Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the mediation processes Australian health policy planners work with to integrate Indigenous understandings of what it means to be healthy and their requirements for being well with the bureaucratic imperatives and constraints which predominate federal Indigenous health policy contexts.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on my work as a consultant for the federal Australian health department, I examine the mediation processes inherent in the production of Indigenous health policy. I explore both previously and newly established institutional relationships designed by Indigenous and non-Indigenous health policy makers to negotiate the politics inherent in federal Indigenous health policy design. The project I focus on is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advocacy Brief. This was an attempt by the Federal Health Department to review previous health and well-being projects, which either included or focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. The project aimed to elaborate features that worked and those that didn't and, in response, to formulate more constructive and `culturally appropriate´ federal Indigenous health policies. A key focus of the project was ensuring the inclusion of Indigenous people's understandings with input from local, and state and territory levels, as well as national committees, all of which contribute to the health and well-being of Indigenous Australians in one way or another. My analysis shows that socio-cultural inadequacies that are assumed within this process contribute to the reproduction and escalation of Indigenous health problems rather than enabling constructive and sustainable policies for Indigenous people, their well-being and health. I demonstrate how Indigenous ownership and input into Indigenous health policy is hindered by bureaucratic imperatives constituted and maintained within the Federal Health Department.