Remapping country, kin and culture on the Darling Downs and Southwest Queensland: some suggestions for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal resilience and well-being

Recent years have seen resilience discourse occupy an increasingly significant space within the health and well-being domains; a situation which is similarly the case in the Darling Downs and Southwest Queensland regions, Australia. These changes are flanked by a growing social innovation movement that recognizes the importance of making the links between social and ecological resilience in ways that include disenfranchised communities as active participants; particularly the Aboriginal peoples within those communities. Today, these regions have significant Aboriginal populations and theoretically potential for this form of engagement. However, a particularly violent and bloody colonial history has left its Aboriginal populations displaced with accompanying significant health and well-being challenges. Authored by three health academics engaged in research and teaching activities within these communities, this paper outlines contemporary human progress and well-being issues for these regions, and proposes an ‘integral approach to cultural and epistemological remapping’ as one means of aligning social and ecological resilience and addressing these issues