Categories of race: technologies of knowing and governing Australian aborigines†

This article documents the first decades of the work of the Aboriginal Protection Board in Victoria, Australia in the mid-nineteenth century, as it oversees the establishment of mission stations to gather up Aboriginal peoples and provide protection from settler violence. It augments existing accounts of white settler governance of Aboriginal peoples by examining the social and historical conditions for the emergence of separations and distinctions between Aboriginal peoples through shifting governmental versions of the ‘Aboriginal problem’. The production of race-based categories of persons is highlighted in the State's management of the Aboriginal children through the mission systems and their effects on Aboriginal ties to community and identity.     

Shifting Egalitarianisms and Contemporary Racism in Rural Victorian Football: The Rumbalara Experience

This article builds on our understanding of racism towards Aboriginal people in Australia through an examination of discriminatory belief structures pervasive in the mainstream community as evidenced through the important social field of country football in regional Victoria. It analyses the power and pervasiveness of the racial stereotyping that exists in some segments of the community by using Langton's (1997) notion of ‘iconic images' as well as discussing the importance of particular ideological motivations around values such as ‘egalitarianism’. This is achieved through analysing the views of players, supporters and officials of mainstream clubs towards the Aboriginal Rumbalara Football Netball Club. This analysis is structurally situated within a broader understanding of Australian national identity, in particular looking at the intersection of the powerful cultural domains of sport and evolving expressions of whiteness and egalitarianism.     

Resilience amongst Australian Aboriginal Youth: An Ecological Analysis of Factors Associated with Psychosocial Functioning in High and Low Family Risk Contexts

We investigate whether the profile of factors protecting psychosocial functioning of high risk exposed Australian Aboriginal youth are the same as those promoting psychosocial functioning in low risk exposed youth. Data on 1,021 youth aged 12–17 years were drawn from the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (WAACHS 2000–2002), a population representative survey of the health and well-being of Aboriginal children, their families and community contexts. A person-centered approach was used to define four groups of youth cross-classified according to level of risk exposure (high/low) and psychosocial functioning (good/poor). Multivariate logistic regression was used to model the influence of individual, family, cultural and community factors on psychosocial outcomes separately for youth in high and low family-risk contexts. Results showed that in high family risk contexts, prosocial friendship and low area-level socioeconomic status uniquely protected psychosocial functioning. However, in low family risk contexts the perception of racism increased the likelihood of poor psychosocial functioning. For youth in both high and low risk contexts, higher self-esteem and self-regulation were associated with good psychosocial functioning although the relationship was non-linear. These findings demonstrate that an empirical resilience framework of analysis can identify potent protective processes operating uniquely in contexts of high risk and is the first to describe distinct profiles of risk, protective and promotive factors within high and low risk exposed Australian Aboriginal youth.     

Sickening Bodies: How Racism and Essentialism Feature in Aboriginal Women's Discourse about Health1

In the last decade there has been much interest in the concepts of ‘racism’ and ‘essentialism’ and the ways in which these notions have been appropriated by Aboriginal people to demarcate a specifically Aboriginal space (Cowlishaw 1986; Lattas 1993; Langton 1981; Morris 1988; Muecke 1992). Central to these concerns is the issue of black/white relations and the specificities of racial oppression. Following these concerns in this article I explore the nexus between the metaphorical dismemberment of self and the corporeal dismemberment of sickness which is reflected in the high mortality rates and disease patterns of Aboriginal people. I extend Fanon's concept that racism has the power to alienate ‘a man of colour’ from his own self-image to argue that it more than metaphorically breaks the human body (Fanon 1991). I provide a window into a much neglected area of research: how notions of illness and social relatedness are constructed in particular socio-historical circumstances. I explore the meanings of illness as expressed at the level of community and as a form of embodiment associated with unequal colonial relations. I focus on indigenous exegeses which articulate Aboriginal women's experience of illness and their sense of identity. I draw on the work of Leder (1990) to foreground a phenomenological view where selfhood is continually confronted by circumstances that make present the ‘body’ as a ‘sharp and searing presence threatening the self’. I also apply Sansom's (1982) model of illness and the significance of carers in an Aboriginal community to demonstrate a world-view of personhood that is diffused with other persons and things rather than a world-view that entails a highly individuated and bounded self. In this world-view adequate healing requires a reconstitution of social relations and a re-ordering of the racialised status quo.     

