Chapter 9: Aboriginality, Poverty and Health—Exploring the Connections

In the broader context, poverty and poor health are incontrovertibly linked. The research evidence of inequality of health between the poor and the non-poor is overwhelming. Moreover, this pattern equally applies in affluent countries such as Australia, where a clear and widening health gap exists between low and higher income groups (Mathers 1994; Walker 2000). Within these data, the disparity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia, in both health and income status, is also long established (Saggers & Gray 1991; ABS 2003). Using a social determinants of health approach, we might rationally conjecture that poverty is a core explanation for Aboriginal ill health.