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

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellyexperiences, and a restructuring of stories (Atkinson 2002). Dadirri addsanother layer of healing and responsiveness to knowledge sharing.Challenging ‘Othering’ behavioursAs described above, emancipatory knowledge interests, Ganma and Dadirri allrequire self reflection, self awareness, and a willingness to engage with otherpeople. Colonising, discriminating and exclusionary practices involvedesignating The Other person as something different to the unspoken norm.Haraway (1988) describes this as a ‘God Trick’ used by many writers, todescribe and paint the Other from a position of “no-where”. Critical, feminist,third world, postcolonial and Indigenous writers have critiqued health carers,researchers and feminists who have a tendency to speak of and for ‘Others’while occluding (hiding) themselves and their own investments and agendas(Bhabha 1992; Chinn 2003; Fine 1994; Fine, Weis, Weseen & Wong 2000;Frankenburg 1993; hooks 1990; Ladner 1971; Moreton Robinson 2002, 2003).Western colonial literature has often followed a trend of highlights the issuesof The Other while hiding the writer’s own agenda (Fine 1994). In the wordsof hooks (1990, pp. 151 -2);No need to hear your voice when I can talk about you better than you canspeak about yourself. No need to hear your voice. Only tell me about yourpain. I want to know your story. And then I will tell it back to you in a newway. Tell it back to you in such a way that it has become mine, my own.Re-writing you, I write myself anew. I am still author, authority. I am stillthe coloniser, the speak subject, and you are now at the centre of my talkOthering such as this disrupts the respectful intention within Ganmaknowledge sharing and Dadirri deep listening.Feminists such as Chinn (2003) promote the concept of embodiment inrecognition that we all live in a particular body, and operate from a particularstandpoint. Who we are and what we believe impacts on the way we live,work, provide health care, research and write. Fine (1994) describes the linkbetween self and other as a hyphen, a space we can use to separate or mergeour personal identities with our inventions of Others. These conceptsencourage health professionals to become more aware of their integrity in92