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Indigenous health: Educational resources

This guide has been designed for anaesthetists and specialist pain physicians interested in Indigenous health to locate relevant resources on this topic, including those available through the ANZCA library.

Material and resources regarding First Nations peoples and cultures has historically been created and recorded by non-Indigenous people and may not have had the input of First Nations peoples themselves. As a result, this material may contain cultural inaccuracies and misinterpretations, or words and descriptions which could be considered insensitive, outdated and/or offensive in today's context.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that the resources within this guide may contain images, voices, or names of deceased persons.

AAMC: Anti-racism in Medicine Collection

Racism is discrimination based in an ideology of racial hierarchy that facilitates inequities between groups of people. Sociopolitically constructed racial categories and racism emerged as a necessary precursor to global systems of oppression, including slavery, and continue to fuel the systemic disenfranchisement of racial minorities in the United States and elsewhere.

The Anti-racism in Medicine Collection within MedEdPORTAL provides educators with practice-based, peer-reviewed resources to teach anti-racist knowledge and clinical skills, elevates the educational scholarship of anti-racist curricula, and aims to convene a community of collaborators dedicated to the elimination of racism within medical education.

Access the collection

ANZCA Training Program: Indigenous teaching and learning cases

The teaching and learning cases have been developed for use in conjunction with the 2013 curriculum.

Four cases (7, 8a, 8b, 9) have been specifically developed to support case-based discussions involving indigenous Australian and Maori patients.

Australian Indigenous Languages Database (AUSTLANG)

The Australian Indigenous Languages Database (AUSTLANG) system assembles information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages from various sources. The core of AUSTLANG is the AUSTLANG database (online Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages database) which is linked to Google Maps. The system also facilitates access to other databases, PDF files and links to websites, which all provides information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.

AUSTLANG enables users to search for a language by a language name or a place name, or by navigating Google Maps, and to view a variety of information on the language. AUSTLANG users can also launch a catalogue search of the AIATSIS collection catalogue, MURA.

Access AUSTLANG here.

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is the world's premier institution for information and research about the cultures, languages and lifestyles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Visit the website here.

Australian Museum

The Australian Museum, a leading cultural attraction located in the heart of Sydney's CBD. Its mission is to make nature, indigenous cultures and science accessible and relevant.

Underpinning the Australian Museum's research is an irreplaceable collection of international standing - more than 18 million objects representing a timeline of the environmental and cultural histories of the Australian and Pacific regions.

Access the First Nations website here.

Djeembana Whakaora - First Nations Medicine Health & Healing

The Geoffrey Kaye Museum of Anaesthetic History chronicles the history of anaesthesia, intensive care and pain medicine. It is one of the largest and most comprehensive anaesthetic history collections in the world.

The museum's latest exhibition, Djeembana Whakaora,recognises and values traditional modes of care and knowledge transmission.

This exhibition draws on thousands of generations of specialist knowledge. It is a contemporary expression of how First Nations peoples have always responded to their own health needs within cultural contexts, and created space for themselves within the dominant European model of health.

This exhibition has been curated by First Nations curators, with First Nations contributors, providing First Nations insights to medicine, health and healing. All of whom reside on the sacred lands now known as Australia.

Link to the exhibition

Indigenous Health Publications

Informit Indigenous Collection

TheInformit Indigenous Collection provides access to emergent and ground-breaking research within the global community.

Access the collection here.

Learning and education modules on understanding bias in health care

The Health Quality and Safety Commission (New Zealand) has developed three modules for health practitioners about implicit bias.

The learning and education videos were developed for Wiki Haumaru Tūroro - Patient Safety Week 2019.

Access the three modules, and one quiz here.

Learning Ground: Indigenous Research Centre, IERC

Learning Ground is a gateway to the latest national and international publications focusing on Indigenous education from early childhood through to post-school education and adult learning. Topics covered include cultural diversity, parent and community engagement, wellbeing, identity and oral language.

With over 9400 searchable books, articles, conference papers and reports on Indigenous education from publishers in Australia and overseas, Learning Ground is an ideal first stop for policy makers, educators and graduate students. It is also an ideal place for scholars to disseminate their work to the national and international Indigenous education community.

Visit the website here.

The Lowitja Institute: LIt.search

This search tool provides easy access to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health literature on the PubMed database

You can choose to look at all literature or one of 27 search topics. You can refine each choice by entering keywords, filter options and published dates.

Click here to search LIt.search

Online learning modules - Cultural Competency

Mauriora Health Education - Cultural Competency course

The online Foundation Course in Cultural Competency was developed specifically for the registered New Zealand health workforce and provides a basic understanding of cultural competency & health literacy in the New Zealand Health context

Visit the website here

Reconciliation Australia - Share Our Pride: Learning resource

Reconciliation Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation.
Our vision is for a just, equitable and reconciled Australia

Their mission is to inspire and enable all Australians to contribute to the reconciliation of the nation.

Visit the website here.


Share our Pride is designed to take you on an awareness-raising journey. This website will give you a glimpse of how life looks from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective.

It works through material in a certain order so each chapter builds on the last. You'll get a taste of traditional cultures and learn about our shared history.

View the six chapters at this link.

Special report: Cultural safety within vocational medical training

Te Aka Māori-English, English-Māori Dictionary and Index

As well as the words one would expect in a traditional dictionary,Te Akahas encyclopaedic entries including the names of plants and animals (especially native and endemic species), stars, planets and heavenly bodies, important Māori people, key ancestors of traditional narratives, tribal groups and ancestral canoes. Māori names for institutions, country names, place names and other proper names are also provided.

Access Te Aka online

Download the app for iPhone and iPad

Download the app for Android

Wiley Research: Indigenous Australia

"Wiley, along with many of its publishing partners, is proud to present this collection of recent papers on the theme of ‘Indigenous Australia’. As a leading publisher of Australian academic and scientific journals, including a large number of journals owned by Australian research and practitioner organisations, Wiley is in an excellent position to provide readers with exposure to ideas from across the Australian research landscape. The papers collected here are from a broad range of journals in the fields of medicine, allied health, social sciences and environmental sciences. While from diverse fields of study, the papers share an interest in improving the lives of Australian indigenous peoples.

Browse the collection

Individual papers included in the collection will be freely available until 31 December 2016. Wiley would like to thank our publishing partners for their involvement in this initiative." -- From the Publisher

Some highlights from the collection of articles include:

50 Words Project

The 50 Words Projectaims to provide fifty words in every Indigenous language of Australia.

The words are provided online with community permission, and with audio provided by a language speaker. The languages and words are displayed on a map of Australia so that users can easily find the information relevant to their local area. We hope that this will be a useful resource for schools and educational organisations to learn 50 words in their local language, and for the general public to discover and appreciate the diversity of First Nations' languages around Australia.

Access the 50 Words Project

ANZCA acknowledges the traditional custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises their unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas and their rich contribution to society. We pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past, present, and emerging.

ANZCA acknowledges and respects Māori as the Tangata Whenua of Aotearoa and is committed to upholding the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, fostering the college’s relationship with Māori, supporting Māori fellows and trainees, and striving to improve the health of Māori.