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During the Second World War, approximately 4,000 Aboriginal and 850 Torres Strait Islander people served in the Australian military. They enlisted notwithstanding a formal colour bar and withstanding over a century of dispossession, discrimination and exclusion. In northern Australia, which doubled as a frontline in 1942-43, remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people also made contributions to the war effort in both formal and informal capacities. This article looks at the many dimensions of Indigenous contributions to the war effort, explaining the dominant narratives of Indigenous war participation while also exploring the diversity of Indigenous perspectives and experiences.

The Summary of tobacco use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is a plain language publication that provides summarised and updated information from the Review of tobacco use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (2020). It provides key information about tobacco use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in a style that is easy to engage with and is particularly useful for health workers and those studying in the field as a quick source of general information about: the context of tobacco use and how common tobacco use is how smoking affects health the burden of disease and deaths from tobacco use impacts on community and culture factors relating to tobacco use related government policies and strategies tackling smoking programs.

The Summary of methamphetamine use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is a plain language publication that provides summarised and updated information from the Review of methamphetamine use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people(2019). It provides key information about methamphetamine use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in a style that is easy to engage with. It is particularly useful for health workers and those studying in the field as a quick source of general information about: the physical and mental impacts of methamphetamine historical and social factors of use how common methamphetamine use is responses to use prevention and education harm reduction strategies and treatments related government policies and strategies.

The Summary of respiratory diseases among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is a plain language publication that provides summarised and updated information from the Review of respiratory diseases among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children published by the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet in 2018. The Summaryis useful for health workers and those studying in the field as a quick source of information about respiratory diseases among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. It focuses on: factors contributing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's respiratory diseases how common acute and chronic respiratory diseases are prevention and management of these diseases related government policies and strategies.

Objectives: The need to improve access to good health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been the subject of policy debate for decades, but progress is hampered by complex policy and administrative arrangements and lack of clarity about the responsibilities of governments. This study aimed to identify the current legal basis of those responsibilities and define options available to Australian governments to enact enduring responsibility for Aboriginal health care.

The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive synthesis of key information on kidney health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia to: • inform those involved or who have an interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and, in particular, kidney health • provide evidence to assist in the development of policies, strategies and programs. The review provides general information on the historical, social and cultural context of kidney health, and the behavioural factors that contribute to kidney disease. It provides information on the extent of kidney disease, including incidence and prevalence data; hospitalisations and health service utilisation and mortality. It discusses the prevention and management of kidney health problems, and provides information on relevant programs, services, policies and strategies that address kidney disease among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It concludes by discussing possible future directions for kidney health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. This review draws mostly on journal publications, government reports, national data collections and national surveys, the majority of which can be accessed through the HealthInfoNet's publications database (https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/key-resources/publications). This was not a systematic literature review in that not all articles were synthesised or assessed in the review. Rather, it was a scoping review, whereby the articles collected were used as the basis of the review, with further information sought during the drafting process.

© 2015 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivatives License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. ; Objectives: The need to improve access to good health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been the subject of policy debate for decades, but progress is hampered by complex policy and administrative arrangements and lack of clarity about the responsibilities of governments. This study aimed to identify the current legal basis of those responsibilities and define options available to Australian governments to enact enduring responsibility for Aboriginal health care. Methods: This study used a framework for public health law research and conducted a mapping study to examine the current legal underpinnings for stewardship and governance for Aboriginal health and health care. More than 200 pieces of health legislation were analysed in the context of the common and statutory law and health policy goals. Results: Very little specific recognition of the needs of Aboriginal people was found, and nothing that creates responsibility for stewardship and governance. The continuing absence of a legislative framework to address and protect Aboriginal health can be traced back to the founding doctrine of terra nullius (unoccupied land). Conclusions: We considered the results applying both a human rights perspective and the perspective of therapeutic jurisprudence. We suggest that national law for health stewardship would provide a strong foundation for progress, and should itself be based on recognition of Australia's First Peoples in the Australian Constitution, as is currently proposed.

