This paper describes the gap between the health and well-being status of Indigenous people living in remote areas of northern Australia and non-Indigenous Australians. This disparity is predicted to increase over time, due to direct and indirect impacts resulting from expected large increases in hot spells in desert regions and more extremes in rainfall in other areas of the north. The paper argues that it is time to explicitly draw on Indigenous definitions of health, which directly address the need to connect individual and community health to the health of their country, in order to develop effective climate adaptation and health strategies. The authors explain how current health policies overlook this ‘missing’ dimension of Indigenous connection to country, and why that is likely to be detrimental to the health and well-being of people living in remote communities in a climatechanged future.
