The Hepatitis Queensland team learns, lives and works upon the land and waterways of the Yuggera region and acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands across Queensland. Hepatitis Queensland acknowledges that sovereignty was never ceded. We understand that the work we undertake in Queensland is grounded within the love, courage, creativity and resilience of previous Indigenous activists, advocates, and community leaders. We value the cultures, histories and traditions that are important components of the identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and acknowledge that these essential elements contribute to the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Our vision for reconciliation is to close the unacceptable and ongoing health disparity that still exists between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians. As an organisation, Hepatitis Queensland holds values such as inclusiveness and responsibility that are at the core of our business and the communities we service. As such, we are implementing this RAP to ensure we can foster greater relationships with, demonstrate respect and identify opportunities for, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

We anticipate that through developing and implementing this RAP, we will be able to better understand the health and wellbeing needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and from this, implement steps to enable us to enhance health service delivery to ensure that all Australians – including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – are able to receive equitable access to testing, prevention and treatment options for viral hepatitis.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a higher prevalence of hepatitis B than non-Indigenous people at 4%. Hepatitis C has an estimated prevalence of 1% for non-Indigenous people yet rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are 4 times higher. Hepatitis Queensland is committed to reducing the substantial health inequalities that exist for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with viral hepatitis and liver disease.

For Hepatitis Queensland, we are embarking on an important reconciliation journey in the development of our first RAP. We see the RAP framework as an opportunity to leverage our experience and expertise to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to achieve better health outcomes and follow best practice as our organisation moves into the future.

The RAP is being led and developed by our RAP working group with representatives from all areas of our operations, including our CEO, two project officers and a member of the community who identifies as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person and has previous history working with the organisation. As part of our RAP working group, we have identified an initial group of “RAP Champions” who are already committed to reconciliation. As our RAP is implemented, we will have these staff mentor others that have a strong interest throughout the organisation to further contribute and drive our RAP implementation.

Download the Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan