2. First Nations Peoples culture, history (colonization impacts) and health worldview)

Question 1

What are the colonisation policies and the impacts on ATS Peoples?

Answer 1

• Colonisation impacts:
  > sharp population decrease
  > Moved off from homeland
  > cut off from cultural connections, traditional lifestyle, and access to resources

Protection policies (1890 ~ 1937)
> loss of land, lifestyle, resources
> mixing of clans
> forbidden to practice culture & speak native languages
Effects: destruction of the kinship system, loss of culture and self-sufficiency lifestyle

Assimilation policies (1938 ~ 1968)
> children removal
> trained for menial work
Effect: confusion & fear, cultural dispossession, welfare dependency

Referendum (1967)
> grant citizenship
Effect: hope, citizen rights, life improvement

Reconciliation (1991)
> requires communities to recognise past history of injustices, ongoing inequalities, and respect ATS Peoples
Effect: national recognition of the ‘Stolen Generations’, national program to improve ATS People’s living status

Question 2

What is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ health worldview?

Answer 2

Aboriginal health does not only mean the physical wellbeing of an individual but also refers to the social, cultural, and emotional wellbeing of the ATS Peoples and communities.
For aboriginal people, that is seen in terms of the ‘Whole-Life-View’, and ‘self’ is inseparable from family and community.
Health care services should strive to achieve a state where every individual is able to achieve their full potential, and must bring about the total wellbeing of their community.

This holistic understanding of health and wellbeing involves the whole community throughout the entire life course. It includes broad issues like social justice, equity, and rights, as well as traditional knowledge and connection to country.

Question 3

What is Social and Emotional Wellbeing?

Answer 3

SEWB is about being about to realize one’s abilities, and cope with normal stress, and maintain connection to the country.

SEWB is underpinned by several principles, like a holistic view of health which emphasises the significance of social and cultural connection to an individual’s health and wellbeing.

It values the strength and resilience of ATS Peoples and it centralises kinship.

It helps to develop culturally informed practice.

Question 4

What are the impact forces behind ATS health?

Answer 4

• Historical and social context
• Health risk factors, ie SDOH, CDOH
• Awareness of the complex interplay between social, economic, and political forces as they bear on health
• Cultural identity is a primary factor in well-being

Question 5

What is the significance of Yarning?

Answer 5

Yarning for John was through listening to Country through loud and silent energy, allowing him to reconnect with his sense of wholeness. Yarning is evidently a method of reconnection and used as a journey to achieve wellbeing.
This article highlights the similarities in reconnecting to our personal worldview, albeit through different strategies.
Yarning provides the opportunity for knowledge sharing. In nursing practice, understanding First Nations People’s previous experiences may aid in greater communication and response by nurses and other health professionals.
The clinical setting of Yarning may support improvements in communication of ATS health care that is culturally competent and culturally safe. Furthermore, this empowers and moulds nursing practice to obtain a more culturally competent healthcare body that extends beyond the cultural needs of just out ATS.