Occupation and Health in Indigenous Australia: A Reflective Study

This journal entry reflects on a healthcare assistant's visit to an Australian Aboriginal community, examining the economic conditions, employment, and health challenges faced by its members. It highlights the prevalence of labor and technical occupations, the impact of historical discrimination on educational attainment, and the resulting limitations in employment opportunities. The reflection emphasizes the need for improved healthcare access, particularly for women, and the importance of education in bridging the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The author proposes introducing educational programs and healthcare initiatives to empower the community and improve their overall well-being, referencing existing studies that support these strategies. The visit underscored the significance of cultural sensitivity and the need to address systemic barriers to create a more equitable society for Aboriginal Australians.

Running head: PARTICIPATION IN OCCUPATION
PARTICIPATION IN OCCUPATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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I have visited the Australian aboriginal community as the health care assistant and I
have been sent over there for having the discussion with their community people. I need to
draw an outline of the economic condition of that community and the employment or the
occupation of the aboriginals so that it would be easy to understand what kind of health care
facilities are needed to be provided for them and what type of health care facility are
affordable for them. I spend 90 minutes over there and in that time, I was able to figure out the
problems the indigenous people are facing. I found that most of the community are involved in
the occupations like the laborers and technicians. They have leisure time for their families and
other activities. They get ample amount of leisure as they has less pressure in the lower
standard jobs. They can use that time for taking care of their health as well as pursuing
education for the better position of them in the society. They are not aware regarding their
health care services, most of the females are found to be less educated and unemployed, most
of the population have basic level education, and there were very less number of people those
have the interest of higher education or pursuing higher education. The education is the core
factor for increasing their position in society.
When I visited the Australian aboriginal community, I found out that there is a number
of Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander employed in the professional occupation like the
laborers in the field of healthcare and education services. I have found out by seeing the
records that the employment in this field has increased by 75% in the last ten years (Biddle,
Taylor & Yap, 2018). I have asked many of the adults to share their stories regarding the
employment, this has been seen that most of the community adults worked as the personal
service workers in various fields. This includes the aged care are service, health care service,
child care service, emergency services and personal services that have overtaken labors to the

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greatest and most common occupation for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons
(Hunter & Gray, 2018). I also found out that in every one of the top five occupations of
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander grew in as the workers y approximately 52% from 2006
to 2018. The records suggest and the interviews of the aboriginals’ adult suggest that there has
been a 66% increase in the employment of the aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander
(Altman, 2018). They are employed as the community and the personal service workers
representing the 17% of the total employed aboriginals those who are aged over 15. The two
types of occupation those who are most common among the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait
Islander women are laborers and the community and personal service workers (Biddle &
Hunter, 2018). The most common occupation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander is
the technicians and the trades workers and laborers. The people I have interviewed I found out
that 25% of the aboriginal women are involved in the mentioned common occupation and 22%
of the aboriginal men are employed as the technicians and trade workers and laborers (Li et al.,
2016).
The cultural aspects of the aboriginals depend on the heritage and their cultural values
and this has been affected by the white persons and the migration of the white person created a
great effect and this effect has been clearly evident still now (Gray, Howlett & Hunter, 2017).
The humiliation the aboriginal faced they shared the stories of their ancestors regarding the
color differentiation and this has not allowed them to mix with the white culture thus, for the
social pressure they need to involve themselves in the lower standard employment that is
serving the people (Sanders, 2018). The Aboriginal culture was dependent on their own
languages, weapons, utensils, tools, bakery and the ceremonial dress and the cultural beliefs.
They use to treat and worship the natural resources like the worship of goddess whereas it is

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completely different for the white culture. The color differentiation and the differentiation
based on the classes and status de-motivated the aboriginal children to pursue higher education
(Soldatic, 2018). I have also recognized by visiting there that most of the people were either
uneducated or have a standard education there was none who were pursuing higher education
or was highly educated. This makes them enrolling themselves for employment like personal
service workers or technicians. The aboriginal culture of Australia was one of the oldest
cultures and they have developed the new stone technology and have developed new stone
tools. Their culture has been disturbed and socially pressurized to migrate and for this type of
treatment, they received from the white culture, their children a loose interest in pursuing
higher studies (Taylor, 2018). The most important thing I have noticed that most of the women
lack education which imposes them to enroll themselves in the labor jobs and in the personal
service jobs whereas I have found out many men those who are trained as the technical
technicians. The Australian people faced problem with the aboriginals in every places like
schools, colleges and other as their culture was quite different from them, they were unable to
provide values to other culture. Thus, there is a need of acceptance of the multicultural society
in every places. The aboriginals need to educate themselves for gaining acceptance among the
people across culture. This has been found out that they do not have lots of interest to mix with
the white cultures as the discrimination they have faced, few of them shared their stories, and I
found that this problem would remain in the Australian society. All these factors made them
depend on the lower standard on the clerical job and it was not for their cultural aspects it was
socially imposed on them. I have also found out that the Australian society will require time to
get accustomed with the multicultural society. I also found out that they were unaware of the
health care facilities, which they should inherit for properly living their lives. I found that there

