First Peoples say cultural medicines remain central to health and wellbeing despite a lack of access, with access to physical medicines (ingested, inhaled and topical) a top priority, according to new research led by Southern Cross University.
Published in First Nations Health and Wellbeing – The Lowitja Journal, the study provides the first Australia-wide, co-designed exploration of First Peoples’ use, access and desire to use cultural medicines. The research team set out to understand the role the Indigenous community wanted cultural medicines to play.
MAIN PHOTO: Yirrganydji Aboriginal woman sorting edible fruit and seeds (credit iStock).
Key findings
- Cultural medicines are widely used across Australia but poorly supported in health systems
- Participants report high unmet need for access to cultural medicines
- Aboriginal community-controlled health services are the preferred access point
- Palliative and end-of-life care are the other key sites for cultural medicines integration
- Health sovereignty requires First Peoples governance over cultural medicines in care
The researchers say the findings reframe cultural medicines as a core equity issue rather than a peripheral or ‘alternative’ aspect of care and call for the recognition of First Peoples as the original experts in health and healing.
Lead author is Dr Alana Gall of Southern Cross University’s National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine.
“The study found substantial unmet need, shaped not only by geography and service availability but likely by colonisation, displacement from Country, disruption of knowledge transmission, and the ongoing marginalisation of Indigenous knowledges systems within health structures,” said Dr Gall, a proud Truwulway and Litamirimina woman.
“As an Aboriginal person myself, it concerns me that we can learn about, access and use Traditional Chinese Medicine and all these other medicines from across the globe yet we can’t do the same when it comes to our own medicines.”
A total of 186 First Peoples adults participated, mostly aged 30-49 years. The majority were women (81.7% female). Respondents were in cities and regional areas across Australia.
Only 9.7 per cent reported easy access to traditional healers, yet over 94 per cent of those without access indicated that they would use healers if available. Use of ‘Country as medicine’ and smoking ceremonies were most common, while song-based ceremonies, insect-based native foods and traditional healers showed lowest engagement.
“Taken together, these results reframe cultural medicines as a core equity issue rather than a peripheral or ‘alternative’ aspect of care. Achieving health equity for First Peoples requires more than cultural awareness training or piecemeal inclusion of Indigenous content in existing models; it demands structural change,” said Dr Gall.
Mike Stephens, Director of Medicines Policy and Programs at National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) was a co-author.
CEO of NACCHO, Dr Dawn Casey, PSM FAHA, says: “Normalising cultural medicines does not mean bringing them into the health system on the system’s terms. It means recognising them as legitimate forms of care, protecting the cultural knowledge that underpins them and supporting their use alongside clinical care.
“Access must be designed and governed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, through ACCHOs, with local knowledge holders and according to community protocols, so people and families can choose care that reflects their culture, including during palliative and end-of-life care,” said Dr Casey.
Providing cultural governance over the work was co-author Aunty Theresa Sainty, a Pakana Elder.
“Milaythina (Country) is ‘medicine’ for our people – she is our mother, and we, her children. As we grow, reciprocity is expected. If we care for Ningi Manina (Mother Earth), then she can continue to care for us, her people,” said Aunty Theresa.
Professor Catherine Chamberlain is the Editor-in-Chief at the First Nations Health and Wellbeing – the Lowitja Journal.
“At the First Nations Health and Wellbeing – the Lowitja Journal we are pleased to be able to support Indigenous authors to publish articles such as this one which increase understanding of the use of cultural therapies by Indigenous peoples,” said Professor Chamberlain.
Smoking ceremony (credit iStock).
End-of-life care as a priority site
End-of-life care emerged as a critical site for cultural inclusion. While two-thirds of participants wanted cultural medicines for themselves in palliative care, more than 92 per cent wanted their families to access healing ceremonies for grieving.
Dr Gall said family is always at the centre of wellbeing for Indigenous people.
“This finding highlights a strong demand for culturally governed cultural medicines within palliative and bereavement pathways. Cultural shifts are needed across the health system to support all forms of health practitioners to facilitate access to cultural medicines and to create shared spaces of medical and therapeutic plurality.”
Restoring Country and Indigenous knowledges systems
The study found that restoring lands and ecosystems, supporting intergenerational knowledge transfer and protecting Elders as knowledge holders are vital steps, and resonate with Indigenous-led work on planetary health that centres justice, culture and relationships with Country as foundations for a self-determined healthy future.
“Barriers to access are inseparable from the health of Country and must be understood as a legacy of colonisation – one that continues to restrict First Peoples’ access to Country, cultural knowledges and cultural medicines,” said Dr Gall.
Implications for First Nations, locally and globally
These findings have direct implications for policy and program responses in both Australia and internationally.
“Addressing these gaps is consistent with national commitments such as the Closing the Gap policy agenda in Australia, and international policy, particularly the United Nations General Assembly 2007, which speak to First Peoples’ rights to culturally safe care and to self-determination in health,” said Dr Gall.
“Policy and program responses must therefore be developed in genuine collaboration with, and where possible led by, First Peoples, including deliberate efforts to retrieve, revive and sustain cultural medicines knowledges in the same way that language revitalisation and reclamation has reclaimed and strengthened First Peoples’ languages.”
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Play video Study details
‘Use and access of cultural medicines by First Peoples in Australia: Exploratory national insights and implications for health sovereignty’ by Alana Gall (Truwulway, Litamirimina), Mike Stephens, Michelle Kennedy (Wiradjuri), Danielle Armour (Kamilaroi), Boyd Potts, Theresa Sainty (Pakana, Truwulway, Litamirimina), Jon Wardle, Nicole Hewlett (Palawa), Allyra Hulme (Wiradjuri), Zayna Gall (Pakana, Truwulway, Litamirimina), Andrew T. Gall (Pakana, Truwulway, Litamirimina), Amie Furlong, Kate Anderson
Published in: First Nations Health and Wellbeing – The Lowitja Journal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fnhli.2026.100127
About First Nations Health and Wellbeing – The Lowitja Journal
First Nations Health and Wellbeing – The Lowitja Journal is the official journal of the Lowitja Institute