Ontology and cultural politics: Aboriginal versus European Australians

Conclusion Nevertheless, in the remote parts of the Western Desert the Aboriginal people remain Aboriginal in thought and experience. They exploit the advantages which the Euraustralians offer, while remaining committed to their way of life. European-Australians water their trees, carry water to the camps, collect the Aboriginals' firewood, repair their automobiles, cook meals for the children and old people, and clean the few Aboriginal houses which exist; their wages are paid by the Australian government.If anything, strategic contact with European civilization has increased the amount of time available for traditional Aboriginal ceremonies, as well as the number of Aboriginals who can transport themselves to the ceremonies. Euraustralian residents are outraged about the amount of time Aboriginals spend corroborreein'. The Secretary of the West Swan Progress Association, a Euraustralian community group. claims that the Aboriginals are becoming a law unto themselves, and this offends the moral-legalistic sense of order which Euraustralians assert in their cultural political struggle with Aboriginals. Today, the cultural politics is being carried on with renewed vigor, and the outcome is by no means certain.A Catholic missionary, at the end of his career with Aboriginals made perhaps the most astute comment I have heard about the Aboriginal undergoing modernization.Ken Liberman has been the Western Desert Research Officer for the Western Australian Museum for the past two years. Currently, he and his wife, Ms A.Z. Parker, are community organizers employed by the Aboriginal Council at Docker River, Northern Territory, Australia.     

The divergence of traditional Aboriginal and contemporary fire management practices on Wik traditional lands,Cape York Peninsula,Northern Australia

Fire has been a critical component of Aboriginal culture and natural resource management in Australia for millennia. Aboriginal fire management in Northern Australia is widespread and, in some more remote areas, has continued relatively undisrupted despite widespread changes in tenure and land use. For the Wik people of Western Cape York, there has been a continued connection to their culture and traditional lands. Recently, Wik traditional owners have formed a ranger program which has secured funding to manage contemporary land management issues. This includes the landscape‐scale management of fire for biodiversity conservation and greenhouse gas abatement. Because the work is being conducted by Aboriginal people, with consent from traditional owners and on their traditional lands, there is an assumption that the activities are compatible with historical traditional land management and cultural practices. In this study, we use participatory action research to compare contemporary fire management with the current understanding of traditional Aboriginal fire management to assess objectively the compatibility of these two paradigms. We do this by combining the experience and understanding of traditional owners with anthropological and ecological perspectives. We find that contemporary fire management is applied across traditional cultural boundaries using methods such as aerial incendiaries. Financial incentives and contractual obligations associated with fire management are externally driven or include modern considerations such as the protection of infrastructure. In contrast, traditional fire management was the prerogative of traditional owners and was applied at fine scales for specific outcomes. Fire management was governed by rules that determined how people moved across the landscape and how resources were partitioned and shared. Supporting the implementation of Aboriginal burning alongside current fire management practices could lead to significant community engagement in such activities and is likely to have much better biodiversity and social outcomes.     

Inducing labour with vaginally administered prostaglandin E2.

In 50 consecutive pregnant women at a 125-bed community hospital with 1000 deliveries annually, labour was induced with prostaglandin E2 administered intravaginally. There were no stillbirths or neonatal deaths, and complications in the mothers were few. In nine women (18%) oxytocin was subsequently administered because of a failure of labour to progress; in spite of this, cesarean section was required in two (4%) of the patients. The overall cesarean section rate was 6%. Prostaglandins have been used routinely to induce labour in the United Kingdom for several years. This noninvasive method is safe, effective and well received by women in a community hospital setting, including those wanting "natural childbirth".     

Outcome of planned home births in an inner city practice.

OBJECTIVE--To assess the outcome of pregnancy for women booking for home births in an inner London practice between 1977 and 1989. DESIGN--Retrospective review of practice obstetric records. SETTING--A general practice in London. SUBJECTS--285 women registered with the practice or referred by neighbouring general practitioners or local community midwives. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Place of birth and number of cases transferred to specialist care before, during, and after labour. RESULTS--Of 285 women who booked for home births, eight left the practice area before the onset of labour, giving a study population of 277 women. Six had spontaneous abortions, 26 were transferred to specialist care during pregnancy, another 26 were transferred during labour, and four were transferred in the postpartum period. 215 women (77.6%, 95% confidence interval 72.7 to 82.5) had normal births at home without needing specialist help. Transfer to specialist care during pregnancy was not significantly related to parity, but nulliparous women were significantly more likely to require transfer during labour (p = 0.00002). Postnatal complications requiring specialist attention were uncommon among mothers delivered at home (four cases) and rare among their babies (three cases). CONCLUSIONS--Birth at home is practical and safe for a self selected population of multiparous women, but nulliparous women are more likely to require transfer to hospital during labour because of delay in labour. Close cooperation between the general practitioner and both community midwives and hospital obstetricians is important in minimising the risks of trial of labour at home.     

