First Nations Consultations For the Australian Human Rights Commission • ACECQA, 2020b Case study 2: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in early childhood education and care (acecqa.gov.au) • Burridge, N. 1999, ‘Teaching for Reconciliation’ in Craven, R. Teaching Aboriginal Studies, St Leonards: Allen & Unwin • Koori Curriculum A.3 Health Practitioners Professional Practice and Education. There is a substantial literature on the impact of racism on health for First Nations peoples and how racism is often experienced when seeking health care. A recent case study of Aboriginal patients attending Katherine Hospital in the NT found that Aboriginal patients took their own leave (early discharge) at a rate 9 times greater than non-Indigenous patients between June 2013 and June 2015 (Parter et al, 2024). Reasons for taking early leave are complicated but include racism, lack of cultural safety, mistrust of the health system, and isolation from friends and family. The Katherine Case study also notes some of the positive changes made to better consider the cultural needs of patients and Cultural Safety of non-Indigenous staff. These included the integration of bush medicine and traditional healers into patient care (Parter et al, 2024). There is now greater recognition of the cultural determinants of health as being important for health service delivery and policy to improve the health and wellbeing of Indigenous people. Culture is now central to the National Aboriginal Health Plan. There is also growing recognition that the health “…workplace must be culturally competent and their workforce culturally safe and free from racism” (Parter et al, 2024). Health Departments nationally and health profession associations have sought to address the issue through in-service training, education and awareness programs. Some state health departments, such as the NSW Ministry of Health, have mandatory policy on cultural safety. The NSW Health Respecting the Difference training has two components – online training and a face-to-face group session and “.. aims to significantly improve the health status of Aboriginal people and reverse the impact of racism as there is an immediate and ongoing need for organisations to provide more respectful, responsive and culturally sensitive services” (NSW Health, 2022). The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) has undertaken a substantial body of work to engage with First Nations Communities, peak bodies, universities, etc to address systemic racism in the health system via national laws governing registration of health professionals. This was part of a wider long-term structural process within AHPRA that included the creation of an Aboriginal Health Unit in AHPRA and the National Scheme’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy 2020-2025. (AHPRA, 2023). AHPRA, the National Boards and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Strategy Group advocated to enshrine cultural safety as a guiding principle and objective for the National Scheme, which was adopted as legislative amendments to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law in October 2022. These provisions were complemented by the establishment of culturally safe notification processes, led by First Nations Islander Peoples which was formally announced in March 2023 (AHPRA, 2023). This was vital in sending a message through the entire health system as well as building confidence among Indigenous communities. There is now clear recognition by the national regulator that without cultural safety, there is no clinical safety and patient safety includes An Anti-Racism Framework: Voices of First Nations Peoples Page 64