Respect

Confidentiality

Accountability

Honesty

Fairness

We are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples before we are nurses.

We are first nations people and intend to maintain our cultural heritage.

We recognise that we are on a lifelong journey with cultural obligations and commitment to our communities.

We challenge the western health model in which nurses live and work, as this model promotes separation, hierarchy and power struggles; it denies the emotional, social, spiritual and political aspects of health in our holistic way.

The philosophy that promotes all peoples as equal, or to be treated the same, denies difference and cultural identity.

Justice and recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history is a requirement of reconciliation.

We are the experts in our own health and believe our experience and world view challenges these models. Non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander can learn and benefit from our experiences.

Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses are forced to live a “double life”. This living between two worlds and two cultures causes internal conflict. We see this as a continuation of the assimilation process and support all measures to reverse or challenge this process.

From National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing Forum,1997.