Moving Forward Together in Aboriginal Women's Health: - Theses ...

Moving Forward TogetherJanet KellyChapter 2 Aboriginal Women’s Experiences ofColonisation, Discrimination and ExclusionTo understand and meet the goals of collaboration and knowledge sharing it wasnecessary to first explore and comprehend Aboriginal experiences of colonisation.This chapter highlights those aspects of colonisation, discrimination and exclusionthat impacted, and continue to impact on Aboriginal women’s daily health andwell-being. In community consultations Aboriginal participants voiced theirperception that many non-Aboriginal South Australians, including health andresearch professionals, have little understanding of the extent that past and presentcolonisation practices, social, employment and economic exclusion and personaland institutional discrimination impact on Aboriginal women and their families(Community consultations 2005).In this chapter I argue that a set of dominant ideas popular in Europe in the 18 th and19 th centuries continued well into the 20 th and 21 st centuries and are reflected ingovernment policies and practices up to the current times. An elective affinityexisted between the ideas of Development outlined by Locke, Rousseau andDarwin, and European expansion into the new world that allowed the robustdevelopment of capitalism based on exploitation. These ideas came togetherallowing Europeans to take over the land and resources of Native peoples. In thenext section of the chapter I outline a range of policy ideas from segregation to selfdeterminationillustrating the way in which these polices continued to excludeAboriginal people. In outlining the various policy eras, I draw specifically onwritten work or research by Aboriginal women who have reflected on the impact ofgovernment determinations on their lives. I make two arguments, firstly thatAboriginal women carry this legacy of colonisation, and its continued practice aspart of a collective trauma, and secondly, that policies and practices were institutedwithout collaboration or communication with Aboriginal people. I draw heavily ontexts that have Aboriginal authors or co-authors and have been ‘approved’ asauthentic and a good representation by Aboriginal co-researchers, stakeholders andmentors. I also draw from specific South Australian texts written by non-Aboriginalauthors, with Aboriginal people verifying that from their experiences andconversations, these accounts can be considered valid. Interwoven with the written27