Culture, Health and Wellbeing: Yarning with the Victorian Indigenous community

Abstract

Indigenous young people around the world suffer poorer mental health outcomes than their non-Indigenous counterparts. Currently, how culture matters for health, what cultural practices are used in community to support health and wellbeing, and how culture is passed on in Aboriginal contemporary life in south east Australia – a region most affected by settler-colonisation – is not well understood. This paper presents findings from yarns with a representative sample of 45 Indigenous participants working in the field of health and wellbeing that explored how culture interleaves with health and wellbeing. It used Grounded Theory as the overarching methodology with community participation in all aspects of the project. Participants were nominated through snowballing and screened by a governing Board of Elders. They included men and women of varied ages, half residing in urban areas and half from rural Victoria, Australia. They had declared affiliations to 31 Traditional tribal groups. The yarns were held over zoom between a FN research assistant who was part of the community, and each participant. Each was recorded, transcribed, coded and analysed by a multi-perspectival team. Culture was viewed as central to individual and communal life, and passed on through relationships with people and Country itself. A wide variety of cultural practices were used by community members to aid and maintain health and wellbeing in profound ways. Myriad obstacles to health and wellbeing exist were also described, from experiences of disconnection through to barriers for accessing services. These findings have the potential to shape future holistic care and policy.