DP9-Aboriginal-Spirituality

knowledges academics, to issues to do with the outcomes of the incorporation of Western psychological
practice into Aboriginal healing practices and the desirability of developing and maintaining intrinsically
Aboriginal ways of dealing with dis-ease.
The voices of the people in local Aboriginal groups, themselves, need to be privileged in social and
emotional wellbeing research; it is important to develop community development approaches to
ascertain what they see their needs as being and how they envisage that they would best be addressed.
Indigenous knowledges focus group methodology is recommended as an important culturally appropriate
approach that transcends ineffective community consultations by grounding the knowledges of
Aboriginal groups into real research outcomes (Grieves 2006a:9–12). Important, too, is the incorporation
of historical research to assist in understanding family, local and regional histories and ethnohistories for the
benefit of Aboriginal groups. Historians and anthropologists can also assist in developing understandings of the
endurance of Aboriginal Spirituality and cultural ways of being and doing that can be recognised, maintained
and promulgated within existing Aboriginal populations. However, the most important focus and prescriptions
for approaches to these issues will come from the Aboriginal people themselves.
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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