This is not just health equality but it is our survival and growth as the oldest living continuous culture on this planet.

We must be proud of what we have achieved so far, more vital health checks are being done, there is more access to life saving medicines and improvements in child and maternal outcomes.

The CTG campaign is the only campaign I know that brings around the camp fire over thirty peak organisations from across Australia all who are dedicated to closing the gap.

Each year the Closing the Gap report is tabled in Parliament House in Canberra irrespective of who is in power, it is truly a bipartisan agreement.

I have sat in the public gallery each year as the report is being tabled, waiting with abated breath wondering….is this the year? Is this the year where we see real commitment? It should not just rhetoric, but needs to be followed by funding. Then the crunch…. is there a commitment to listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, to work with my people, not just for my people?

We have a long way to go and we cannot step back.

The health disparities are huge right across the continuum. From conception to death, our babies are born underweight, far too early and our children have glue ears, bad eyes and respiratory diseases. It is a national shame that our babies and young children are suffering the ravages and dying from Acute Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease largely eradicated in all other developed countries.

Heart disease is on the rampage running havoc through our communities, the number one killer of our mob, with more young people falling victim from heart attacks. We are burying far too many of our young ones not even making it into their third or fourth decade. 

I am proud to represent the Heart Foundation on the Close the Gap Campaign steering committee, a committee dedicated to bring about change.

Please sign the pledge today #CloseTheGap, every Australia deserves a healthy future, for further information visit the website www.oxfam.org.au/ctg

Photo caption: Vicki and her granddaughter Emily heading off for Survival Day