1CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELLBEINGThe essay deals with “Closing the Gap” (CTG) policy in Australia. The essay brieflyexplains the topic, about the history of the policy and the factors that influenced the creation ofthe policy. Further the essay discusses the significance of the policy on Aboriginal & TorresStrait Islander People’s health outcomes using relevant literature and statistics. The policyaddresses several health issues. In this essay, one health issue will be focused that is coveredunder CTG. The policy in this regard is evaluated to identify the impact the CTG policy has hadon Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people’s health since it was introduced. The essay brieflyhighlights the challenges that have affected the changes.The Australian government launched closing the Gap or CTG policy for Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people. The policy aims to .reducing health inequalities among this groupof population. The policy addresses the disadvantages in relation to the child mortality, lifeexpectancy, employment outcomes, education achievement and access to early education. Thepolicy was formulated in response to the “Social justice report 2005” and the “Close the Gapsocial justice campaign” (Australian Human Rights Commission 2016). The social justice report showed the Indigenous Australians had poorer health whencompared to the non-Indigenous population. This refers to the health gap and includes sixmain drivers. There was 20% of the health gap in respect to cardiovascular disease, 16% gap indiabetes, 9% in chronic respiratory disease, 7% intentional injuries, and estimated 6% in cancers.This altogether contributes the gap of 70%. Thus, the Indigenous Australian were highlyrepresented in mortality rate, low birth weight of children, and high prevalence of clinical,emotional and behavioural disorder. The health gap was due to 11 risk factors including highblood pressure and high cholesterol, smoking alcohol and drug abuse, child sexual abuse, unsafesex, and intimate partner violence, poor nutrition and obesity (Jamieson et al. 2016). Close the

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