LECTURE 8

29 April 2011

One of the most disruptive influences on a person being able to lead the lives that they desire is a lack of access to adequate shelter and housing. Dwellings that are overcrowded are likely to contribute to poor health and also make it difficult for children living there to undertake education. However, the ability of individuals to take control of their own housing situation is determined by their current tenure situation. Once again housing circumstance is both an aspect of wellbeing and a determinant of many other measures and in the first two parts of the lecture we will consider both. While an ‘Indigenous house' is reasonably easy to define (that is, a dwelling that contains at least one Indigenous usual resident), an ‘Indigenous household' is more difficult. In the third part of the lecture, we will discuss the ways by which Indigenous household and family formation differ from that of the non-Indigenous population. In the final part of the lecture we will use this discussion to inform a critical discussion of Indigenous household wellbeing measures.