The Positioning of Indigenous Australians as Health Care Recipients

The everyday operations of Australia's socioeconomic, racial, and cultural hierarchies have health consequences for Indigenous Australians. By comparing the socioeconomic and demographic positioning of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, we explore how the dominant "being" and "doing" of those who operate and control the health system impact Indigenous Australians. The ramifications of the ontological chasm between the two are then demonstrated in what happens, or not, around the seemingly straightforward task of collecting Indigenous status data for health statistics. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.