09 Nov 2020
Achieving Equality in Health for Young Aboriginal Children
This week is NAIDOC Week - a celebration across Australia celebrating the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The Doherty Institute would like to recognise the celebration by highlighting some of the important work we are doing in Indigenous health.
University of Melbourne Dr Sarah Hanieh, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Global Health reflects on her work with young Aboriginal children.
I’ll always remember the day that I met Lisa*. I had just flown into a remote community in Arnhem Land. A community synonymous with red dust, crystal blue waters, and baru (crocodiles).
As I held discussions with our recruited local community health workers about the new project on child nutrition we would be starting together, I remember seeing Lisa out of the corner of my eye.
Lisa was busy drawing in colourful texter pen all over the arm of one of our volunteer co-workers from Melbourne, who happily obliged as her human canvas with his outstretched arm. One of the community health workers told me that this was her adopted daughter, Lisa. She told me that Lisa was four years’ old, she loved drawing, and she was ‘a bit slow’.
Taking a closer look at Lisa, I could see that she was significantly short for her age. Her adopted mother told me she hadn’t had breakfast, which was ‘normal’. Lisa was chronically malnourished.
Over the next eight weeks of our field study, Lisa became an important part of our team. She joined us every morning at our group meeting, eating a bowl of Weet-Bix on the ground and charming us with her beautiful drawings, as we discussed our strategy for the day. Overtime, we began to gain a better understanding of all the factors (present and historical) that may have contributed to her poor growth.
It’s a jarring experience to see chronic malnutrition right in front of your eyes, and realise that it still exists within our wealthy and ‘lucky’ country. A child who is chronically malnourished is likely to have impaired cognitive development resulting in poorer learning outcomes, reduced educational opportunities and reduced earning capacity as an adult.
They also have a significantly increased risk of developing chronic diseases in adulthood such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease.
My experience in Arnhem Land changed the focus of my research. My goal now is to contribute to achieving equality in heath for young Aboriginal children through a better understanding of all the many layers of factors contributing to chronic undernutrition. We know that environmental, socio-economic factors and dietary patterns have an important influence on a child’s growth, however underneath these layers it is also important to acknowledge the contribution of some of the more hidden or ‘invisible’ pathways to malnutrition in Aboriginal Australia (for example the impact of structural violence). Secondly, to ensure that there is effective translation of research outcomes into sustainable, culturally safe and coordinated programs that provide ownership at the community level.
Because doesn’t every child deserve the same opportunities in life?
This article was first published in the Celebrating five years of the Doherty Institute Impact Report.