heumatic heart disease (RHD) is prevalent among young people in many sites of social disadvantage globally, with one location being Aboriginal towns and communities in northern Australia. RHD is a complex condition requiring good health communication to enable families to build effective health literacy for their situation. 1 Schools are a logical entry point for health communication about acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and RHD because the population most at risk of ARF -the precursor to RHD -is school-aged children. 2,3 Yet just how to approach health communication and what methods are most effective remain unclear. 4 For Aboriginal families, explanations about RHD are often provided in English by healthcare providers with high levels of western education and health training structured around biomedical ways of thinking. Uncritical use of the biomedical lens when teaching about RHD, even if simplified, can impede health communication so that messages are not understood by Aboriginal people as intended. 5 This is especially so where there is significant language and cultural difference between healthcare providers and clientele. 6,7 In the context of post-colonisation, disempowering health communication may deepen a sense of subjugation or invoke passivity. 8 Empowering pedagogies are urgently needed for RHD because it significantly impacts school-aged children's quality of life and life expectancy, while being largely preventable. 9
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