Aboriginal Housing and Health
The World Health Organisation has identified that the social conditions in which people are born, live and work is the single most important determinant of good health or ill health.
The World Health Organisation has identified that the social conditions in which people are born, live and work is the single most important determinant of good health or ill health.
Shelter WA received a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health to undertake a review of Indigenous housing policy and programs, reviewing the intersection of housing and health policy, and to provide information on the policy changes required to deliver better housing and health outcomes. Shelter WA and National Shelter appointed PwC’s Indigenous Consulting Pty Limited
A governance group was created in partnership with National Shelter and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association to oversee this project. PWC’s Indigenous Consulting in partnership with Karabena Consulting were contracted to undertake this work. Shelter WA would like to acknowledge and to thank the Commonwealth and the Department of Health for their support of this project along with all the project participants for sharing their knowledge and insights.
It is widely recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been sustained for millennia by a holistic conception of health and wellbeing that is underpinned by core cultural values and perspectives, healing practices and traditions that strengthen collective identity and cultural continuity (Gee et al. 2014:55–68). It is less widely recognised that Australia’s Indigenous peoples have an equally long tradition of architecture, urban design and economic activity that cannot be meaningfully separated from this.