Summary Report: Deficit Discourse and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Policy

Link to resource (PDF, 1060KB).

As noted in the resource:

‘While we might think of discourse as ‘just language’, research has shown that it is inseparable from our understandings of the world and how we act. As such, discourse plays a fundamental role in resource and power inequalities.

Deficit discourse regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people operates across a range of intersecting fields including health and education; it circulates in policy, media, everyday conversations, and beyond. Media and political discourses often operate in tandem, reproducing negative discourses about Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander people.

There is evidence deficit discourse has real-world outcomes for identity formation, educational attainment, health and wellbeing. It contributes to forms of external and internalised racism.’