AMHC Blog Post - Off the Flight Path: Rethinking Multicultural Health

Migrating birds don’t navigate by reading signs. They rely on landmarks, currents and guidance from others in the flock. Health systems often assume people will simply follow the official pathways we design.

But many people navigate healthcare the same way birds navigate migration:
through community advice, family networks, and trusted guides. When those guides are missing, people can easily lose their way.

This is why community organisations and bicultural workers often become the real navigators of the health system, even though the system rarely recognises them as such.

When people think about multicultural health in Australia, the conversation often begins and ends with translation.

A new policy or campaign is announced. Materials are produced in English. Then someone asks the practical question: ‘Which languages should we translate this into?’ Translation matters. Language access is essential for equitable healthcare. But if we are honest, translation is only a small part of the puzzle.

Treating multicultural health as primarily a translation issue risks missing the deeper challenges that many communities face when interacting with Australia’s health system.

From the conversations we have been having through the Collaborative, the reality looks much broader.

Many people from multicultural backgrounds experience difficulty navigating the health system itself. Knowing which service to go to, how referrals work, what preventive services exist, or when screening is recommended is not always obvious, particularly for people who have arrived from very different health systems. Even when information is translated, it can still assume a level of system familiarity that simply is not there.

Trust is another critical factor. Communities do not automatically trust institutions or health messaging. Trust is built through relationships, through community leadership, and through culturally safe engagement over time. Without that trust, even well-translated information may not lead to action.

Workforce capability also matters. Cultural competence is still uneven across parts of the health system. Many health professionals want to provide culturally responsive care but have had limited training or exposure to working with diverse communities. Without the right skills and understanding, services can unintentionally create barriers rather than remove them.

And then there are the structural issues that translation alone cannot fix. Access to Medicare, visa status, affordability, and fragmented service pathways can all shape how people experience healthcare. These factors can determine whether someone seeks care early, delays it, or avoids the system altogether.

The evidence consistently shows that multicultural communities often face interconnected challenges when accessing health services. These include language barriers, health and digital literacy challenges, cultural safety concerns, and difficulties navigating complex health systems. These factors can influence whether people engage in preventive care, screening programs or early treatment.

None of this means translation is unimportant. Quite the opposite. Language access is foundational. But translation works best when it sits within a broader system designed with multicultural communities in mind from the outset.

This is where the role of the Collaborative comes in.

The Collaborative exists to bring together community voices, health practitioners, researchers and policy leaders to identify where systems are not working as they should and to help shape practical solutions. Sometimes that involves surfacing issues that are already well known in communities but less visible within national policy discussions. Other times it means connecting organisations that may be tackling similar challenges from different angles.

Our role is not to duplicate the work of others. Instead, we aim to convene, connect and translate lived experience into insights that can inform better policy, programs and system design.

In recent months, many of the conversations we have been having with community leaders, health organisations and policymakers have reinforced the same message:

Improving health equity for multicultural communities requires looking beyond communication and into the structure of the health system itself.

It means asking questions such as are services easy to navigate for someone unfamiliar with the system? Do health campaigns reflect the realities of multicultural communities? Is the workforce equipped to deliver culturally safe care? Are policies considering the structural barriers some communities face?

These are not quick fixes. But they are the kinds of questions that help move the conversation from translation to transformation.

Next week, the Collaborative will be presenting at the Ethnolink Summit in Sydney, where we will explore some of these themes further. The session will look at where multicultural health conversations sometimes get “lost in translation” and where the sector has an opportunity to move beyond surface-level solutions towards more systemic change.

Multicultural Australia is one of our country’s greatest strengths. Ensuring that our health system works well for everyone is not just about translating information. It is about designing systems that recognise the diversity, complexity and lived experience of the communities they serve.

And that work is only just beginning.