Public health: people participating in the creation of healthy places

At the end of the twentieth century, with concern being expressed about the global environmental crisis, the world is being seen as the home for diverse cultures who share a common responsibility, the sustenance of place. The future health of communities lies in this recognition of the importance of creating and sustaining viable places on local, national, and global scales. The contextual turn, growing from past approaches in the research and practice of public health, is addressed. Geographers and public health practitioners will find it advantageous to work collaboratively toward creating healthy places. It is especially important to reconsider the senses of place from viewpoints of indigenous and nonindigenous peoples in Australia and Canada, to redefine whose health, whose place.