DP9-Aboriginal-Spirituality

The impacts of racism, a core value of colonialism, have also been thoroughgoing. It is extremely
difficult for a minority Aboriginal population to deal with a mirror image reflected from the majority
population, through media and government policy, of a people stereotyped as inherently wanting
and incapable. The Australian Psychological Society’s important position paper Racism and Prejudice:
Psychological Perspectives identifies how convoluted such attitudes can be: ‘to the extent that Aboriginal
culture is respected, it is only the so-called traditional culture as existed 200 years ago, pre invasion’
[sic] and there is not an acceptance that this culture can change and still be Aboriginal (APS 1997:25).
Thus, people are identified and disregarded as being Aboriginal and then doubly demeaned by being
categorised as without culture. This can occur to people who are remote, not of mixed race and living on
their own land as defined by governments. Povinelli (2000) identified the ‘cunning of recognition’ as played
out in the ongoing opportunity for settler colonials to exercise inordinate power. The Aboriginal people at
Wadeye (Port Keats) in the Northern Territory are expected to identify with an impossible standard of ‘authentic’
Aboriginal culture in order to be recognised as Aboriginals (Povinelli 2000).
Thus, the ongoing processes of colonisation, in their many forms, have brought stress, trauma, grief, anger and
mental illness to Indigenous populations (CRCAH n.d.: 6) in unprecedented levels, leading in some cases to the
use of substances to self-medicate these conditions and the playing out of self-hate, anger and violence within
the home and community.
Although there is no doubt that colonisation has brought adverse impacts, social change in itself is not necessarily
problematic. All cultures change over time and the resilience of cultures is manifest in the ability of the cultural
basis to adapt and change with pressures and challenges placed on the people, while surviving as a distinct
culture. It is the case, though, that change under colonial rule is sometimes wrought so rapidly as to produce
culture shock in some Aboriginal peoples. The CRCAH Program Statement rightly points to the resilience, esteem,
identity and endurance of many Indigenous individuals, groups and populations and the need to identify and
build on these strengths (CRCAH n.d.:6). The concepts of resiliency, risk and protective factors identified by
the CRCAH as ‘central to research (that is) aiming to build knowledge and understanding in the area of social
and emotional wellbeing’ (CRCAH n.d.:6) are conceivably to be found in the philosophical basis of the culture,
in Spirituality and the lifeways that are developed in concert with this, to produce wellbeing. Therefore, ‘the
pathways and methods whereby resilience can be built on and enhanced to measurably improve the wellbeing
and outcomes or life chances of individuals, families and groups’ that the CRCAH identify as the focus of the
social and emotional wellbeing program (CRCAH n.d.:3) are those that promote and enhance Spirituality.
As Hunter (2004) has identified, and referenced in the CRCAH Program Statement, successful approaches to the
heightening of Indigenous wellbeing incorporate a wholistic approach; social justice and reconciliation at the
social/national level; empowerment through community development approaches at the community level;
family wellbeing and parenting programs; and, for the individual, culturally appropriate therapies, including
a mix of Indigenous therapies, adapted and appropriated therapies, and culturally appropriate conventional
therapies. However, caution is recommended in the application of adapted and appropriated therapies or an
Aboriginal perspective to conventional therapies. There is a need for more research in this area. The reason for
caution is that such therapies come from a Western cultural philosophical base (glossed as normal), predicated
on an entirely different view of the nature of personhood and appropriate belief systems and behaviours. The
application of an Aboriginal perspective to such approaches is not going to be adequate, as previously discussed.
Further, the nature of Aboriginal philosophy suggests that solutions that lead to the legitimising, strengthening
and promulgation of Aboriginal Spirituality, and notions of personhood from there derived, including collective
approaches, are likely to produce real outcomes and enhance wellbeing.
Further to the mix of approaches identified by Hunter, this paper indicates that the need for decolonisation at
the national and regional levels can be broadened—for example, through initiatives such as the introduction
of Indigenous knowledges development within universities, which will serve to develop a body of knowledge
based on Aboriginal philosophies and also gradually to have an impact on Australian intellectual and cultural
development generally. Of equal, if not greater, importance is the preferencing of Aboriginal Spirituality at every
level of social change policy and program development within governments, as this is crucial to bringing about
a heightened Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing.
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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