Everyone Will Be Jealous For That Mutika

In this paper I describe a phenomenon I refer to by its Aboriginal English name — ‘humbugging’ — in a western Arnhem Land Aboriginal settlement. By discussing the focal object in this phenomenon — the ‘mutika’ (car)¹ — I argue that a most interesting process of de-commoditization is occurring in this settlement. I use examples of humbugging to illustrate how the car in this community has tremendous symbolic as well as practical significance. I use. in particular, the work of Douglas and Isherwood (1979) and Appadurai et al. (1986), and argue that their ‘social life of things’ theoretical framework is appropriate for interpreting the importance of the ‘mutika’. I also suggest, however, that this framework needs to be re-thought in order to incorporate the challenge which de-commoditization presents to it.     

Lifestyle variables, non-traditional cardiovascular risk factors, and the metabolic syndrome in an Aboriginal Canadian population

Objective : To examine lifestyle factors associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and to explore the relationships between MetS and non‐traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors [adiponectin, leptin, C‐reactive protein (CRP), interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), and serum amyloid A (SAA)] in an isolated Aboriginal Canadian community. Research Methods and Procedures : Data were obtained from 360 non‐diabetic adults participating in a population‐based study of Aboriginal Canadians. Fasting samples were drawn for glucose, insulin, lipids, adiponectin, leptin, CRP, IL‐6, and SAA. Percentage body fat was measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis. Past year physical activity and fitness level were assessed. MetS was diagnosed according to the criteria of the National Cholesterol Education Program, the World Health Organization, and the International Diabetes Federation. Results : The results showed that older age, higher percentage body fat, and lower fitness levels were associated with increased odds of MetS regardless of MetS definition and subject gender. Past year physical activity was independently related with the World Health Organization‐MetS in male subjects. Subjects with MetS had significantly higher leptin, CRP, IL‐6, and SAA levels and lower adiponectin levels; however, only adiponectin remained significantly low after adjustment for age and percentage body fat. Discussion : The study showed that higher percentage body fat and lower physical activity and fitness were associated with a higher prevalence of MetS in this Aboriginal community and that hypoadiponectinemia was independently associated with MetS.     

Tackling inequalities in health: the Australian experience.

Federal and state governments in Australia have embarked on a series of national initiatives which show a firm commitment to tackling social inequalities in health. The development of national goals and targets for health, for example, covers social and environmental conditions and sets differential targets for specific social groups with very poor health status. In a complementary initiative, a wide ranging analysis of the health care system--the National Health Strategy--has as one of its main objectives to improve the equitable impact of the health system. Where problems of access to and quality of services have been exposed, policies have been devised to deal with them. The exceptionally poor health of the Aboriginal community has elicited cross party support for action. Resources have been allocated to implement the National Aboriginal Health Strategy: to improve living and working conditions, education, and employment opportunities. Britain can glean much from the Australian experience.     

An analysis of the use of plant products for commerce in remote aboriginal communities of northern Australia

The indigenous people of Australia have a long and well documented history of using native plants as an essential component of their customary economy. However, few have engaged successfully in commerce based on native plant use. Recently there has been an increasing interest in exploring options for use of native plants for food, food additives, botanical medicines, and related purposes. In this paper, we determine the issues important to Aboriginal people in enterprise development utilizing plant products, and we define some of the factors affecting progress in realizing opportunities. The Aboriginal people with whom we have worked appear to prefer small-scale enterprises where they have community ownership of ideas and control of the rate and direction of development. Government could play a larger and more active role through supporting additional research and marketing information, providing training, and better matching policy and legislation to support indigenous development and reduce dependence of welfare.     

