With one of the oldest surviving cultures in the world, Australian Aboriginal people have developed immense knowledge about the diverse Australian flora. Western scientific investigation of some Australian Aboriginal medicinal plants has demonstrated interesting pharmacological activities and chemistry, however the majority of these species have not yet been extensively examined. We argue that ...

BACKGROUND Culturally secure health care settings enhance accessibility by Aboriginal Australians and improve their satisfaction with service delivery. A culturally secure health service recognises and responds to the legitimate cultural rights of the recipients of care. Focus is upon the health care system as well as the practice and behaviours of the individuals within it. In an attempt to pr...

Aboriginal stature across a range of South Australian environments is investigated. Comparison is made between ancient, historical and modern populations. Stature of skeletal remains from the ancient Swanport burial ground was compared against published results for the Roonka site. Stature was reconstructed using Pretty et al. [1998] and the Trotter-Gleser [1952, 1977] method for Blacks. The Sw...

INTRODUCTION Australian Aboriginal children are more likely than non-Aboriginal children to have developmental vulnerability at school entry that tracks through to poorer literacy and numeracy outcomes and multiple social and health disadvantages in later life. Empirical evidence identifying the key drivers of positive early childhood development in Aboriginal children, and supportive features ...

1 In this review, a lower case ‘i’ is used to spell indigenous when referring to indigenous peoples generally. An upper case ‘I’ is used when referring to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the Indigenous peoples of Australia. There is little documented information regarding the ear health and hearing of Torres Strait Islander people, and much of the information reported here ha...

The Gudaga Study is a prospective, longitudinal birth cohort study of Australian urban Aboriginal children. Mothers of Aboriginal infants were recruited using a survey of all mothers admitted to the maternity ward of an outer urban hospital in Sydney. These data established initiation rates among Gudaga infants and those of non-Aboriginal infants born locally (64.7% and 75.2%, respectively) and...

This paper explores some health status differences between the Aboriginal and total Australian populations, and investigates trends in Aboriginal mortality and morbidity within the context of some of the socioeconomic, lifestyle and environmental influences. It identifies that Aboriginal people continue to suffer from a number of health problems at significantly higher rates than the rest of th...

TheCentre forAboriginalHealthwithin theNSWMinistry of Health is responsible for policy development and strategic planning aimed at improving the health of Aboriginal people in NSW. The work of the Centre is guided by both national and NSW policies. In 2007, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to a partnership between all levels of government with the aim of addressing Aboriginal...

During his time as a federal politician and prime minister, Alfred Deakin divided his time between his city residence in Toorak and his holiday retreat at Point Lonsdale. His family had acquired several acres of land on the Bellarine peninsula in 1904 where they had built a federation bungalow called ‘Ballara’. The word is probably derived from the Wathawurung word balla for ‘elbow’, thus ‘recl...