Physical Activity of Remote Indigenous Australian Women: A Postcolonial Analysis of Lifestyle

In the context of rising chronic diseases amongst Indigenous peoples, there are calls for the adoption of more healthy “lifestyles.” In this context, this paper explores thoughts about physical activity from 21 Indigenous families through the voices of women and girls living in remote rural communities in the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area, Australia. Speaking back to physical activity as a lifestyle “choice,” three consistent themes emerged: shame, gendered positioning, and welfarism. In conclusion, the perspectives of Torres Strait islanders and Northern Peninsula Area communities suggest that there are deeply embedded ways of thinking about the body, familial obligations, and the provision of and access to being active that are not consistent with Western health policies predicated upon individuals shouldering responsibility for “taking exercise.”