Reproductive justice and culturally safe approaches to sexual and reproductive health for indigenous women and girls

In this chapter we take a de-colonising, strengths-based approach to the subject of Indigenous women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health. Indigenous strengths-based approaches are asset-based; focussed on resilience, protective factors, and capacity building; culturally safe; engaged with social and cultural determinants; and governed by Indigenous research methodologies and concepts of well-being. Composed of seven inter-related Indigenous domains of well-being—Country, spirituality, culture, community, family and kinship, mind and emotions, and body—Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) is widely recognised as a culturally appropriate Indigenous health model within Australia and informs important state and federal health policies and strategies. Through this model, we examine Indigenous women’s reproductive oppression, including discussion of self-determination, cultural safety, and Indigenous health models; social and emotional well-being; connection to Country; connection to spirituality; connection to culture; connection to family and kinship; connection to community; connection to mind and emotions; and connection to body.