Optometrists not only have a critical role to play, but a responsibility to contribute to public health and to the specific health needs of Indigenous peoples, as is now highlighted in the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency shared ‘Code of Conduct’. This session will synthesise contemporary research and viewpoints from a special issue in Clinical and Experimental Optometry on public health and Indigenous eye health. Culturally safe eye care practice (now mandatory in the curriculum of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand optometry school programs), innovative and evidence-based models of eye care delivery (e.g., Aotearoa Vision Bus, Lions Outback Vision Service, as well as glaucoma and diabetes collaborative care) and children’s vision services (e.g., Paediatric Optometry Alignment Program) will be showcased, with particular emphasis on partnership with Indigenous scholars, researchers and community. From the special issue, it is clear that there is much momentum, with multiple strengths-based initiatives and approaches designed to improve access to culturally safe eye care services. However, there is more work to be done. First and foremost, as individual optometrists and as a profession, we must do more to develop meaningful reciprocal relationships, where the ways in which inequities in Indigenous eye health are tackled is self-determined (tino rangatiratanga) by Indigenous partners. Likewise, we must put consumers and communities at the heart of all efforts to resolve a wide range of public health needs in eye care.

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