Australia is failing to meet most of its goals to close the gap between Indigenous and other Australians on health, education and employment.

The latest annual report card on Indigenous disadvantage, handed down on Wednesday, shows only two of the seven targets in areas of life expectancy, employment, reading and writing and school attendance were on track to reach parity by 2030.

Malcolm Turnbull hands down Closing the Gap report The Prime Minister says there remains "an unacceptably wide gap" in the life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

An Indigenous Australian man is 14 times more likely to be homeless than a non-Indigenous Australian man, 25 times more likely to have spent time in jail, and is likely to die 10 years sooner at 69.

He's twice as likely to die by suicide and half as likely to own his own place.

An Indigenous Australian woman is 34 times more likely to wind up in hospital because of a family related assault than a non-Indigenous Australian woman.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are only three per cent of the Australian population, they make up almost a third of the prison population.

"We have to be honest," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Parliament. "We cannot sugar-coat the enormity of the job that remains."

Amid promises from the PM to better engage with Indigenous people in "hope and optimism rather than entrenched despair", Hack has spoke with seven legends in the fields of education, heritage, climate advocacy, media and health who are each fighting to 'close the gap'.

JACK MANNING BANCROFT: mentoring high school students

Jack founded the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience 11 years ago, when he was 19. AIME has seen huge growth since then - as it works daily to support Indigenous students through high school and into university or employment.

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"Our goal is to end Indigenous inequality for a generation. So we're working with 6500 kids around Australia, on the pathway to working with 10,000 kids, which is roughly 15 per cent of the Indigenous high school population," Jack told Hack.

"The impact of what we've done is pretty tangible. We've effectively closed the gap in terms of educational outcomes for Indigenous high school kids.

"So we've got [Indigenous] kids going through school at the same rate as every Australian child and we're now closing the gap in terms of transitioning year 12 kids from university to employment and further training.

"About 76 per cent of our kids go through to uni, employment or further training. The non-Indigenous rate is 75 per cent."

MIKAELA JADE: helping traditional landowners tell their stories

A Cabrogal woman from the Sydney area, Mikaela hopes to connect Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians to the traditional owners of the land.

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Mikaela's app Digital Rangers - now on beta - will offer users an "eye" to Indigenous history: holding up the app to objects, sites or nature will bring up history, cultural information and videos and animations from traditional land owners.

"I think it's really important to acknowledge the history of all places we stand on," Mikaela told Hack.

Mikaela was only able to confirm her Aboriginal heritage at the age of 29 when she was trying to find out more about her heritage and ancestors. She says there was a gap in the information available for her and her family to trace back. Digital Rangers will help to open up that kind of history and storytelling.

Digital Rangers connects directly with traditional landowners to contribute to the app - they'll also receive half of profits from the app's purchases. And most importantly, Mikaela's app will be functional offline - a critical feature for regional areas with limited internet access.

"Working in regional Australia and remote communities - we're not waiting for the internet to be connected, we're doing it now."

DANIELLE DRIES: advocating for more Indigenous health professionals and greater focus on rural and remote health

A qualified physiotherapist, Danielle Dries is now a fourth year medical student at Australian National University and an Indigenous health officer for the National Rural Health Student Network.

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"I've come into a university setting where I will be the third Aboriginal graduate from ANU, before the last few years we didn't have anyone," she says.

"It's not just having Indigenous staff working with Indigenous people but it's about the flow on effect with colleagues and everyone."

The Karuna-Meyunna woman from South Australia recently spent a year in Lismore doing a placement, as well as shorter visits to Palm Island and Central Australia. She believes Indigenous health professionals are better able to develop rapport in remote communities and they also provide an example that counteracts negative stereotypes.

"I've seen my grandmother, I've seen some of my uncles live with these long term chronic disease. They're a lot more prevalent in these remote communities and they are preventable."

"This was one of the reasons I got into medicine."

AMELIA TELFORD: fighting climate change and its impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

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Named Australian Geographic Society's Young Conservationist of the Year in 2015, Amelia Telford is a member of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and the director of Seed, a network of young Aboriginal people fighting for climate justice.

