Enhancing health and wellbeing outcomes for infants is at the forefront of global Indigenous social work practice.

Child maltreatment is a global health priority affecting up to half of all children worldwide, with profound and ongoing impacts on physical, social and emotional wellbeing.

Indigenous peoples are resilient peoples with deep traditional knowledge and scientific thought spanning millennia.

This article describes the work to date of the First 1000 Days Australia program of research.

The Australian specific interpretation of the 1000 Days movement is being established to have effective supports for families of Indigenous children during critical periods of heightened risk from pre-conception to a child’s second birthday.

“Young children’s healthy development depends on nurturing care-care which ensures health, nutrition, responsive caregiving, safety and security, and early learning.”

The Australian Model of the First 1000 Days is an Indigenous-led initiative which seeks to provide a coordinated, comprehensive intervention to address the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from (pre)conception to two years of age and their families.

To ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and their children benefit from the international 1000 Days movement, an Australian Model of the First 1000 Days is being developed through a year-long, nationwide engagement process.

Champions needed to scale up childhood equity efforts, not short-term solutions in ill conceived policy

Continuing to close the health gap will require innovation; long-term, systematic approaches that improve the quality and integrity of data; collaborations and partnerships that reflect an ecological approach to health, and recognition of the proper place and contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australian society.

“The Series identifies a set of ten proven nutrition-specific interventions, which if scaled up from present population coverage to cover 90% if the need, would eliminate about 900 000 deaths of children younger than 5 years in the 34 high nutrition-burden countries - where 90% of the world’s stunted children live.”