DP9-Aboriginal-Spirituality

Dudgeon and Williams (2000) suggest that the anthropological theory of bricolage, whereby Indigenous cultures
have been found to adopt Western artefacts into culturally appropriate forms for functional purposes, could
be applied to psychological practice. This is an inversion of the anthropological understanding of bricolage.
It suggests that what is a natural appropriation by Indigenous groups of Western artefacts into their cultural
practice becomes a contrived appropriation by Western psychology, the premise being that Western psychology
is the baseline from which developments are to occur in the mental health treatment of Aboriginal people. This
would be an appropriate application of the concept of bricolage if the Yolngu of Nhulunbuy, the Ngangkari of
the Anangu, or the Marban of the Wonggai of the Western Desert, who operate from within their own cultural
base, were to begin to appropriate Western forms into their healing practices. As Locke has described, this
is most likely to happen by the incorporation of new characters and stories into their repertoires of healing
practices, rather than by changing the philosophical and cultural basis of their practices to incorporate Western
ontologies (Locke 1995). The bottom line is an understanding that Aboriginal culturally based practice is valuable
and produces desirable outcomes for their people (NPYWCAC 2003; ABC Radio 2007).
Atkinson has explored the history of trauma in Aboriginal families that have experienced colonisation and, while
culture is a dynamic process, the impacts of trauma become ingrained so as to produce cultures of pain and
disorder, sometimes called ‘cultures of poverty’ or ‘cultures of violence’: families can exist with multiple levels
of pain, which she, among others, calls ‘transgenerational trauma’ (Atkinson 2002). Many social and emotional
wellbeing practitioners stress that in order to heal it is crucial to understand the colonial history (Atkinson &
Ober 1995; Atkinson 2002; Dudgeon & Williams 2000; Locke 1995; Phillips 2001, 2003; Wanganeen 1994, 2001).
Atkinson promotes cultural healing as the way to overcome the impacts of transgenerational trauma, with the
understanding of one’s own Spirituality at the core of this practice:
Spirituality is a quality of being rather than an activity of belief. Spirituality is influenced by principles rather
than conditioned by rules and beliefs. It is the spiritual that makes the person. By spiritual what I mean is in
the universe, our connection with the creative, life-giving forces, spiritual life is about the whole person: it is
about wholeness and completeness (Atkinson 1997:8).
In this connection, Shawn Wilson, whose research and practice is with Indigenous people in prisons, maintains that:
Spirituality is important [in education] as a means of rebuilding people’s connections to their environment. It
is the spiritual death of many Indigenous people that has led them to be imprisoned in the first place (Wilson,
S. 1999:2).
Similarly, Val Carroll, an Aboriginal substance misuse worker, believes that substances are used as relationship
enhancers and set up a ‘false spiritual connection’ between people; substance misuse also has the capacity to
interfere with the spiritual relationships that do exist, between family members, and so may deny people their
reason for existence (Carroll 1998:5–7).
From reviews of literature produced by social and emotional wellbeing practitioners, it appears that although
there is considerable support among practitioners for the incorporation of Spirituality, Aboriginal philosophy and
concepts of personhood into social and emotional wellbeing practice, there are still some major breakthroughs
to be achieved. Although the majority call for the appropriate positioning of Spirituality and culture at the core
of approaches to dealing with Aboriginal clients, there is a lack of definition and explanation for these concepts,
and often a window-dressing or perspective to Western practices.
Those working within the constraints of Western psychology are having the greatest difficulty in making real
gains in establishing an Aboriginal client base and effective ways of working with this group of clients. Aboriginal
attitudes to Western mental health practice need to be taken seriously, rather than being seen as evidence of a
gap in their education or awareness. The cultural practice of Aboriginal Australians is about connectedness and
relationships, law and protocols, responsibilities and reciprocity, and so approaches to healing that incorporate
groups seem to be the most appropriate and effective.
There is also a real need to develop approaches for dealing with Aboriginal clients based on Aboriginal concepts
of personhood. More particularly, these approaches need to be locally based and developed according to the
needs of the Aboriginal groups therein. This involves targeted research to establish the social and emotional
wellbeing needs of local Aboriginal populations and how they may be best addressed; the people need to
have the opportunity to speak and be listened to, their knowledges grounded into real change in approaches.
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