1. Close the Gap in pictures

2. More than 140,000 Australians have joined the Close the Gap campaign

3. Schools around Australia participate in National Close the Gap Day

4. Olympic champions Catherine Freeman and Ian Thorpe launched the Close the Gap campaign in April 2007.

5. Musicians including Missy Higgins, John Butler, Kev Carmody and Blue King Brown have thrown their support behind Close the Gap.

6. There is a link between poor health and racism

7. Research has shown that racism is literally making Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people sick.

8. The Indigenous population is much younger overall than the non-Indigenous population.

9. Rumbalara Aboriginal Corporation in Shepparton, Victoria is one of Australia’s more than 130 Aboriginal community controlled health services.

10. Education is one of the key social determinants of good health

11. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still die on average between 10 and 17 years before other Australians.

12. In 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, senior Ministers and the Federal Opposition signed a Statement of Intent with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health leaders committing them to closing the Indigenous life expectancy gap by the year 2030

13. Australia’s first Indigenous surgeon, Kelvin Kong is one of more than 150 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical doctors now practicing. Expanding this health workforce is essential.

14. Photo Credits Federation Square – Robert McKechnie/Oxfam Aus Missy Higgins Signs Pledge – Robert McKechnie/OxfamAus School kids at NCTGD Sydney – Micheal Myers/OxfamAus Olympic champions launch campaign – Micheal Myers/OxfamAus Racism makes me sick – ANTaR Australia Girls on jetty – Wayne Quillian/OxfamAus Checking blood pressure – John Sones/OxfamAus Mornington girl – Lara McKinley/OxfamAus Lower life expectancy – Micheal Myers/OxfamAus Rudd and Roxon sign the pledge – Micheal Myers/OxfamAus Kelving Kong – image supplied by Kelvin Kong.