DP9-Aboriginal-Spirituality

Many of the traditional ways of maintaining health and healing work for Aboriginal people, and can also
have broader applications. The benefits of bush foods and various practices have been discovered by
Western scientists without acknowledgment of the Aboriginal knowledge sources, from the spiritual
philosophy of the people, the Law. Professor Tess Cramond, Director of the Multi-Disciplinary Pain
Centre, Royal Brisbane Hospital, has given a surprising example of this; she says:
The terms ‘bush’ and ‘traditional medicine’ are sometimes equated but quite inaccurately with
naïve or unsubstantiated health practices. In fact, the opposite has been the case. Indigenous
Australians had been using mouth-to-mouth expired air resuscitation for hundreds of years
prior to white settlement. However, it was not until the late 1950s that it was taken up by the
western medical profession and later extended to the general community resulting in many
lives being saved (ABC Radio 2007).
There is an issue, too, in that although modern medicine can fix some identifiable illnesses, it does not necessarily
help people to recover. An example of the way in which recovery is aided by the use of spiritual techniques is the
initiative of Yolngu women from the Gove Peninsula. Doctors gave Gulumbu Yunupingu’s daughter very little
hope after a very bad accident, but her mother persisted with bush remedies, including massage with special
liniment prepared from bush plants, special foods and a technique similar to sauna. Her daughter has regained
60 per cent of her mobility, is living independently and has started to read again. From this, the Yolngu women
have worked out for themselves that what is needed is a mix of mainstream and traditional medicine, physical
and psychological, and they have established a Place of Healing combining the two. Gulumbu Yunupingu says:
When this colonisation started we were regarded as whatever until in the late 60s when we were recognised as
citizens. All the knowledge that the Yolngu have is not recognised, scientists they go overseas, but what about
the Yolngu who live in Australia and know the land and know everything (ABC Radio 2007).
Many doctors are recognising the value of spiritual healing, including Dr Oscar Whitehead at Nhulunbuy:
Bush cockroaches are very handy, you find them in any old piece of dried pandanus. If you’ve got a cut you
basically squeeze them and a bit of clear fluid comes out of their bottom and it works as an anaesthetic and
an antiseptic. The beach morning glory contains an anti-histamine in the leaf and people use it for bites and
stings and if you heat the leaf up on a fire and then put it on your bite then it takes the pain away. That’s one
side. Another side I think is based more around some ceremony, I’m not privy to a lot of that but from what I
understand it helps to reconnect people mentally and spiritually with the community, with their homeland
and recharges them (ABC Radio 2007).
The Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council Aboriginal Corporation (NPYWCAC 2003) makes
a special mention of the role of Dr Kerry Gell:
She is our number one doctor and good friend. She cares for us all. She was the first piranpa doctor to listen to
us ngangkari and to work in collaboration with us. She is our true friend.
The health maintenance and healing practices of Aboriginal people are an ongoing representation of the
importance of Spirituality in the lives of Aboriginal people.
The Ngangkari of the Anangu in the Western Desert of Central Australia continue with the spiritual healing
work as taught to them by their grandparents. They also work independently of the medical service and they
continue to heal and assist the recovery in people affected by dis-ease. Explaining that their work involves careful
listening, deep understanding and touch, Arnie Frank and other Ngangkari have recently turned their attention
to understanding the impacts of petrol, wine and marijuana on the spirit. Frank is concerned that the problems
of the commonplace use of these substances among the people should be faced head on: ‘We need to look at
the problem with our eyes and ears wide open’ and not pretend that it does not exist. When Ngangkari begin
to deal with this problem, they will do so in a wholistic sense, taking onto account the Spirituality of individuals,
and their place in the culture and society (NPYWCAC 2003; Ronin Films 2001).
Mental health results from an adjustment to one’s life circumstances. This adjustment allows ease instead of
dis-ease and can be developed further into the idea of self-actualisation. Darcy Bolton (1994), Aboriginal social
and emotional wellbeing counsellor in Rockhampton, Queensland, argues that for the mental health of any
community, there needs to be ‘a perpetual opportunity, public and private, to exercise and develop every
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Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health • Discussion Paper Series: No. 9
Aboriginal Spirituality: Aboriginal Philosophy
The Basis of Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing