•    Indigenous Australians have a life expectancy around 17 years less than the national average

•    Half the difference in life expectancy is due to kidney disease, diabetes and heart disease

•    Kidney disease is nearly fifty times worse than the national average in some Indigenous communities in Central Australia

•    Kidney disease is not related to alcohol

•    Diabetes Type 2 frequently leads to kidney failure

•    Indigenous Australians are eight times more likely to die of diabetes than other Australians

•    To get kidney dialysis treatment people in remote areas have to relocate up to two thousand kilometres from their home. They leave families, home, and Country for treatment. This quickly exhausts all their savings and income. Families and Communities are being destroyed because of the separation

•    There are two methods for treating kidney failure: Peritoneal Dialysis [PD] which must be done four times a day, every day, and Haemodialysis [HD] which must be done over a five hour period three times a week. HD involves removing all the patients blood during each session and cleaning it. For remote area patients HD is mainly done in major rural towns like Alice Springs and Tennant Creek

•    There are about 460,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders according to the 2001 Census


The Jimmy Little Foundation acknowledges the traditional lands and it’s owners and the contribution of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia both past, present and future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this website may contain images of people who have passed away. The Jimmy Little Foundation constantly endeavours to ensure that information appearing in this site is correct at the time of collation, but accepts no responsibility for any mistakes, inaccuracies or mis-descriptions, whether by inclusion or omission and whether negligent or otherwise.