About Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. In 2011, almost 670 000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were living in Australia; around 3 per cent of the Australian population. By 2031, it is estimated that this number will exceed one million, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprising 3.9 per cent of the population.

An accepted definition of an Indigenous Australian proposed by the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs in the 1980s and still used by some Australian Government departments today is; a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he or she lives.

They were among the first humans to migrate out of Africa, across the coastlines of India and Asia until reaching the shores of Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are not one homogenous group – they are a diverse group of hundreds of nations (or cultural groups) and clans within those nations.

Generally speaking, there are two distinct groups of Indigenous people in Australia - Torres Strait Islanders, who come from the Torres Strait Islands north of Cape York in Queensland, and Aboriginal people, who come from all other parts of Australia. Amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, there are many different languages, ...

18/02/2018 · Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people belong to distinct social groups – hundreds of different nations, in fact, each maintaining its own language, culture and beliefs. Although there is some overlap and many similarities, there are many important differences between these distinct communities that each inhabit their own unique ‘country’.

On average, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have a life expectancy that is 10- 17 years shorter than other Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants die at twice the rate of other Australians. What’s more, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people suffer chronic diseases, such as heart disease, at much higher rates than in the non-Indigenous …

12/09/2017 · Despite health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples having improved in a number of key areas in recent years, these first Australians continue to experience greater health disadvantage. 1 In particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples suffer a disproportionately high burden of non-communicable diseases, with high rates of …

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander understanding of health is holistic: Aboriginal health does not mean the physical wellbeing of an individual, but refers to the social, emotional, and cultural wellbeing of the whole community. For Aboriginal people this is seen in terms of the whole-life-view. Health care services should strive to achieve ...