Indigenous health and education: exploring the connections

Indigenous health and education: exploring the connections Report

  • Author(s): Lowell, A., Maypilama, E., Biritjalawuy, D.
  • Secondary Author(s): The Cooperative Reserach Centre for Aboriginal & Tropical Health
  • Published: 2003

Abstract: In recent years researchers and service providers working in the field of Aboriginal health have shown increasing interest in the growing body of literature which emphasises positive correlations between educational attainment and health outcomes. Most of this research has been conducted in developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America. There has been little investigation, but much speculation, about the extent to which these findings are relevant to Indigenous populations in countries such as Australia, where the political, cultural and economic realities are very different and the dominant culture and language are not those of the Indigenous peoples. The study reported here was not concerned with replicating or refuting the findings of health transition1 studies overseas, but was initiated to provide a greater opportunity for Indigenous people themselves to develop and articulate their own theories about the relationship between their education and health. This was to provide the basis from which practical strategies could be generated to achieve community-determined goals, through a process that recognised the critical importance of community participation in, and control over, the research. The study was: • collaborative (engaging community members in all aspects and stages of the research); • employed ethnographic techniques (to respect the understandings and experience of the Indigenous participants); • in an action research framework (to ensure the project was more than an information gathering exercise).

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Suggested Citation
Lowell, A., Maypilama, E., Biritjalawuy, D., 2003, Indigenous health and education: exploring the connections, Report, viewed 27 April 2025, https://www.nintione.com.au/?p=3848.

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