ABSTRACT
The two Antipodean countries (Australia, New Zealand) have a peculiar manifestation of activities running under the banner of health humanities. While the term itself—as an academic discipline or practice-oriented approach—is still less known, contributions toward health by the humanities and especially the arts are manifold. This chapter aims to provide a contextual frame for this scenario, followed by showcasing some select examples of current activities. In choosing the examples we aim to illustrate the role of arts and humanities in supporting health and well-being in a range of populations and settings. These include programs in areas such as dementia and Indigenous health along with activities in health-care settings and health professional education. Although there is much activity in the arts and health domain, there is also scope for further work to play a more critical role in redefining conceptions of health, illness, and disease and for the discipline of communication to take a more active role. That said, the tradition of critical sociocultural scholarship and seemingly growing government support in Australia and New Zealand bodes well for a more reflective health humanities logic and broader interrogation of medicine, health, and illness in the future.
