Last week marked National Close the Gap day, but the latest data revealed little to celebrate as only four of 19 targets are on track.
Targets including improving child education development rates, life expectancy, infant health and housing, as well as social and emotional wellbeing and family safety, have either stalled or were progressing below expectations.
In Indigenous communities, rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can run up to five times higher than the national average.
But public health worker Renee Grosso noticed information about sexual health often only related to disease rates and prevention which she believed missed crucial elements of sexual education.
Ms Grosso is the Public Health Unit Manager at Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services in Yarrabah, Australia's largest discrete Aboriginal community.
Located east of Cairns, Yarrabah is also recognised as one of Australia's most disadvantaged communities with a population of about 4500 people.
"I saw there was a massive gap in doing the ground work around sexual health," she told AAP.
"You can't educate young people on STIs without doing the ground work around consent and empowerment, because it just makes sex sound scary and it gives total control to the male when you only talk about using condoms."
Ms Grosso delivers sexual education through art and creative expression, run for students from grades 5 to 10.
Art classes help teach the students about their anatomy, learn about consent and break down stigmas associated with sexual health.
Over the past few years of consistently running the programs, Ms Grosso has noticed improvements in student participation, understanding and self-esteem.
"For too long, girls have been taught about risk and reproduction, but not about their full anatomy, their bodies, or their right to understand them," Ms Grosso said.
"Knowing what our bodies do isn't shameful, we're not asking for permission to learn our bodies anymore."
Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) rates are also among the highest in the world in Australia's remote communities, with 90 per cent of diagnoses in children.
RHD often starts from untreated bacteria called Group A streptococcus, which can cause sore throats and skin infections but can be deadly if left untreated.
Ms Grosso has been tackling RHD infections through a landmark community soap and refill program and focusing on increasing community hygiene education.
Australian skincare company MooGoo partnered with Yarrabah to provide hygiene products across the community.
The Yarrabah soap program provides soap refill stations that have improved the community's daily access to hygiene.
"It's not rocket science, it's clearly written in robust global literature, and we focus on what we can control: building habits early and making healthy choices accessible and easy," Ms Grosso said.
"We're committed to the long game (and) we're not interested in wasting time and energy with tokenistic band-aid patching approaches."
One of the biggest frustrations with Closing the Gap targets remaining stubbornly off track is a tendency of governments to focus on the short term, Ms Grosso added.
"If you really want changes you have to be consistent and repetitive ... health doesn't change in the office, you have to be on the ground where the people are," she said.
