Citation

Hunter E. Aust. N. Zeal. J. Psychiatry 1990; 24(2): 191-198.

Affiliation

New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2204336

Abstract

The last two decades have seen rapid changes in many facets of Aboriginal society, including morbidity and mortality. The same period has witnessed a dramatic increase in writing about and by Aborigines and this has necessitated a re-examination of the national "history" to include the indigenous people of Australia. Medical workers in Aboriginal Australia should be alert to the historical forces determining patterns of ill-health. Psychiatry in particular must develop this perspective if it is to participate with Aborigines in addressing emergent patterns of behavioural distress including suicide, parasuicide, ludic behaviour and self-mutilation. This paper demonstrates the importance of the socio-historical frame in the examination of these behaviours from one discrete region in isolated Aboriginal Australia: the Kimberley.

Language: en