Oxidation of sulfur-containing substrates by aboriginal and experimentally designed microbial communities

Aboriginal and experimental (constructed of pure microbial cultures) communities of acidophilic chemolithotrophs have been studied. The oxidation of elemental sulfur, sodium thiosulfate, and potassium tetrathionate as sole sources of energy has been monitored. The oxidation rate of the experimental community is higher as compared to the aboriginal community isolated from a flotation concentrate of pyrrhotine-containing pyrite-arsenopyrite gold-arsenic sulfide ore. The degree of oxidation of the mentioned S substrates amounts to 17.91, 68.30, and 93.94% for the experimental microbial community and to 10.71, 56.03, and 79.50% for the aboriginal community, respectively. The degree of oxidation of sulfur sulfide forms in the ore flotation concentrate is 59.15% by the aboriginal microbial community and 49.40% by the experimental microbial community. Despite a higher rate of oxidation of S substrates as a sole source of energy by the experimental microbial community, the aboriginal community oxidizes S substrates at a higher rate in the flotation concentrate of pyrrhotine-containing pyrite-arsenopyrite gold-arsenic sulfide ore, from which it was isolated. Bacterial-chemical oxidation of the flotation concentrate by the aboriginal microbial community allows for the extraction of an additional 32.3% of gold from sulfide minerals, which is by 5.7% larger compared to the yield obtained by the experimental microbial community.     

Economic aspects of village health

Given the poor quantity and quality of medical care in most villages in the developing countries, the economic determinants of village health are the supply of labour, the cash flow associated with that labour and the availability of land. The paper examines these in the three classical 'time periods', arguing that inability to meet labour peaks is of great significance in explaining seasonal shortage of food and chronic shortage of cash. It also explains community indifference to upkeep of social overhead capital. Substitution of capital goods for labour is socially differentiated, not least by labour availability, and leads inevitably to a regressive distribution of land and the creation or enlargement of a class of landless labourers. Under certain limited conditions this class may enjoy a rising real income with associated health-promotive expenditures. The more normal case, however, is extreme poverty, whether rural or urban, with all that that implies for the undermining of health. Land reform therefore becomes a necessary precondition of health promotion.     

Welfare state type,labour markets and refugees: a comparison of Jews from the former Soviet Union in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany

The massive exodus of Jews from the former Soviet Union [FSU] has been accompanied by welfare state retrenchment and labour market restructuration in the two preferred destination countries of refugee resettlement: the United States and Germany. This study compares the resettlement policies and outcomes of FSU Jews and shows how the context of resettlement, viz. differences in welfare state type, labour market formation and host ethnic community, yield marked differences in formal job market adaptation. FSU Jews in Germany are almost twice as likely as their American counterparts to rely on some form of refugee cash assistance for their primary means of support, whereas the American cohort is twice as likely to be employed in the formal labour market. However, informal labour market adaptation is quite similar. Findings suggest unwitting system convergence, each exercising a different form of social exclusion - welfare stigma and under employment for refugees in the United States, and high labour market regulation in Germany.     

Rejecting the Rainbow Serpent: An Aboriginal Artist's Choice of the Christian God as Creator1

In this paper, I illustrate the way one Aboriginal artist challenged what he perceived as an essentialised concept of Aboriginality, by rejecting rainbow serpent iconography. The motivations for this rejection were the artist's strong belief in the Christian God as creator and his reaction against New Age representations of Aboriginality in which the rainbow serpent signifies Aboriginal spirituality and is posited as the single creator for all of Aboriginal Australia. A conflict arose at the artist's gallery when he refused to exhibit a rainbow serpent painting by another Aboriginal artist. Publicised in the local newspaper, the rejection of these artworks started a brief public debate about the role of Christianity in Aboriginal culture. The various positions adopted by the Aboriginal protagonists highlight the complex processes of negotiation, dialogue and debate surrounding diverse constructions of identity.     

Western Notions of Informed Consent and Indigenous Cultures: Australian Findings at the Interface

Despite the extensive consideration the notion of informed consent has heralded in recent decades, the unique considerations pertaining to the giving of informed consent by and on behalf of Indigenous Australians have not been comprehensively explored; to the contrary, these issues have been scarcely considered in the literature to date. This deficit is concerning, given that a fundamental premise of the doctrine of informed consent is that of individual autonomy, which, while privileged as a core value of non-Indigenous Australian culture, is displaced in Indigenous cultures by the honouring of the family unit and community group, rather than the individual, as being at the core of important decision-making processes relating to the person. To address the hiatus in the bioethical literature on issues relating to informed consent for Aboriginal peoples, the following article provides findings from a two-year research project, funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), conducted in the Northern Territory. The findings, situated in the context of the literature on cultural safety, highlight the difference between the Aboriginal and biomedical perspectives on informed consent.     

