Closing the Gap: cultural safety in Indigenous health education.

The challenge for the future is to embrace a new partnership aimed at closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on life expectancy, educational achievement and employment opportunities. Significant improvements in contemporary Indigenous health care can be achieved through culturally safe health education programs for Indigenous students. However, while participation rates of Australian Indigenous students in the higher education sector are increasing, attrition rates are markedly higher than those of the general student population.