Impact of Colonization on Aboriginal Assessment

Running head: Healthcare 1
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Healthcare 2
Impact of Colonization on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Health
Introduction
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Health is affected by multiple historical factors up to
today. The Indigenous community lags behind almost in everything that makes the non-
Indigenous community more advantaged than the Indigenous peoples. The most fundamental
issue of life that is of concern to the Indigenous Australians is their health. A great body of
literature has demonstrated how the colonization history of Australia and the current relations of
power continue to shape and constrain the associations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Australians (Maddison, 2013). The Aboriginal community are performing the least in social,
economic, and health aspects- with a lower life expectancy, increased suicidal rates,
unemployment and incarceration (Griffiths, Coleman, Lee, & Madden, 2016). All these are
indicators of poor health and colonization is thought to be the major cause. This paper purposes
to determine the Impact of Colonization on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Health. A
critical review is conducted to determine existing literature concepts and on the impact of
colonization; with a particular focus on land, on health on the community.
Purpose Statement
The “systematic domination of one territory by another” has been termed as colonialism, and has
affected the geographical, historical and cultural aspects of the Aboriginal Peoples. As a settler-
colonial country, Australia is characteristic of noticeable methodical dispossession of land from
the Indigenous Australians through borderline vehemence and assimilationist policies
(Maddison, 2013). The same scenario is replicated in other countries with a similar experience of
colonization where the colonizers are still living in the colonies and remain institutionally and

Healthcare 3
socially dominant and where the native peoples are just a statistic minority of the population. As
a result, Indigenous Australians do not have equal access to basic needs such as health. The poor
state of health of the Aboriginals has broadly been attributed to colonization (Sherwood, 2013;
Axelsson, Kukutai, & Kippen, 2016), however, this paper aims to focus on how dispossession of
land through colonization significantly affects the health of the Indigenous Australians.
Evidence of Critical Analysis
Reading, and Wien (2009) examined the existing health inequalities among the Aboriginals and
cited colonialism as a major social determinant of health leading to health inequalities. The
authors also cited land dispossession and displacement from their native lands as a significant
contributor to the current state of poor health. However, the study was limited to the public
health data which was not updated and relied on substandard data sources and design, making the
publication to lack external validity. But the findings of Lawson-Te Aho and Liu (2010) show
that the high prevalence of suicide is attributable to lack of cultural identity and self-
determination; all caused by colonization. But Jalata (2013) considers colonialism to be the cause
of genocide and refers to it as colonial terrorism due to the various forms of violence. The author
asserts that the Indigenous community always struggle for healing, justice and restoration at all
levels including land repossession. Land possession is perceived to be an indicator of freedom
according to the Maore people and therefore affected health.
Most of the studies have viewed colonialism as a factor that affects the general well-being of the
Aboriginal community. However, the study by Czyzewski (2011) considered colonization as a
wider social determinant of health and that the current noticeable disparities can be attributed to
historical inequalities. Similar views are shared by Sherwood (2013) who recommends