Identifying the gaps: Indigenous ageing: Editorial

Over the last few years, Australasian Journal on Ageing (AJA) has tried to identify our strengths in publishing, and the persistent gaps in ageing research and articles that we publish. In 2015, we made good inroads to addressing the paucity of LGBTI and ageing perspectives with our LGBTI Ageing and Aged Care Special Issue. Another clear gap is the lack of published indigenous research and practice in ageing, in Australia [1], and particularly in the AJA [2]. A quick review of the AJA back catalogue over the last 10 years (2006–2015) identified 13 articles which included a perspective on indigenous ageing from Australia or New Zealand. Nine of these articles were specifically about indigenous groups: four included primary data [3–6], two were reviews [7,8], one was an ANZSGM (Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine) position statement [9], one was a commentary on a published review article [10], and one was a personal story [11]. The other four articles considered primary data on indigenous groups in comparison with non-indigenous groups [12–15]. While four articles were published in 2015, there is, however, no clear trend of increasing publications on indigenous ageing over time. Over the last 10 years, AJA has published less than one article of primary data on indigenous ageing each two years. Given the diverse experience of ageing in different cultures, and the continuing emphasis on ‘closing the gap’ in Australia [16], it would be good to see these statistics improved over the next 10 years of AJA publication.