As much as it is a privilege, caring for our parents and grandparents – the people we have relied on – can be confronting. We see their vulnerability, their pain, and we have to step up in ways we’re often unprepared for.

But ageing is a process most of us are at least somewhat familiar with, especially as life expectancy in Australia has eclipsed 81 years for men and 85 for women. For some communities, though, the experience of aged care is a historic first.

Home or community-based care is especially important for many First Nations people.Credit: Matt Davidson

Speaking at the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority’s conference in Adelaide last week, Stan Grant – distinguished professor at Charles Sturt University, and a Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharrawal man renowned for his journalism – pointed this out.

“I stand here today older than both of my grandfathers were when they died,” Grant, 61, said. “It’s an incredibly sobering thought that as First Nations people, we are experiencing the first generation of ageing.”

Grant’s father, who is 85, has lived well beyond the 71-year life expectancy for First Nations men. But if not for some key factors, Grant reckons he would probably have died earlier.

“My parents have had to bury nieces, nephews and grandchildren,” he said. “Just a week ago, we had to bury a nephew of mine who was just 40 years old.”

One of the most important factors behind his parents outliving the national average is tied to a challenge facing the entire nation – but especially First Nations Australians – according to Grant: housing security.

“Every Aboriginal person like me who has closed the gap, every single one, has two things in their life: home ownership and an education,” Grant said.

Owning a home to live in, and to be cared for in, has been crucial – not only for his parents’ ability to live at home in their old age and be around family and their community, but also to Grant’s own personal success.

“I could go to sleep at night [as a kid] and know I wasn’t going to be woken at midnight to pack up and move somewhere,” he said.

After he moved school 14 times before even entering high school, Grant........

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