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| Article - Abstract. To view full article click on the article title. | |
eMJA: Jackson et al, Aboriginal health: why is reconciliation necessary? Aboriginal health: why is reconciliation necessary? Lisa R Jackson and Jeanette E Ward MJA 1999; 170: 437-440. Before the arrival of Europeans, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia were a strong and healthy race of hunters and gatherers whose active lifestyle promoted good health. Little evidence has been found of widespread illness or disease in Aboriginal people,1 making it unlikely that they suffered from obesity, hypertension, diabetes, renal failure, coronary heart disease, cancer, arthritis or other diseases endemic in Aboriginal people today.2 It is possible that, in 1770, when Cook charted the east coast of Australia, Aboriginal people were healthier than the average person in Britain or other parts of Europe.1 Further, Aboriginal people had a strong oral pharmacopoeia which was passed down from generation to generation.3 The early European colonists, without a means of replenishing their medical supplies, were taught by Aboriginals to use "medicinal plants growing in the new country".4 After at least 50 000 years of a strong and intact culture, the Aboriginal population was decimated by diseases introduced by Europeans, and those remaining were displaced from their lands and forced to change their lifestyle.1 Now, more than 200 years on, and despite attempts to improve Aboriginal health, the health of Aboriginal people is markedly worse than that of other Australians and of the indigenous peoples of New Zealand and the United States.5 While mortality rates for the total Australian population have been improving in recent decades, mortality rates for Indigenous women have not changed and the rates for Indigenous men have fallen only slightly.6 These data are from Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia. Full Article: http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/may3/jackson/jackson.html |
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2006 Ethics-Governance.com |
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