Impact of Racism on Indigenous Health

Running head: IMPACT OF RACISM ON INDIGENOUS HEALTH
IMPACT OF RACISM ON INDIGENOUS HEALTH
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1IMPACT OF RACISM ON INDIGENOUS HEALTH
Introduction
Health of a particular population usually depends on the economic, social and
environmental factors. Furthermore, current and historical factors like discrimination, racism
and dispossession also plays a significant role in the physical and mental health of the
population. Recently, in Australia, racism is being cited very frequently to have a detrimental
effect on the health of indigenous people. A person can experience racism in many forms. It
can be encountered in systemic, internalised or interpersonal levels. The effect of racism in
indigenous health can occur in two ways: direct and indirect. Physical assault provoked by
racial belief is an example of direct impact whereas indirect effect leads to uneven access to
economic, medical, and social resources necessary for good health or well-being (Shepherd et
al., 2017). This not only affect the health of the indigenous people but also leads to
withdrawal from health related activities or healthcare. In the last decade, many research
article and media article is being published linking racism to the ill health of indigenous or
aboriginal people of Australia. Evidence also suggests that racism is part of daily life of
indigenous or aboriginal people (Herring et al., 2013). Racism affects both the physical and
mental well-being of the affected people. According to Ferdinand, Kelaher and Paradies
(2013), 84 percent indigenous people who took part in their survey have stated that they were
racially abused. Recently, lots of researchers are being done to study the effect racism has on
indigenous people. Not only that, mainstream media also focuses on the topic and lots of
media coverage are being done. Therefore, this study will discuss and analyse four media
article related to the impact of racism on the health of indigenous people. All four article will
be summarised and the content of article will be linked to various model and recent debate
related to the topic. Furthermore, each article will be incorporated with personal reflection.

2IMPACT OF RACISM ON INDIGENOUS HEALTH
Media Item 1 – “Aboriginal people face 'systemic' racial discrimination: report”
Donelly, B. (2015). Aboriginal people face 'systemic' racial discrimination: report. Retrieved
from https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/aborigines-face-systemic-racial-
discrimination-report-20151104-gkqlii.html
Summary and key facts
This article by Beau Donelly presented a report on how aboriginal in Australia faces
systematic racism in their day to day life. The author started the article mentioning that racial
abuse against the aboriginals is still very much in play even after 40 years of legislation
outlawing racism. In this article, it has been mentioned that Australian Human Rights
Commission reported many Australians still facing social exclusion, vilification and racial
discrimination. This report also summarised the findings of 130 government and community
group which fights bigotry based on colour, ethnicity and race. The article also provides
various example of different community facing racism including the racism faced by
aboriginal Victorian of the year Jack Charles. Author also contacted with various related
government authority and all of them acknowledged the presence and inevitability of racism
faced aboriginal people. Deputy chief executive of legal service’s admitted that aborigines
have been facing systematic racism which seems to be an omnipresent invisible barrier. In
one example, the author presented that one university educated aborigine woman treated like
an illiterate and were asked whether she could speak English. In a nutshell, the article is well
structured with data, examples and bites of government authority to support his argument
about the systematic racism faced by aboriginal Australians.
Current debate, models and approaches
Racism may occur in three theoretical levels and this article emphasises on a
particular model of the racism present in Australian continent which is systematic or

3IMPACT OF RACISM ON INDIGENOUS HEALTH
institutional racism. Systematic or institutional racism defines as where people faces unfair,
avoidable, and inequalities based on their racial or ethnic group (Kelaher, 2014). Keyword
search in Australian database shows that systematic discrimination or bias is very much
common in Australian literature. The article also links this systemic bias to the school,
government and workplace. However, use of the term institutional racism is much more
frequent in Australian literature. Sometimes institutional or systematic racism is referred as
an indirect racism in the literature (Ferdinand, Paradies & Kelaher, 2013). This article also
provides example where people from all minority group experience indirectly in the
institutional level.
Government approaches to tackle racism towards aboriginal Australians has also been
discussed in the article. It has mentioned the milestone legislation which outlaws all
discriminating behaviour towards a person based on the race, creed, colour or belief.
Australian government has passed this legislation in more than 40 years ago and act is known
as Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Gelber & McNamara, 2013).
This article also cites an example where aboriginal actor and Victorian of the year
were refused taxi service because of his skin colour. It also stated another example where a
university educated woman were held up in the airport because she belonged to the aboriginal
ethnicity. Thus, this article shows how aboriginal Australians and people from other minority
facing racism as well as presented data and statistics regarding occurrence frequency.
Personal reflection
The article published by Beau Donelly is very precise, well-articulated and to the
point. Author has presented the article well supported by data and statistics and examples. In
my honest opinion, the examples are the soul of this article which helps paints a picture in
reader’s minds about the real life situation faced by aborigines. The author has collected