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

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellycontinue to have a major negative impact on Aboriginal women’s health andwell being, and these past and present experiences influence their health careseeking behaviour today. A range of critical theories about the legacy ofcolonisation have been developed and are called ‘postcolonial theories’.Postcolonial perspectivesThe title has ‘postcolonial’ has led to confusion, with some perceiving that itrefers to a time when colonisation is over (Aboriginal Women's ReferenceGroup 2005; Ramsden 2002). For theorists such as Said (1978) and Ashcroft(2001a) however, postcolonial refers to a time after colonisation began. When Iuse the term postcolonial I am referring to the time after colonisation hasbegun, where past and ongoing effects of colonisation exist. This interpretationof postcolonial as colonisation being a continuing process has guided thisresearch and thesis. For example in the second chapter colonising experiencesof racism and exclusionary practices experienced by Aboriginal women in pastand present forms are discussed.Battiste (2004) defines postcolonial as a strategy that responds to experiencesof colonisation and imperialism and a critique that rethinks the conceptual,institutional, cultural, legal and other boundaries that are taken for granted andassumed universal but act as structural barriers to many, including Aboriginalpeople, women, visible minorities and others (Battiste 2004, p. 1). Postcolonialdiscourse focuses on relationships within, and the effects of, colonisation(Kirkham, Baumbusch, Schultz & Anderson 2007). While recognising thehugely negative impacts of colonisation overall, most contemporarypostcolonial writers avoid an oversimplified definition of people as either ‘thecolonised’ or ‘the coloniser’, because to do so hides the complexities andambiguities of social locations and shifting capacity for resistance and agencythat also exist (Ashcroft 2001b; Browne, Smye & Varcoe 2005). Rathermultiple perspectives and positions are considered. The person who has thepower in any relationship may not be as transparent as it seems because at anytime, people may occupy multiple positions with many different interactionsoccurring with and around them (Anderson, J 2004). There may be bothnegative and positive aspects intertwined. Battiste (2004, p. 2), a Mi’kmaqeducator describes the importance of recognising;98