Attitudes toward Indigenous Australians and asylum seekers: The role of false beliefs and other social-psychological variables
Australia has a long and chequered history regarding relations between different cultural groups. Indigenous, Asian, Yugoslav, Italian and Arabic Australians have all suffered from negativity directed toward them by ‘‘mainstream’’ Australia. At the beginning of the 21st century there has been much publicity about two groups: Indigenous Australians and asylum seekers. In this paper, we […]
Ambivalent helpers and unhealthy choices: Public health practitioners’ narratives of Indigenous ill-health
Public health practitioners in Australian indigenous health work in a complex political environment. Public health training is limited in providing them with conceptual tools needed to unpack the postcolonial nexus of ‘fourth-world’ health. A workshop was designed by the authors to facilitate critical reflection on how the concepts of race and culture are used in […]
Exploration of Australian and New Zealand indigenous people’s spirituality and mental health
Background: Spirituality has been defined as an overarching construct that involves personal beliefs or values that provide a sense of meaning and unity with self, people, nature and universe. Spirituality may be experienced within or outside formal religion. At least in English-speaking countries, therapists reported discussing spiritual issues with service users more frequently than before. […]
Western psychotherapeutic practice: engaging Aboriginal people in culturally appropriate and respectful ways
Until recently the majority of psychologists in Australia have been confronted by the lack of information relating to culturally appropriate methods of engagement and therapy with Aboriginal clients. Findings from a qualitative study undertaken in Western Australia indicated that Aboriginal conceptualisations of mental health appear more holistic and contain elements that are both cultural and […]
Affirmative action and equity in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
Guest Editorial: Engagement of Indigenous clients in mental health services: What role do cultural differences play?
Traditional Aboriginal Health Practice in Australia
Trauma trails, recreating song lines: the transgenerational effects of trauma in Indigenous Australia
Providing a startling answer to the questions of how to solve the problems of generational trauma, Trauma Trails moves beyond the rhetoric of victimhood, and provides inspiration for anyone concerned about Indigenous and Non-Indigenous communities today. Beginning with issues of colonial dispossession, Judy Atkinson also sensitively deals with trauma caused by abuse, alcoholism, and drug […]
Black & White
Drama portraying Rupert Max Stuart case involving verballing allegations in a case of alleged rape and murder of a 9-year-old Ceduna, SA, girl in 1959. Max Stuart was eventually released on parole in late 1973. He became an Elder of the Arrernte people in central Australia and Chairman of the Central Land Council from 1998 […]
Strong and Smart: the story of Chris Sarra and the Cherbourg State School
Tells the story of the rise of the Cherbourg State School from a situation of aimless despair and chaos to an institution with a sense of purpose, direction and unity. The film shows the turn-around in the school’s fortunes over the last 4 years, since the arrival of a dynamic new teaching staff led by […]
Unresolved grief and the removal of Indigenous Australian children
This paper considers the usefulness of theory and practice in mainstream psychology in relation to the experiences of Indigenous people directly affected by the practice of child removal. It consists of an interview in which one of the authors, Joyleen Koolmatrie, an Indigenous psychologist, reflects on her work with Indigenous people affected by the removal, […]
Reconciliation 2
An annotated poem inspired by the inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families challenges us to consider our involvement in this issue.
The construction of Aboriginal identity in people separated from their families, community, and culture: Pieces of a jigsaw
Aboriginal history since colonisation has been largely shaped by government policies. The most striking and destructive historical policies directed at Aboriginal people concerned those that advocated the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents and their placement in white foster homes or institutions. This paper reports on interviews with seven Indigenous participants who had been […]
Working with Indigenous Australians: A handbook for psychologists
A practical guide for psychologists and associated mental health professionals, addresses the practical issues of working in Indigenous settings and with Indigenous people in urban, rural and remote environments. Covers individual, family and community approaches and describes appropriate models of intervention.
Bringing Them Home: National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families
This report is a tribute to the strength and struggles of many thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people affected by forcible removal. We acknowledge the hardships they endured and the sacrifices they made. We remember and lament all the children who will never come home. We dedicate this report with thanks and admiration […]
Towards guidelines for survey research in remote Aboriginal communities
Based on our experience in developing and evaluating community-based health promotion programs in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, we offer guidelines to assist nonindigenous health and public policy professionals whose information gathering in these communities includes the use of unstructured interviewing or survey questionnaires. The guidelines primarily apply to research among mainland remote Aboriginal […]
The psychological impact of white settlement on Aboriginal people
The experiences of dispossession, the incidents of colonialism, racism, exclusion, extermination, denigration and degradation have a direct impact on the mental and physical health of the Aboriginal people. Hence, to achieve a balanced state of health amongst Aboriginal communities, they must join the political campaigns to ensure that the continuing practices of colonialism are identified […]
Blood Brothers – Broken English
Arrernte man Max Stuart was sentenced to death in 1959 for murder but, nearly 35 years later, he talks about the case on camera. Film Australia. Duration: 60 mins
Benny and the Dreamers (1992)
A small group of Pintupi living in west Central Australia today can remember their first meeting with a white man, their first impressions of the white man’s world and their expectations of what the white world had to offer. Benny and the Dreamers reveals for the first time on film the Australian Aboriginal peoples’ version […]
Redfern Speech
Redfern Speech (Year for the World’s Indigenous People) – Delivered in Redfern Park by Prime Minister Paul Keating, 10 December 1992. Duration: 8min25sec
Addictions – Violence and Spirituality
We Al-li community and workplace workshops are an Indigenous therapeutic response to individual, family and community pain that many people carry as part of their life experience. For Aboriginal peoples this pain is more specifically defined as the traumatic impacts of the multiple intergenerational experiences of colonisation resulting in ill-health, individual, family and community dysfunction […]
Trauma and Recovery
We Al-li community and workplace workshops are an Indigenous therapeutic response to individual, family and community pain that many people carry as part of their life experience. For Aboriginal peoples this pain is more specifically defined as the traumatic impacts of the multiple intergenerational experiences of colonisation resulting in ill-health, individual, family and community dysfunction […]
Children at risk: Developmental trauma within a complex trauma environment
Patron of We Al-li, Judy Atkinson’s presentation on the multiple and complex experiences of trauma and loss that impact on Indigenous children and families and how to start healing.
Australian Child & Adolescent Trauma, Loss & Grief Network – Indigenous children and families
When an Indigenous child or adolescent experiences trauma, loss or grief, there can be extra complexities that need to be taken into account. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians’ experiences of loss are multifaceted and complex, and involve the ‘normal’ losses that people experience as well as the other losses that are specific to Indigenous […]
The Lowitja Institute – Literature Search
This search tool provides easy access to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health literature on the PubMed database You can choose to look at all literature or one of 27 search topics. You can refine each choice by entering keywords, filter options and published dates.