Dear Editors, Thorpe and colleagues (2014) offer a pertinent review of the literature and qualitative insight into an Aboriginal community sporting team and it's environment on the social, emotional and physical wellbeing of young Aboriginal men. Extending to the identification of barriers and motivators for participation. The impressive prospective outcomes highlighted within the article ranged from racism and discrimination through to health. There are many parallels in Thorpe's work that also emerge in Long et al's (2009) study of the literature on black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in sport and physical recreation in the UK. Disparities in patterns of participation, experiences of racism, and institutionalised attitudes manifest by players, practitioners and policymakers were merely some of the themes relating to barriers and constraints for BME groups. For us the conclusion that, participation in sporting environments with strong social networks, which reinforce cultural identity and pride, enhances the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people needs to be further examined. Thorpe and colleagues (2014) assessment of the role of the football club is something that we wish to explore further. In some senses the club, at least for the men, facilitated a number of positive outcomes that are worthy of further examination in regards to the chain of causation and consideration of process. Thorpe's argument reads in key places as a case of post hoc ergo propter hoc [after this (outcome) because of this (the club)]. The question for us is, can Thorpe conclude that football is ideally placed for these health promotion interventions that support health benefits, identity, cultural and communty cohesion or can we take more from this that the most important thing for Aboriginals is the bringing together of the community around shared enthusiasms because of its psychological potential for protection from racialised psychological harm? This then becomes the major catalyst for subsequent rather than consequent positive health benefits of being in a club. If Thorpe and colleagus (2014) were to consider their research from a different perspective that considered how social capital manifest itself, then they might draw out some insightful commentary on how sport can reinforce exclusion between groups and promote positive health messages at the same time. This contradicts dominant policy discourses. While playing in predominatly Aboriginal teams/settings, they were not only more conspicuous as targets for bigotry but they also used sport as a form of resistance. In this case the Aboriginal respondents emphasise the racialised processes that forced them to self-exclude from predominantly white teams/clubs, due to the oppression of racism. This process reflects the same strategies used by black migrants in Ireland who experienced similar forms of racialised barriers (Hylton, 2011). As a result, their self-exclusion and recourse to 'safe spaces' factor into their 'choice' of physical or leisure activities and hint at pos...

Suicide ideation and attempt were common in this cross-section of indigenous youth with an unfavorable profile for the emotional, social, cultural, and behavioral factors.

Abstract. Indigenous people have long maintained that strong cultural identities are critical to health and wellbeing. The purpose of this systematic review is to examine whether interventions that entail strategies to enable expression of cultural identities for Australian Indigenous peoples are associated with measurable improvements in health and wellbeing. Peer-reviewed articles that reported quantitatively expressed health and wellbeing outcomes involving Indigenous Australian participants only were included. The cultural intervention component was defined and assessed by Indigenous researchers on the team. A narrative analysis was conducted. The protocol was registered on PROSPERO (CRD420 15027387). Thirteen articles describing eleven studies were identified, including one randomised control trial (RCT), one cluster RCT and two studies with non-randomised controls. Other studies reported on case series or cross-sectional studies. All except two studies described multiple intervention strategies. Eight studies showed significant improvement in at least one psychosocial, behavioural or clinical measure, with two showing a positive direction of effect and one showing no improvement. Publication bias may discourage researchers to report negative findings of these interventions. Although studies vary in quality, this review provides evidence that interventions that include opportunities for expression of cultural identities can have beneficial effects for Australian Indigenous peoples.