Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley says she wants to use her status to influence government policy on Aboriginal health issues through a series of research projects.
Professor Stanley is the Executive Director of the Institute of Child Health Research in Perth.
She says health indicators for Aboriginal people are not acceptable and governments have to be more accepting of Aboriginal opinions on health issues.
Professor Stanley says poor health in Aboriginal communities throughout Australia has to be understood in an historical context.
"We don¹t have a lot of data on if you¹ve had your land taken away. And if you've had to go off your land and you've been broken up from your family. That's ill health And that's hugely ill health. Even if you haven't got the diabetes and hypertension, you're sad and you're sick because you can't go to your land anymore. We don't have a lot of data on that. So we need to have data on that. That's really powerful information."
Professor Stanley says governments have not had the political will or the information to improve the health of the Aboriginal community.
The Institute of Child Health Research has been conducting major research on Aboriginal children¹s health over the last three years.
The results will be published in September this year.
