University of Technology Sydney

95745 First Nations Health and Wellbeing

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2024 is available in the Archives.

UTS: Health
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) 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 spk(s): C10477 Bachelor of Psychology OR 42 credit points of completed study in 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)

Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
A. Identify issues of global significance experienced by Indigenous peoples and their implications for all cultures and healthcare.
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.

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.

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.

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
Building 10

Monday to Friday: 9am - 5pm
Tel: 1300 ASK UTS (1300 275 887)

Details for student centres: www.uts.edu.au/current-students/contacts/general-contacts

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/.

UTS Library
The Library has a wide range of resources, facilities and services to support you including textbooks, subject readings, health literature databases, workshops and bookable study rooms. There is also a team of librarians to help you with your questions available via online chat, phone and in person. W: lib.uts.edu.au, Facebook: utslibrary, Twitter: @utslibrary Tel: (02) 9514 3666.

Improve your academic and English language skills
Marks for all assessment tasks such as assignments and examinations are given not only for what you write but also for how you write. If you would like the opportunity to improve your academic and English language skills, make an appointment with the HELPS (Higher Education Language & Presentation Support) Service in Student Services.

HELPS (Higher Education Language & Presentation Support)
HELPS provides assistance with English language proficiency and academic language. Students who need to develop their written and/or spoken English should make use of the free services offered by HELPS, including academic language workshops, vacation intensive courses, drop-in consultations, individual appointments and Conversations@UTS (www.ssu.uts.edu.au/helps). HELPS staff are also available for drop-in consultations at the UTS Library. Phone (02) 9514 9733.

Please see www.uts.edu.au for additional information on other resources provided to students by UTS.

The Accessibility and Financial Assistance Service
The Accessibility Service can support students with disabilities, medical or mental health conditions, including temporary injuries (e.g., broken limbs). The Accessibility Service works with Academic Liaison Officers in each Faculty to provide ‘reasonable adjustments’ such as exam provisions, assistive technology, requests and strategies for managing your studies alongside your health condition. If you’re unsure whether you need assistance, we recommend getting in touch early and we can provide advice on how our service can assist you. Make an appointment with an Accessibility Consultant (AC) on +61 2 9514 1177 or Accessibility@uts.edu.au.

The Financial Assistance Service can assist you with financial aspects of life at university, including Centrelink information, tax returns and budgeting, interest-free student loans and grants to assist with course-related costs. Check eligibility and apply online and make an appointment on +61 2 9514 1177 or Financial.assistance@uts.edu.au.