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is a need of providing the proper health care information especially to the children and the
women of their culture and the women have a tendency of neglecting their own health care
services, for which there is a need of making them understand the value and the awareness of
the health care facilities. I have found out the same as stated by Hunter & Daly, (2018), there
has been a change reflected in the labor force status, income, occupation and the industry of
the employment. The Aboriginal women are found to be unemployed three times more than
the other Australian women are. This also found out by me like it is stated by the authors that
there should be the understandings of the reasons for the poor condition of the labor market
and the performance of the aboriginal women need to be updated to involve in the labor
service for increasing the economic status of the aboriginal families (Short, 2016). This study
also found out the possible determinants of the labor services for the aboriginal females. They
showed the negative effect on the probability of the participation of the indigenous females
and also provide some policy and recommend the indigenous women to follow this for the
raising of the participation level among the indigenous Aboriginal women. My perceptions are
same as stated by Karmel et al., (2014) that the participation and attainment of the Australian
aboriginals have been increasing in the education and training. There is the existence of the
gaps between the indigenous and the non-indigenous Australians. I also think like the authors
that the only factor, which is needed to be focused on is education as this is the only factor that
can mitigate or close the gap between the indigenous and the non-indigenous Australians. This
study also provides descriptive information for investigating the linkages between the
attainment and the participation of the Australian aboriginals in the training and the education.
This also comprised of the employment outcomes throughout the regions and the occupations.
The function of the educational attainment is being especially focused in this study for

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explaining the difference in the employment rates. I also did the same thing as it is mentioned
in this study that is motivating the indigenous people and also enhancing the interest of the
aboriginals by accounting the various elements for the economic participation and focusing on
the employer discrimination factors, social capitals, and the cultural attachments. I decided to
introduce them to various programs on my second visit and the higher education participation
program and this will involve the additional information regarding the health care information
and various measures for improving the employee participation.
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the aboriginal
community I have visited in Australia needs a lot of improvement, especially in the economic
status in the society. As most of the aboriginals have been found to be involved in the labor
job or in the post of the technical technicians. They do not have any interest in the higher
studies because of the unacceptance they have faced when they have migrated. I thought of
involving them in the various programs for educating them, as the females mainly need to be
educated, then only they will become aware of taking care of their health. The above-
mentioned studies helped me to figure out the strategies to motivate them for increasing their
economic status in the society.

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References
Altman, J. C. (2018). A national survey of Indigenous Australians: Options and implications.
Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Research School of
Social Sciences, College of Arts & Social Sciences, The Australian National
University.
Biddle, N., & Hunter, B. (2018). Factors associated with internal migration: A comparison
between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Canberra, ACT: Centre for
Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, College of
Arts & Social Sciences, The Australian National University.
Biddle, N., Taylor, J., & Yap, M. (2018). Indigenous participation in regional labour markets,
2001-06. Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR),
The Australian National University.
Gray, M., Howlett, M., & Hunter, B. (2017). Labour market outcomes.
Hunter, B., & Daly, A. E. (2018). Interactions between crime and fertility in the labour supply
of Indigenous Australian women. Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic
Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, College of Arts & Social
Sciences, The Australian National University.
Hunter, B., & Gray, M. (2018). The ins and outs of the labour market: Employment and labour
force transitions for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

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Karmel, T., Misko, J., Blomberg, D., Bednarz, A., & Atkinson, G. (2014). Improving Labour
Market Outcomes through Education and Training. Issues Paper No. 9. Produced for
the Closing the Gap Clearinghouse. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. GPO
Box 570, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
Li, I. W., Mahuteau, S., Dockery, A., Junankar, P., & Mavromaras, K. (2016). Labour market
outcomes of Australian university graduates from equity groups. Report submitted to
the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE), Curtin
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Sanders, W. (2018). Ideology, evidence and competing principles in Australian Indigenous
affairs: From Brough to Rudd via Pearson and the NTER. Canberra, ACT: Centre for
Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), The Australian National University.
Short, D. (2016). Reconciliation and colonial power: Indigenous rights in Australia.
Routledge.
Soldatic, K. (2018). Neoliberalising disability income reform: what does this mean for
Indigenous Australians living in regional areas?. The Neoliberal State, Recognition
and Indigenous Rights: New Paternalism to New Imaginings, 131-146.
Taylor, J. (2018). Regional change in the economic status of indigenous Australians, 1986-91.
Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Research School of
Social Sciences, College of Arts & Social Sciences, The Australian National
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