In describing their own experiences, women emphasised the role of Aboriginal peers, particularly cousins and friends, in influencing them starting smoking.
Members of the ARG were acknowledged as professionals both by their Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peers in the areas of Aboriginal health and welfare.
We found that VTI rates in Aboriginal children aged less than 4 years were approximately two-thirds of those in their same age non-Aboriginal peers.
However, after differences in socioeconomic status and remoteness were taken into account, Aboriginal children aged 6 8 years had a higher likelihood of procedures than their same age non-Aboriginal peers.
These children experience relatively high rates of poor growth, common childhood infections [ 4] and serious diseases such as acute rheumatic fever, rheumatic heart disease, and trachoma [ 5- 9] compared to their non-Aboriginal peers, to Indigenous children living in North America and New Zealand, and to children from some developing countries [ 6, 10, 11].
A recent Western Australian study with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous adolescents found that smoking status had little relevance to friendship selection but that lower socio-economic and Aboriginal adolescents reported more peer pressure to try smoking [ 30].
We would like to acknowledge the women who participated in the survey and to the 28 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peer Interviewers who were fundamental to the success of the project.
Khelsilem links the current interest in learning Aboriginal languages among his peers to the political activism of the 1970s and 80s when social justice movements inspired Canada's aboriginal population to embrace their own identity after decades of what he calls "internalized racism".
A passive snowballing technique will also be employed, with participants asked to contact any Aboriginal friends, family and peers who may be interested in partaking.
Our findings on the perceived influences on initiating smoking emphasise the role of Aboriginal social networks in determining peer groups and the importance of smoking in order to belong to a these social groups.
