DP9-Aboriginal-Spirituality

Contemporary Approaches to
Aboriginal Health and Social
and Emotional Wellbeing
Dream country is belonging. Every person has a place in the world in which they are needed, and in which
they are ‘healthy’.
Deborah Bird Rose (1992:122)
Health, to Aborigines, is not a simple matter of good fortune, a prudent lifestyle or a good diet. It is the outcome
of a complex interplay between the individual, his territory of conception and his spiritual integrity: his body,
his land and his spirit.
Janice Reid (1982:xv–xvi)
In the wholistic framework of Aboriginal philosophy, it is difficult to separate many things; in particular, health
is inextricably tied to wellbeing, and wellbeing for Aboriginal people is, by its very nature, spiritual. In this
connection, it is important to understand that the nature of wellbeing means that it can exist independently of
health but health does not exist independently of wellbeing. And, Aboriginal wellbeing relies on a belief system,
that philosophical basis of ontologies and epistemologies known as Spirituality.
Atkinson, an initiator of therapeutic practice privileging the importance of psychosocial factors and their impact
on health, has argued that reliance on biomedical indicators of Aboriginal health ‘fails to embrace the less easily
measured aspects of community living and wellbeing, now deemed to be of prime importance by Aboriginal
peoples and public health researchers alike’ (Atkinson et al. 2002:286–7). These less easily measured aspects
include the intangible cultural heritage factors of Spirituality and wellbeing. Atkinson (2002a) has explained:
The closest word for health within the Aboriginal languages is well-being. The word punyu, from the language
of the Ngaringman from the Northern Territory, sometimes translated as well-being, explains the concept and
functions of well-being. Punyu encompasses person and country and is associated with being strong, happy,
knowledgeable, socially responsible (to ‘take a care’), beautiful, clean, safe—both in the sense of being within
the lore and in the sense of being cared for.
And she quotes Mobbs (1991:298):
In Ngaringman cosmology the known universe constitutes a living system, the goal of which is to reproduce itself
as a living system. Each part of the cosmos, country, Rainbow Snake, animals, people, etc. is alive, conscious,
and is basically either punyu or not punyu. That which is punyu is not just alive but also contributing to life
(Atkinson 2002a:40–5).
Western, colonialist approaches to health, relying wholly on the philosophy of scientism, have devalued traditional
forms of health maintenance and healing that are implicit in spiritual belief and practice. For example, although
Aboriginal people know that their methods of maintaining health by the use of natural products from plants and
animals are desirable, these have been superseded by the imperative for the use of Western medicines in order
to deal with the spread of infectious and lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes and diseases of the circulatory and
renal systems, which have occurred since colonisation. Although these Western treatments are necessary for some
health conditions, this does not have to lead to the devaluing of all Aboriginal philosophy and methodology
of health maintenance, cure and recovery. For example, Janice Reid’s important book on Aboriginal health,
suitably titled Body, Land and Spirit, contains three contributions that detail the efficacy of traditional healing
practices; Myrna Tonkinson describes cures effected by Aboriginal healers; Diane Bell reveals the way in which
women’s healing ceremonies bring about social reintegration of the patient with consequent improvement in
health; and Neville Scarlett, Neville White and Janice Reid list many ‘bush medicines’ still used by people from
Arnhem Land (Reid 1982).
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