This unit of study explores Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's health, history and culture through the lens of cultural competence. It examines the impact of historical and contemporary social and political forces, including the continued long term effects that colonisation has had on the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Students will engage with historical and contemporary policy developments and the associated health programs that have set out to address issues of equity as these relate to health and social outcomes. The unit will focus on the specific impacts of the social determinants of health from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's perspective and the relationship between access to health services and health outcomes. The unit also briefly focuses on research evidence of patterns of health and illness in indigenous populations in other comparable western nations, for example New Zealand and Canada. Students will explore the concept of cultural competence and how this relates to caring appropriately for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly in relation to the provision of health services. Students will be encouraged to examine their own cultural beliefs and how these may influence their nursing practice. From within a cultural competency framework, students will learn about the critical role that they will fulfill, as health professionals, in contributing to the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Their responsibility includes ensuring that those in their care enjoy the same level of freedoms and opportunities as other Australians, particularly the right that Indigenous peoples are equal to all other peoples, while recognising the right of all peoples to be different, to consider themselves different and to be respected as such (UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).