:

• well developed cognitive, analytic and problem-solving skills;
• capacity for independent critical thought, rational inquiry and self-directed learning;
• ability and confidence to participate effectively in collaborative learning as a team-member, while respecting individual differences;
• a profound respect for truth and intellectual integrity, and for the ethics of scholarship

This subject is a Group 1 elective in the Master of Public Health.