Nationally, the gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous health outcomes remains
unacceptably high; thus, improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health in
Australia is a priority. One way to improve health is to ensure adequate health
resources. Traditionally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities educate
their people through stories, art and the lived experience of people in their community.
Thus, health literacy for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people needs
to be developed using these approaches to make the resources more culturally
appropriate.
This study employed participatory action research (PAR) to guide the development of
culturally-appropriate educational resources. PAR was considered a collaborative and
safe way to uncover vital information and concepts to underpin the development of
health resources. PAR reflects the way Aboriginal people embrace learning through
action, collective decision making and empowerment, which occurs via group activity
over time. The mutual enquiry and learning experience in this study was aimed at
reaching agreement and mutual understanding of the situation, resulting in an unforced
consensus about how to act and what outcomes can be achieved together. This thesis
discusses the adoption of the PAR approach, and describes how PAR helped promote
self-determination, self-reliance and the creation of a useful, localised health resource
that was relevant to the community.