95745 First Nations Health and Wellbeing
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Requisite(s): (60 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10360 Bachelor of Public Health OR 60 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10410 Bachelor of Public Health Bachelor of Sustainability and Environment OR 60 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10396 Bachelor of Public Health Bachelor of International Studies OR 60 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10441 Bachelor of Health Sciences Bachelor of Languages and Cultures OR 60 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10466 Bachelor of Public Health Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation) AND 95735 Indigenous Health and Wellbeing) OR ((42 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C09169 Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) OR 42 credit points of completed study in 42.0000000000 Credit Points spk(s): C10477 Bachelor of Psychology OR 42 credit points of completed study in 42.0000000000 Credit Points spk(s): C10478 Bachelor of Psychology Bachelor of Criminology)
Description
The theme of this subject is ‘thinking globally, acting locally’ and engaging with First Nations people, cultures, knowledges and evidence in doing so. First Nations people, Indigenous to over 90 countries around the world, have diverse cultures and many similarities too, including ongoing connections to place, identity, and spirituality since time immemorial.
Indigenous people experience many health and social issues in common, and these are of significance to all humans and to planetary health also – climate change, pandemics, racism, poverty and other social determinants of health, intersectionality, data sovereignty, systemic and social processes of disempowerment, and ecocidal behaviour.
These are all of relevance to local health service delivery, research and policy too; recent Australian legislation and health industry regulation developments enshrine cultural safety as a health care quality issue and a right; the onus is on all health professionals to have knowledge, skills and capabilities to work safely cross-culturally.
This subject explores drivers and solutions to issues of global health significance, and in practical terms locally how health professionals are able to respond with First Nations people and protocols. Featured are good practices by culturally responsive organisations, as well as partnerships between mainstream and First Nations’ organisations – what strategies do they use to create the conditions for culturally safe health care and ethical practice? What metrics and instruments of measurement do they use and how do they identify and overcome gaps? What models of care support multi-level empowerment and are they transferable across diverse jurisdictions, settings and populations?
In answering these and other questions through scenario-based and service-learning activities, this subject explores the skills that health professionals of the future need to ensure their reflexivity, accountable use of legislation, rights and policies and intergenerational knowledge exchange – looking across their personal and professional lifespan.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| A. | Identify issues of global significance experienced by Indigenous peoples and their implications for all cultures and healthcare. |
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| B. | Critique data from local, state, national and international sources and its appropriateness for policy development and resource allocation for First Nations’ health and wellbeing. |
| C. | Critique mainstream health sciences and practices by drawing on available local and global First Nations’ knowledges and cultural protocols. |
| D. | Develop critical self-reflection tools and skills relevant for personal and professional lifespan and ethical conduct, using First Nations frameworks, models of care and decolonising methodologies. |
| E. | Demonstrate skills for engagement with Indigenous peoples, including interdisciplinarity, reflexivity, values clarification, allyship and leadership locally. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the following graduate attributes:
- Analyse and contextualise complex data including statistical information in public health. (1.1)
- Respect and respond to the needs of diverse groups to improve health outcomes. (1.2)
- Promote and enhance the health of diverse groups through evidence-based advocacy strategies and techniques. (1.3)
- Demonstrate creative and adaptive thinking within a changeable social, political and technological environment. (2.0)
- Evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of health projects and programs. (2.1)
- Develop creative and innovative responses to health issues. (2.2)
- Use an assets-based approach to engender effective communication, collaboration and leadership. (3.0)
- Identify and use culturally sensitive and appropriate communication techniques aimed at improving health in diverse populations. (3.1)
- Facilitate meaningful collaboration between stakeholders to develop effective public health strategies. (3.2)
- Translate and communicate knowledge and research effectively to various audiences. (3.3)
- Demonstrates a capacity for autonomy, accountability and critical self-assessment. (3.4)
- Reflects on the ethical implications for public health research and practice. (4.1)
- Recognises the need of supportive and responsive evidence-based practice in diverse communities. (4.2)
- Demonstrates critical thinking in the development and practice of public health. (5.1)
- Assess and evaluate the relevance and quality of research in the context of specific health issues and populations. (5.3)
- Public Health graduates will have knowledge of health programs and policies to evaluate and inform professional practice and capabilities to work with and for Indigenous Peoples as reflexive public health practitioners (6.0)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject is led by Aboriginal people and reflects the UTS Faculty of Health's Girra Maa Indigenous Health Discipline andragogy and principles developed for its Bunya Project undertaken in partnership with Aboriginal organisations. Principles of the Indigenous Allied Health Australia’s Cultural Responsiveness in Action Framework (2019) are also drawn on, as are the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander guidelines for ethical health research of the National Health and Medical Research Council (2018).
Subject design is in accordance with award-winning learning and teaching strategies and principles by Indigenous educators and collaborators including for scenario-based, problem-based and adult learning.
The subject is also structured to be of service to First Nations’ Elders and organisations through work-integrated learning assessment items. This has some influence from transformational learning theory and practices of culturally responsive health organisations recommended by First Nations’ peak health industry associations.
