An opportunity is before us, to begin the writing of the next chapter in the story of our journey towards an inclusive national identity and a reconciled nation.
			Pat Dodson

There was a massive groundswell of support for the Rudd government’s formal apology to Indigenous Australians, made in 2008. The apology filled Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians with great hope.

However, Australia is a country where prosperity and poverty co-exist; where statistically Indigenous Australians suffer conditions comparable to the developing world.
The average life expectancy of Indigenous Australians is 62. That is 17 years lower than non-Indigenous Australia.

‘Closing the gap’ refers not only to the gap between life expectancies. It refers also to the gap in employment, education and economic opportunities, to the gap in gender equality, maternal health and child mortality, infectious diseases and the environment. Indigenous unemployment and infant mortality rates are three times higher than that of the general population of Australia.

Fact 1: National Reconciliation Week is an annual event running from the 27th of May until the 3rd of June.

Fact 2: Indigenous men are 3 times more likely to have a cardiovascular disease then non-indigenous men.

Fact 3: Indigenous Australians are 4-5 times more likely to contract tuberculosis then non-indigenous Australians.

Fact 4: The unemployment rate for indigenous Australians is approximately three times higher then the rate for non-indigenous Australians.

Fact 5: Approximately twice as many low birth weight infants were born to Indigenous women compared to those born to non-Indigenous women over 1998 - 2000.*

Be More: sign the ‘Close the Gap’ petition.

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