Aboriginal Health: Past to Present

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2010:

Following a chronological approach, 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.

• Explain particular Koori health issues in terms of their historical antecedents;
• Explain contemporary Koori health issues in terms of key socio-economic and demographic variables and their historical basis.
• Analyse the potential of public health interventions in relation to Koori history and experiences of health/illness.
• Critically analyse professional and popular representations of Koori health disadvantage, own standpoint as an informed ethical public health practitioner and implications for own professional practice.
• Assess current responses to Koori health issues drawing on key social and cultural factors and their historical origins.

Essay of 2000 words due mid-semester (40%). Essay of 3000 words due at end of semester (60%)

Readings will be available on line via LMS

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

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

• highly developed cognitive, analytic and problem-solving skills;
• capacity for independent critical thought, rational inquiry and self-directed learning;
• leadership capacity, including a willingness to engage in constructive public discourse, to accept social and civic responsibilities and to speak out against prejudice, injustice and the abuse of power;
• 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.