Indigenous Health
The Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand (Medical Deans) Indigenous Health Strategy 2021-2025 (the Strategy) expresses the strong commitment of Medical Deans and medical schools in Australia and New Zealand to equitable health outcomes for Indigenous people, through medical education and medical workforce development.
Medical Deans recognises the substantial and unacceptable inequity in health and social outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Māori. These are a legacy of colonisation, dispossession and marginalisation, and are manifest in the social and environmental determinants of health, including education, employment, income, and personal and community agency. Institutional racism and implicit biases persist in society more broadly, as well as in medical education, by health professionals, and within systems of health care; and Medical Deans individually and as a collective are committed to playing an active role to stamp out these biases and behaviours.
We also recognise the strengths and resilience of Indigenous peoples in Australia and New Zealand and the value of Indigenous peoples’ knowledge, culture and traditions. We are committed to shifting the discourse from a deficit model – which itself causes harm – to one based on strengths and self-determination. We are committed to working in partnership with, and being guided by, Indigenous leaders, organisations, communities and individuals, on our thinking and our work.
Leaders in Indigenous Medical Education (LIME) Network is a dynamic bi-national collaboration between medical schools to improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning of Indigenous health and cultural safety in medical education. It fosters and supports collaboration, information exchange, and the sharing of best practice within and across medical education organisations in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, links across health science sectors, and connections with external Indigenous health stakeholders. The LIME Network’s Reference Group comprises representatives from all medical schools in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, who advise, support and contribute to its work.
We gratefully acknowledge the funding from the Australian Government Department of Health to progress the LIME Network’s activities.
Please connect with LIME to engage in their work and stay informed of their activities.
Long-term partnerships
Medical Deans has longstanding and mutually respectful and beneficial working relationships with a number of Indigenous health stakeholders, including: