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Centre of knowledge
EXPLORING ‘ATTACHMENT’ AND PARENTING
PERSPECITVES WITH ABORIGINAL EXPERIENCE
Dr Jenine Godwin-Thompson
Snapshot
Important to know history to:
Understand how it impacts on peoples world
views and their perceptions of others
• Era of European (1788-1880)
- Dispossession
- Introduced Disease
- Dispossession
- Introduced Disease
Understand how it positions different groups in
society and how it impacts on the health and
wellbeing of the different groups
SSnapshot
Snapshot
Era of Self Determination and Self
Management (1967 - present)
napshot
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Era of Segregation and Protection
- Loss of Lifestyle
- Loss of Social cohesion
- Assimilation (1950s-1960s)
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Summary issues of consideration:
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Assimilation Policy
Stolen Generation
Native Title
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Death in Custody (1987)
Self Determination and Self Management
ABORIGINALWORLDVIEW
The starting point for wellbeing is
always cultural in that it is
defined, understood and
experienced within a social,
natural and material environment,
which is understood and acted on
in terms of the cultural
understandings that people have
developed to enable them to
interact within their world
(Grieves 2006a:12-19).
TO UNDERSTAND OUR LAW, OUR CULTURE AND OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE
PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL WORLD YOU MUST BEGIN WITH THE LAND.
EVERYTHING ABOUT ABORIGINAL SOCIETY IS INEXTRICABLY INTERWOVEN
WITH, AND CONNECTED TO, THE LAND. CULTURE IS THE LAND … YOU TAKE
THAT AWAY AND YOU TAKE AWAY OUR REASON FOR EXISTENCE ... REMOVED
FROM OUR LANDS, WE ARE LITERALLY REMOVED FROM OURSELVES (DODSON
1997:6).
Country is multidimensional–it consists of people, animals,
plants, Dreamings; underground, earth, soils, minerals and
waters, air … People talk about country in the same way that
they would talk about a person: they speak to country, sing to
country, worry about country, feel sorry for country, and long for
country (Rose 1996:7).
This holistic concept does not merely refer to the ‘whole body’,
but in fact is steeped in the harmonized inter-relations, which
constitute cultural wellbeing. These inter-relating factors can be
categorized largely as spiritual, environmental, ideological,
political, social, economic, mental and physical (Swan and
Raphael 1995:13).
WESTERN/ EUROPEAN WORLDVIEW
Dreaming
Religious and scientific
Unchanging
Process and change
Land custodians maintain and preserve the land, air, sea and
animals
Land ownership (bought and sold)
Health - holistic and relational, spiritual cause behind the
illness and/ or injury; traditional healers and bush medicine
Measuring, counting, analysing and dissecting. Health
and wellbeing, and death are separate. Individualbased system
Oral - passed through kinship systems
Written - books and documents
Societal emphasis is on group obligations and responsibility
Individualism
High value on belonging [to Country and kin]
Independence
Resources shared
Resources earned and paid for
Non-hierarchical/consensus
Hierarchical - status through achievement, corporate
success, academic achievement
Knowledge of life
Academic, research, business, technological, economic
Use of time - relationship is priority and time taken is
less important
Use of time - efficient cost effective, outcome driven
Aboriginal health is not just
the physical well-being of the
individual, but the social,
emotional , spiritual and
cultural well-being of the
whole community. It is a
whole of life view and it
includes the concept of lifedeath-life.
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Individuals turn to alcohol,
Three contributing factors to homelessness:
drugs and tobacco, other drugs
and suffer from use, use is
(i) separation from home country or homeland, and a subsequent sense of 'not belonging' in one's place of residence;
influenced by wider social
(ii) separation from family and kinship networks (including 'Stolen Generation' persons); and
setting
(iii) not knowing about one's Indigenous identity and consequently one's role and place in any Aboriginal community.
“ … problems experience by Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people such as low
self-esteem, poor mental health, a lack of
well-being and substance abuse are seen
to have their roots in this form of
homelessness” (Keys Young 1999:28).
Drug use a response to social
breakdown, worsening
inequalities in health
Offers escape from stress and
reality
The concept was first discussed in a consultancy
report for government in 1998 by the firm of Keys
Young
Definition of spiritually homeless:
"most fundamental form of homelessness in the
Indigenous context is the notion of homelessness as a
state of mind, an essentially spiritual rather than a
physical state of being". (Keys Young 1999:28)
What can we do for more effective outcomes to be ‘culturally responsive’
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Better understanding from both sides.
Recognition and respect for Indigenous knowledge's – ‘attachment’
More Aboriginal people in power positions
Capacity building and empowerment – Aboriginal people and people who work
in an Aboriginal context
Whole of government and community approach
Policies and funding criteria which promote a holistic approach
Research which produces solutions
Services must be:
Accessible
Relevant to the needs of the population/community
Functionally integrated
Based on community participation
Cost effective
Characterised by intersectorial collaboration
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