Caring for country and the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians

"You can never replace the caribou": Inuit Experiences of Ecological Grief from Caribou Declines

“…Additionally, this research identifies place-based disruptions to Inuit connected to the decline of caribou in Labrador, and subsequent loss of access to hunting. For Inuit, like many Indigenous peoples globally, self-identity and knowledge systems are often created in relation to land, place, and the morethan-humans with whom they share it Durkalec et al, 2015;Kirmayer, Fletcher, & Watt, 2009;Rigby, Rosen, Berry, & Hart, 2011;Schultz & Cairney, 2017). This reliance on, relationship with, and identity and knowledge connected to the land mean that even subtle alterations have direct and indirect implications for personal wellness and one's understanding of one's place in the world .…”

Is investment in Indigenous land and sea management going to the right places to provide multiple co-benefits?

“…Such programmes contribute to regional economic development , and also contribute to selfsustaining future economic growth by encouraging and facilitating growth in Indigenous owned business enterprises . However, it is not only economic opportunities that have been created; positive health outcomes for Indigenous peoples from Caring for Country activities are also becoming apparent (Green and Martin 2017;Schultz and Cairney 2017;Schultz et al 2018), and improved wellbeing as measured by quality of, or satisfaction with, life in general (Larson et al 2019). Our results provide further support for long-standing Indigenous demands for government investment supporting Indigenous peoples to manage their Country-such investment was applied concurrently to environmental management and areas with great need for the associated multiple co-benefits.…”

“Aquí (en Sídney) estamos perdidos”: estudio etnográfico de la satisfacción vital de aborígenes urbanos australianos participantes en un programa sociocomunitario

“…Atendiendo a nuestros resultados, solo hemos encontrado un caso de un adulto que afirmaba mantener una espiritualidad tradicional, retornando cada cierto tiempo a su lugar de origen para algunas celebraciones y rituales. Se trata de un aspecto que vincula directamente el capital cultural con la salud; de hecho, la bibliografía ha puesto de manifiesto la influencia positiva entre la conexión con la tierra y el desarrollo de estilos de vida más saludables, que se manifiestan en mejores resultados en factores de riesgo como obesidad, inactividad física o consumo nocivo de drogas, e incluso menores tasas de hospitalización entre los propios aborígenes (57) .…”