Woven within all teaching and learning activities are Indigenous peoples’ ways of knowing, being, and doing:
Being, through giving and receiving, and carrying out all actions in relationships with others
Doing, based on diverse information and tools, and principled and reflective action
Knowing, from the best available range of evidence, guidance of Elders and community, and respect for the learning journey.
Content (topics)
Content and topics in this subject include:
- Requirements of Australian and international health professions to provide the conditions for cultural safety with and for Indigenous people
- Health issues of global significance including climate catastrophes, workforce shortages, racism and colonialism
- Elders’ and communities' decolonising solutions to health inequity globally with implications locally
- Data quality, biases and gaps and implications for policy, practice and progress
- Multi-level empowerment, models of care, their implementation, mainstream workforce roles, and evaluation
- Intersections of healing paradigms with public health and health science.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Critical self-reflection for cultural safety
| Intent: | This assessment task is designed to support students to engage with the range of available tools for use in critical self-reflection, and to choose those most relevant to their envisioned next career steps and needs. This task intends for students to practice critical self-reflection including through adult learning principles by role-modelling to each other and sharing knowledges and skills. The task will produce a tool for students to use, gaining experience in using it, and benefitting others by contributing to additional Faculty tool development. |
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| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): D and E This assessment task contributes to the development of graduate attribute(s): 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.3, 3.4 and 5.1 |
| Type: | Reflection |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 30% |
| Criteria: | A rubric for assessment will be provided. Criteria relate to 1) extent and quality of literature drawn on; 2) rationale for new tool development; 3) reflective capabilities demonstrated; 4) meaning conveyed to develop others’ understanding; 5) class participation. |
Assessment task 2: Service-learning with First Nations people
| Intent: | This assessment item is designed to reflect real-world ways of working with Indigenous organisations and on health and wellbeing topics of priority of Indigenous people, to provide students with some practical experience in doing so. This reflects ethical principles for research and health service delivery, and government policies which seek to respect Indigenous people and cultures and rights to self-determine solutions to meet needs and aspirations. The assessment item process is an essential part of an action cycle for planning and development used in contemporary public health and Indigenous health, as well as Indigenous protocols of looking to the past to inform the present and the future. This assessment requires students to also thinking holistically including about determinants of health and wellbeing, and intergenerational, intersectional and interdisciplinary influences and roles. This assessment item is also to stimulate critical self-reflection in the context of being of service, sharing skills and engaging cross-culturally. |
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| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): A, B, C, D and E This assessment task contributes to the development of graduate attribute(s): 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 5.3 and 6.0 |
| Type: | Project |
| Groupwork: | Group, group assessed |
| Weight: | 30% |
| Criteria: | A rubric for assessment will be provided. Criteria relate to 1) extent and quality of literature drawn on; 2) critique of issues and actions in the past, present and future; 3) rationale for implications for prevention; 4) meaning conveyed to develop others’ understanding; 5) class participation. |
Assessment task 3: Indigenous people in prisons: A global overview
| Intent: | This assessment task has been designed to model collaborative production of knowledges about First Nations’ health and wellbeing – collaborative design, independent work, and dialogue to produce shared outputs. Anderson et al’s 2016 Lancet article on health of Indigenous and tribal peoples’ globally will be used as a model for students to each draft sections to bring together into a potential article about Indigenous peoples in prisons worldwide. |
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| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): A, B and D This assessment task contributes to the development of graduate attribute(s): 1.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 4.1, 5.3 and 6.0 |
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed |
| Weight: | 40% |
| Criteria: | A rubric for assessment will be provided. Criteria relate to 1) quality and critique of data drawn on; 2) identification of issues and needs; 3) implications for health rights, equity, policy and practice; 4) meaning conveyed to develop others’ understanding; 5) class participation. |
Required texts
United Nations. (n.d.). State of the world’s Indigenous peoples volume II, Health: Indigenous peoples’ access to health services. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/publications/state-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples.html
Recommended texts
Recommended readings for each week are listed on the Canvas subject site.
References
Anderson, I., Robson, B., Connolly, M., Al-Yaman, F., Bjertness, E., … Yap, L. (2016). Indigenous and tribal peoples’ health (The Lancet-Lowitja Institute Global Collaboration): A population study. The Lancet, 388(10040), 131-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00345-7
Kipuri, N. (2009). Culture. In United Nations (Ed.), State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples Volume 1 (pp. 51-81). https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/publications/2009/09/state-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples-first-volume/
Redvers, N., Celidwen, Y., Schultz, C., Horn, O., Githaiga, C., … Blondin, B. S. (2022). The determinants of planetary health: An Indigenous consensus perspective. The Lancet Planetary Health, 6(2), e156-e163. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00354-5
UN General Assembly. (2007). United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html
Other resources
UTS Student Centre
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For other resources/ information refer to the Faculty of Health website (www.uts.edu.au/about/faculty-health) and Canvas at: https://canvas.uts.edu.au/.
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Improve your academic and English language skills
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