This paper discusses the policy and political context surrounding the widespread socioeconomic disadvantage and health inequality amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and suggests a culturally-appropriate means of measuring emotional and social wellbeing (ESWB), a concept acknowledged as crucially important to the health of Indigenous populations. The paper also explores the evaluation of scales in a health research setting, including assessments of endorsement, discrimination, internal and external reliability. An evaluation of the Negative Life Events Scale (NLES) in two samples of Aboriginal people living in remote communities in Australia’s Northern Territory shows potential for assessing psychosocial wellbeing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. The researchers advocate that a better understanding of ESWB will lead to better psychosocial health of Indigenous populations and decrease health inequalities.
