Impact of Racism on Health Care among Indigenous Australians

Running head: HEALTHCARE 1
Indigenous Health
Student Name
Institution

HEALTHCARE 2
Introduction
Racism has been in historical within indigenous Australia since the coming British
settlers into the country. Racism is always associated with negative actions and results whose
impact is massive and need to be addressed. Health care is one area that has experienced a high
magnitude of racism especially among the indigenous people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islanders people. There are four main types of racism that have been reported within Australia
and these are internalized type of racism, institutional or systemic racism, interpersonal racism,
and historical racism. The effects of these types of racism among indigenous Australia are
evidence within the health care service provision. There are many disadvantages of racism that is
witnessed within Australia especially indigenous Australians. These disadvantages create a
condition that either strengthens problems or create new challenges in the health care system.
The following paper explores the impact of racism on health care among Indigenous Australians.
Types of racism to Indigenous Australians
There are four main types of racism that affect many indigenous Australian people and
these types of racisms include interpersonal, systemic, internalized and historical racisms.
Firstly, internalized is based on beliefs on the inferiority of some people within the country that
has been used to marginalized indigenous people. Internalized racism has been a problem among
many indigenous Australian especially the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders making them
feel the inferior race (Feik & Manne, 2014). Personal value is the core of the internalized or
individual racism as it makes one view other races as inferior or own race as superior. British
settlers instilled the beliefs that the white settlers are superior and indigenous Australians are

HEALTHCARE 3
inferior. Moreover, many indigenous Australians consider their race to be inferiors to other races
and therefore live poor living conditions or standards. This act results in various racial behaviors
and actions that expose other people mostly indigenous Australians stressful conditions (Zubrick
et al., 2014).
Secondly, interpersonal racism is a type of racism that mainly exists between individuals
of a different racial group or within the same racial group. Interpersonal racism is contemporary
racism and is a type of racism that has affected the country in the recent past with many different
people showing dangers of racial discrimination in Australia. The contemporary racism is often
fuel by many political policies and ideologies that have been witnessed in the past. Within the
context of the interpersonal racism, interracial racism is the worse as it affects the indigenous
people most within the country. In addition, the interracial racisms have been in the country
against indigenous Australian since the coming of the British settlers. In the contemporary
Australia, interpersal racism is seen in many places and often precedes actions and comments
that depict discrimination (Feik & Manne, 2014).
Thirdly, systemic or institutional racism is a common type of racism that still affects
many indigenous people within Australia. Institutional processes and activities show pervert
form of racism discrimination against the indigenous Australian in major institutions.
Institutional racism is a type of racism against indigenous Australian that is seen through
discrimination within various Australian institutions or organizations (Durey, Thompson &
Wood, 2012). Despite many Australian institutions indicating no discrimination, many
indigenous people are still exposed to racism when in need of services. Several studies show that
many indigenous Australian people such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are still

HEALTHCARE 4
exposed to institutional racism in major institutions. Despite the multicultural initiatives that
have been advanced within the country to reduce racism, systemic racism still persists among
many people working within institutions within the country (Murphy, 2016).
Lastly, the historical racism has been over the past years affected the indigenous
Australian people and can be traced back to before coming of British people in Australia. By the
arrival of the British settlers in Australia in 1788, the indigenous Australians have been under
racism in terms of government policy and society attitude (Paradies, 2016). As a result of
colonial activities, many indigenous people were displaced from their land to reserve land by the
British leading to a poor living condition. For instance, the Aboriginal people were treated as
inferior people based on colonial government policies and access to services such as health care
services. Poor health conditions are the overall result of exploitative racism experienced by
indigenous Australians. In addition, some actions such as not counting the indigenous people
were common in the country until 1967 when the referendum helped to abolish racism. Despite
the changes in government policies and laws that reduce racism the historical racism still exist as
many indigenous Australians are still isolated (Cindy, 2015).
Disadvantages IA have which racism has contributed to
Disadvantages that indigenous Australian has experience as a result of racism include are
either direct or indirect and result from intertwined types f racisms in the health care system.
These two types of disadvantages impact the lives of indigenous Australians. Firstly, the
intertwining of various types of racism results in direct disadvantages. As cited in Artuso, Cargo,
Brown and Daniel (2013), Racism has direct effects on indigenous people that are exposed to
racism and this result from various types of racism working together in the Australian system.