"The modern environmental climate change movement doesn't talk too much about the impact climate change has on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," she says.

"We don't have great access to platforms for young people to have a strong voice on this issue.

"Too often Indigenous communities in Australia face destruction of country to dig up coal and gas that is used to fuel energy we all use - we have the least responsibility in causing this crisis and yet we're the ones who face most significant consequences."

The Bundjalung nation woman from northern New South Wales has been involved in AYCC since high school and founded Seed in 2014.

"We really need to have solutions come from the grassroots and not wait around for governments or people who have made promises to get his done."

LUKE PEARSON: offering a social media soapbox to 52 Indigenous Australians every year

Luke Pearson is the founder of @indigenousx - a social media platform that gives Indigenous Australians a space to share their stories, work and thoughts with an audience of over 24,000 people on Twitter.

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The @indigenousx Twitter account is passed to a different Indigenous Australian every week - offering the kind of exposure of Indigenous voices that isn't often seen in traditional Australian media.

But founder Luke Pearson doesn't like the idea of "giving a voice" to the first Australians.

"We already have a voice," Pearson told Hack, "it's just Australia doesn't have the ears to hear it."

"It's a bit tragic that something like @indigenousx is even needed.

"As much as I love @indigenousx, we shouldn't need to be there.

"It's a reminder of how shit things are - the levels of racism [toward Indigenous Australians]; we've been with non-Indigenous Australians for over 200 years, and we still have to explain really basic stuff."

But Luke Pearson says it's encouraging to see his platform grow and spark conversations about Indigenous issues that otherwise might be left unsaid.

"Overwhelmingly the response is really positive," Luke says, "It's just grown and grown."

DAVID COLE: breaking the cycle of Indigenous disadvantage and healing intergenerational trauma

Working in the Northern Territory, David Cole's Balunu Foundation has helped support and educate hundreds of at-risk Indigenous youth.

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"We deliver healing programs for at risk youth in the territory, we take them out on a healing program, which is the basis for it is cultural reconnection, and building the individual's identity and self-worth," David told Hack.

"We do therapeutic work, healing work, counseling, one on one stuff, life skills. It's pretty much holistic with each individual to help them through the challenges they're dealing with."

David says the young people he works with are often struggling with substance abuse, at-risk of suicide, or facing homelessness.

"All of the stuff they're dealing with now is a direct result of past injustices inflicted Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people on this continent," David says.

"We give [young people] life skills and tools for life to deal with these challenges.

"To reflect on where where this pain comes from, the fact that they don't own it, and the fact they have the choice to break those pain cycles.

David says he's especially proud of the strides his Foundation is making in suicide prevention in the Territory - an area with one of the highest youth suicide rates per capita in the world.

"Through the work we've done, we've not been to one funeral. And we've worked with over 750 kids in eight years."

DR ARTIENE TATIAN: being a role model for Indigenous doctors

Artiene's journey into studying medicine was an unorthodox one - he began with a science degree and didn't think he was capable of becoming a doctor. He went on to become the student director of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association and president of the University of Western Sydney Medical Society.

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"This is my first year out in world as a doctor at Royal Prince Alfred hospital in Sydney," he says. "I've started on evening shifts. It's a steep learning curve."

Artiene grew up in Alice Springs and saw first-hand the stark difference between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health - diseases that had been eradicated in other developed countries were at endemic levels in some communities.

"These are all preventable things that require Indigenous allied health professionals to access the communities and deliver culturally competent and safe healthcare provisions."

"They're so easy and so changeable."

His next step will be find a speciality and get accepted into a program before working in remote medicine. He says Indigenous health professionals are uniquely qualified to provide culturally competent healthcare.

"We learn a very westernised model of health and the Indigenous definition of health is a bit different. It includes spiritual and mental well being of a person as well as the well being of an entire community," he says.

"I really hope I can be a role model and inspire someone else."

If you or someone you love is struggling with mental health issues, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. Or if you'd rather not talk on the phone, you can chat to a professional online from 7:00 pm to 4 am every day here.