Remapping country, kin and culture on the Darling Downs and Southwest Queensland: some suggestions for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal resilience and well-being

Remapping country, kin and culture on the Darling Downs and Southwest Queensland: some suggestions for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal resilience and well-being

Recent years have seen resilience discourse occupy an increasingly significant space within the health and well-being domains; a situation which is similarly the case in the Darling Downs and Southwest Queensland regions, Australia. These changes are flanked by a growing social innovation movement that recognizes the importance of making the links between social and ecological resilience in ways that include disenfranchised communities as active participants; particularly the Aboriginal peoples within those communities. Today, these regions have significant Aboriginal populations and theoretically potential for this form of engagement. However, a particularly violent and bloody colonial history has left its Aboriginal populations displaced with accompanying significant health and well-being challenges. Authored by three health academics engaged in research and teaching activities within these communities, this paper outlines contemporary human progress and well-being issues for these regions, and proposes an ‘integral approach to cultural and epistemological remapping’ as one means of aligning social and ecological resilience and addressing these issues.

c. 2015 Swinburne University of Technology.