Environmental Psychology This project is interested in looking at the health di

Environmental Psychology
This project is interested in looking at the health disparity that surrounds Australia’s indigenous Aboriginal people. It has been found that Aboriginal Australians have lower life expectancy than non-indigenous Australians. I am interested in reviewing the factors that are contributing to this large health gap and this project will largely focus on Aboriginal people living in urban areas. I will examine the history of Aboriginal people and their connection to place and country”, I will also explore the role of urbanization, environmental stressors, living conditions, and access to food/food insecurity. Most Aboriginal people live in urban areas and earn less income than non-indigenous people. Due to the wealth disparity, many indigenous people live in poor areas. Their living conditions have many implications, first, low income more often than not means that the housing quality is also low. Due to low income, many indigenous Australians live in neighborhoods that have readily available fast foods and low distribution of supermarkets. If these communities do have supermarkets, because of the wealth inequality, healthier foods are harder to obtain because they are often much more expensive than the not-so-healthy options. Living in poor urban areas also means there is a lack of quality green space which is very important for human health. Green spaces promote exercise and have restorative effects, studies have found that simply even living near green spaces raises life expectancy. All these factors work together to put Aboriginal people at a disadvantage. This project will review them and then explore how city planning and government policies can help lessen the gap. The project will be in the form of an essay that focuses on all these issues separately while also recognizing how they all impact each other. I will start with a brief background on the history of Aborginal people and place strong emphasis on their connection to country and nature. I will explore the effects of colonization, racism, discrimination on social capital, and the effects of urbinization and
economic factors on mental and physical health. These factors are all intricately related and greatly impact the issue.