Epidemiology of severe trauma among status Aboriginal Canadians: a population-based study

Background

Aboriginal Canadians are considered to be at increased risk of major trauma. However, population-based studies characterizing the distribution, determinants and outcomes of major trauma in this group are lacking. We sought to measure the impact of ethnicity, as reflected by Aboriginal status, on the incidence of severe trauma and to broadly define the epidemiologic characteristics of severe trauma among status Aboriginal Canadians in a large health region.

Methods

This population-based, observational study involves all adults (people ≥ 16 years) resident in the Calgary Health Region between Apr. 1, 1999, and Mar. 31, 2002. Stratification of the population into status Aboriginal Canadians and the reference population was performed by Alberta Health and Wellness using an alternate premium arrangement field within the personal health care number. Injury incidence was determined by identifying all injuries with severity scores of 12 or greater in the Alberta Trauma Registry, regional corporate data and the Office of the Medical Examiner.

Results

Aboriginal Canadians were at much higher risk than the reference population in the Calgary Health Region of sustaining severe trauma (257.2 v. 68.8 per 100 000; relative risk [RR] 3.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.0–4.6). Aboriginal Canadians were found to be at significantly increased risk of injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes (RR 4.8, 95% CI 3.5–6.5), assault (RR 11.1, 95% CI 6.2–18.6) and traumatic suicide (RR 3.1, 95% CI 1.4–6.1). A trend toward higher median injury severity scores was observed among Aboriginal Canadians (21 v. 18, p = 0.09). Although the case-fatality rate among Aboriginal Canadians was less than half that in the reference population (14/93 [15%] v. 531/1686 [31%], p < 0.0001), population mortality was almost 2 times greater (RR = 1.8, 95% CI 1.0–3.0, p = 0.046).

Interpretation

Severe trauma disproportionately affects Aboriginal Canadians.In Canada, injury is the leading cause of death among people under the age of 45 and the leading cause of potential years of life lost.¹ Although difficult to quantify, the cost of injury was estimated to be at least $12.7 billion in 1998.² Trauma has been known, even in industrialized countries, to disproportionately affect the most marginalized members of society.³ Aboriginal Canadians are considered to be particularly at risk, and data showing alarming patterns of trauma mortality in this group are beginning to emerge. Unfortunately, the number of studies looking at injury risk among Aboriginal Canadians is small,⁴ and little attention has been paid to quantifying the risk of nonfatal injury. Better understanding of the nature of trauma risk and outcome among Aboriginal Canadians could lead to more effective prevention and treatment strategies.In this study, we used a population-based design in an attempt to quantify the impact of injury, both fatal and nonfatal, on the Aboriginal community in a large, heterogeneous Canadian region with over 1 million urban and rural inhabitants. We sought to measure the impact of ethnicity (defined by registered status within the definition of the Indian Act⁵) on the incidence of severe trauma and to broadly define the epidemiologic characteristics of severe trauma among status Aboriginal Canadians.     

The Australian Aborigines and the Human Past

Indifference to events which may actually have taken place between the Dreamtime and European contact is commonly held to be a salient feature of traditional Aboriginal thought. This contention contains a significant element of truth but it may have been exaggerated by some anthropologists. Structural-functionalist emphases on myth as charter led not only to the rejection of historical interpretations of Aboriginal myths which were ill-considered and naïve, but also to an excessive neglect of potentially fruitful attempts to extract from myths clues about post-Dreamtime experiences. This neglect has unduly strengthened the view that Aboriginal thought is entirely sui generis and that its supposed indifference to human history is an inescapable cultural attribute of Aboriginality. A sketch is offered for a reappraisal of the significance of Aboriginal myths for Aboriginal history.     

Health of the Land,Health of the People: A Case Study on Gwich’in Berry Harvesting in Northern Canada

Many Aboriginal groups, in northern Canada and elsewhere, recognize the strong relationship between the health and well-being of people and environment. Western science, including theory and literature related to forest ecosystem management, has been slow to recognize the complex and diverse values that Aboriginal people associate with their lands and resources. Through case study research on the berry-harvesting practices of Gwich’in women from the community of Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, Canada, we investigated the values that Teetl’it Gwich’in women associate with the land or nan kak. Nine different values, as well as a set of detailed measures, were identified during the research, including individual preference and well-being, family well-being, social connectivity, cultural continuity, land and resource use, stewardship, self-government, and spirituality. The commercial value of berries was not identified as important to women. This interdisciplinary research has the potential to contribute to several bodies of literature including that on social-ecological systems.