Dear Colleagues,

We are organising a Special Issue on Indigenous Health and Wellbeing in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles and communications in the interdisciplinary area of environmental health sciences and public health. For detailed information on the journal, we refer you to https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph. 

Improving Indigenous health and wellbeing is an important objective for all who aspire to reducing health inequities. Indigenous people around the world share many common difficult and distressing experiences that have adversely affected their lives, including the experience of colonisation, discrimination and socioeconomic disadvantage. These things impact adversely upon both people's physical and mental health. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (2008) sanctioned cultural integrity and the rights of Indigenous peoples to practice and revitalise cultural traditions and customs. We now understand that health and wellbeing are broad concepts that incorporate not just our physical bodies but also social, emotional, cultural and spiritual aspects of health and wellbeing. So how is the health and wellbeing of Indigenous people faring following the 2008 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People?

This Special issue will explore the many dimensions of health and wellbeing that impact upon Indigenous health and wellbeing from a political, economic, justice, epidemiological, social or rights-based perspective. Wellbeing incorporates concepts such as personal relationships, feelings of safety, standard of living, sense of achievement and purpose, feeling part of the community and future security. We hope that this special issue will explore tools that can be used to measure health and wellbeing and evidence regarding effective approaches to achieving Indigenous health and wellbeing at individual, community and policy level from around the world. We are also keen to understand interventions and changes that have enabled Indigenous identity and inclusion with flow on benefits to health and wellbeing. There are also many questions about how we can best achieve Indigenous health and wellbeing across the life course, the importance of traditional language, storytelling, connection to country, the arts, sport and participation in traditional cultural activities as well as ways of delivering appropriate therapies. Ways of building the capacity of the broader health and social workforce and of policy makers to understand best approaches to Indigenous health and wellbeing could also be described. We are also interested in how a treaty, education, reconciliation, power and self-determination influence health and wellbeing.  There is much to learn from the experience of other Indigenous cultures and comparative analyses.

This Special Issue is open to any subject area related to Indigenous health and wellbeing. The listed keywords suggest just a few of the many possibilities.

Prof. Sandra Thompson
Ms. Charmaine Green
Dr. Rosalie Thackrah
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Indigenous, Aboriginal, First Nations
• Cultural identity
• Cultural safety and Cultural competency
• Kinship, Family and Peer Relationships
• Participation and social inclusion
• Empowerment
• Social justice
• Human and civil rights
• Behaviours and Risks
• Social inclusion and sense of community
• Quality of life
• Social participation
• Holistic approaches
• Spirituality
• Mental health
• Resilience
• Social determinants
• Trauma, grief and loss
• Health literacy
• Health behaviour and health seeking
• Health knowledge, attitudes, practice
• Community participation
• Self-efficacy