The medical journal The Lancet, in collaboration with the London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Survival International, has this
week launched a high-profile series of articles highlighting the
shocking health crisis facing indigenous peoples worldwide.
The series provides evidence that across rich and poor countries, the
health of indigenous peoples who have suffered colonialism and loss of
land is significantly worse than that of the rest of the population.
In Australia, life expectancy for Aboriginal men is 59 years, compared
to 77 for Australian men as whole. The infant mortality rate among
Aborigines is three times the rate for the whole of the country. The
Guarani in Brazil have the highest suicide rate in South America.
Survival's director Stephen Corry said today: Indigenous peoples' ill
health is the legacy of centuries of colonisation, discrimination,
poverty and loss of control over their lands and resources. It is one
of the most urgent humanitarian issues of the 21st century.'
Survival is working to defend isolated tribal peoples, who are in
danger of being wiped out by new diseases and theft of their land. The
Jarawa of the Andaman Islands in India have recently been struck by
measles for the second time since they came into contact with
outsiders. The Akuntsu tribe of the Brazilian Amazon has been reduced
to six people, after all their
relatives were killed by introduced diseases, violent clashes with
invading cattle ranchers and the destruction of their land and communal
houses by bulldozers.
ENDS
To read the Lancet's articles visit http://www.thelancet.com/collections/series/indigenous_health
Photos and footage available. For more information call Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org
