The benefits associated with caring for country

Prepared by Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) as a commission for the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, this literature review considers the growing field of research that is documenting and examining the benefits of caring for country.

It begins by scoping what caring for country means within our intercultural society, and why connection with country is important. This is followed by a discussion of the influential literature on the benefits of caring for country. These benefits include:

• health and wellbeing benefits
• cultural and socio-political benefits
• economic benefits
• environmental benefits.

The discussion includes some of the barriers to achieving benefits, as well as anticipated and realised benefits of caring for country. Much of the innovation in this field is in the exploration of health and country, and the matching of economic and environmental goals. Because of the reach of caring for country into diverse aspects of Indigenous wellbeing, documenting the benefits is a multidisciplinary exercise.