A three-day Indigenous Health Conference, held in Sydney, Australia, dealt with issues currently facing the indigenous Australian community, including illiteracy, drug and alcohol dependence, and higher-than-average rates of chronic disease. Attracting participants from around Australia, the conference ran from October 11 to 13 and was specifically aimed at health and community workers, teachers, and others interested in health work within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities.

The Australian Minister for Health, Dr. Michael Wooldridge, congratulated organizers of the conference for their initiative in addressing these pressing health issues facing indigenous Australians.  Speaking by video, Wooldridge said indigenous health programs “can only be successful if there is cooperation and activity involving all levels of government, indigenous organizations, community organizations, and the people of Australia.  Your conference is an example of such cooperation, and I really congratulate you for this initiative.”

The Indigenous Health Conference was sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries, the Adventist Church’s health department, and Sanitarium Health Food Company.  It brought together specialists from a number of non-government organizations with experience in indigenous leadership programs, literacy, preventive health projects, mental health, diabetes, and alcohol, tobacco and drug dependency.

Laurie Evans, president of the Adventist Church in the South Pacific, opened the conference, reminding attendees of the tremendous challenges that exist for indigenous health.  He pointed out that some three out of every four deaths among indigenous Australians result from either heart attacks and strokes, road accidents, suicide and murder, respiratory diseases, cancers and diabetes.

“There have been rapid increases over the past ten years in the incidence of kidney disease and renal failures,” said Evans. “Malnutrition continues to contribute to growth retardation and predisposes children to infectious disease.  According to the Census, only about 2.6 percent of the indigenous population, around 10,000 people, were older than 65 years, and in the light of what I have just mentioned, it is easy to understand why.”

Adventist pastor, George Quinlan, an Aboriginal elder, said that the conference “has been a long time coming, but it’s good that we have this opportunity to join together and share ways of improving the health of our people.”

World Health Organization representative Dr. Harley Stanton, also of the Adventist Church health department, organized the conference. “It is my dream that the health gains experienced by much of the Australian population over the last century will also become reality for the indigenous community in the years ahead,” said Stanton.