The Ngaa-bi-nya framework presented here is a practical guide for the evaluation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and social programs. It has a range of prompts to stimulate thinking about critical success factors in programs relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's lives. Ngaa-bi-nya was designed from an Aboriginal practitioner-scholar standpoint and was informed by the holistic concept of Aboriginal health, case studies with Aboriginal-led social and emotional well-being programs, human rights instruments, and the work of Stufflebeam. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and social programs have been described as suffering from a lack of evaluation. Ngaa-bi-nya is one of the few tools developed specifically to reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' contexts. It prompts the user to take into account the historical, policy, and social landscape of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's lives, existing and emerging cultural leadership, and informal caregiving that supports programs. Ngaa-bi-nya's prompts across four domains—landscape factors, resources, ways of working, and learnings—provide a structure through which to generate insights necessary for the future development of culturally relevant, effective, translatable, and sustainable programs required for Australia's growing and diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples suffer higher rates of food insecurity and diet-related disease than other Australians. However, assessment of food insecurity in specific population groups is sub-optimal, as in many developed countries. This study tailors the Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) methods protocol to be more relevant to Indigenous groups in assessing one important component of food security. The resultant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healthy Diets ASAP methods were used to assess the price, price differential, and affordability of healthy (recommended) and current (unhealthy) diets in five remote Aboriginal communities. The results show that the tailored approach is more sensitive than the original protocol in revealing the high degree of food insecurity in these communities, where the current diet costs nearly 50% of disposable household income compared to the international benchmark of 30%. Sixty-two percent of the current food budget appears to be spent on discretionary foods and drinks. Aided by community store pricing policies, healthy (recommended) diets are around 20% more affordable than current diets in these communities, but at 38.7% of disposable household income still unaffordable for most households. Further studies in urban communities, and on other socioeconomic, political and commercial determinants of food security in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities appear warranted. The development of the tailored method provides an example of how national tools can be adapted to better inform policy actions to improve food security and help reduce rates of diet-related chronic disease more equitably in developed countries.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples suffer higher rates of food insecurity and diet-related disease than other Australians. However, assessment of food insecurity in specific population groups is sub-optimal, as in many developed countries. This study tailors the Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) methods protocol to be more relevant to Indigenous groups in assessing one important component of food security. The resultant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healthy Diets ASAP methods were used to assess the price, price differential, and affordability of healthy (recommended) and current (unhealthy) diets in five remote Aboriginal communities. The results show that the tailored approach is more sensitive than the original protocol in revealing the high degree of food insecurity in these communities, where the current diet costs nearly 50% of disposable household income compared to the international benchmark of 30%. Sixty-two percent of the current food budget appears to be spent on discretionary foods and drinks. Aided by community store pricing policies, healthy (recommended) diets are around 20% more affordable than current diets in these communities, but at 38.7% of disposable household income still unaffordable for most households. Further studies in urban communities, and on other socioeconomic, political and commercial determinants of food security in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities appear warranted. The development of the tailored method provides an example of how national tools can be adapted to better inform policy actions to improve food security and help reduce rates of diet-related chronic disease more equitably in developed countries.

Social exclusion social inclusion are useful concepts for making sense of the deeply embedded socio-economic disadvantaged position of Aboriginal and Torres Islander people in Australian. The concepts not only describe exclusion from social and economic participation; but seek to understand the dynamic processes behind their creation and reproduction. Yet few Australian studies go beyond describing Aboriginal over-representation on social exclusion indicators. Neither do they address the translatability of the concepts from non-Indigenous to Indigenous contexts despite mainstream studies finding the pattern of social exclusion (and therefore what social inclusion might look like) differs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to that of other disadvantaged groups. This paper uses data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous children to explore patterns of social exclusion across social, economic, well-being and community dimensions for urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait families. The paper then develops a contextual understanding of the processes and patterns that create and sustain social exclusion and the opportunities and challenges of moving to greater social inclusion for urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people/s. (author's abstract)

This paper will address the overall approach of the present government to the provision of Aboriginal children's services in the context of the social indicators about Aboriginal children within Aboriginal society and non-Aboriginal society. It will then outline the proper and appropriate frameworks for the development of services for Aboriginal children.

Defending Country: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Military Service since 1945. By Noah Riseman and Richard Trembath (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2016), pp. xi + 243, photographs, bibliography, AU$34.95 (pb).

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of a meditative singing program on the health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Design: The study used a prospective intervention design. Setting: The study took place in six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and Community Controlled Health Services in Queensland, Australia. Subjects: Study participants were 210 Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults aged 18 to 71 years, of which 108 were in a singing intervention group and 102 in a comparison group. Intervention: A participative community-based community singing program involving weekly singing rehearsals was conducted over an 18-month period. Measures: Standardized measures in depression, resilience, sense of connectedness, social support, and singing related quality of life were used. Analysis: The general linear model was used to compare differences pre- and postintervention on outcome variables, and structural equation modeling was used to examine the pathway of the intervention effect. Results: Results revealed a significant reduction in the proportion of adults in the singing group classified as depressed and a concomitant significant increase in resilience levels, quality of life, sense of connectedness, and social support among this group. There were no significant changes for these variables in the comparison group. Conclusions: The participatory community singing approach linked to preventative health services was associated with improved health, resilience, sense of connectedness, social support, and mental health status among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults.