Generally, a mainstream understanding of health is applied when mental health (illness) presentations are considered, assessed, and treated using a biomedical Western perspective and standpoint (Wilson & Waqanaviti 2021). This chapter explores mental health through an alternative First Nations lens, that of social and emotional well-being (SEWB). While there is a scarcity of national data that specifically measure the social and emotional well-being of First Nations people, data that are available paint a consistent picture: one of much higher rates of use of mental health services by First Nations people, compared to other Australians (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2009).This chapter sets the context for further discussion regarding First Nations people and explores issues relating to social and emotional well-being and mental health. Colonisation and its history are discussed, as well as the subsequent decimation/devastation that followed and continues today. The resilience and struggle that has taken place, along with cultural recognition and renewal, ultimately shapes the present.
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