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Aboriginal People (aboriginal + people)
Selected AbstractsIndian residential school survivors and state-designed ADR: A strategy for co-optation?CONFLICT RESOLUTION QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2007Neil Funk-Unrau The history of the Indian residential school system, which began officially in Canada in 1879, is marked by the persistent neglect and abuse of children and, as a result, of Aboriginal communities in general. The residential schools were an attempt to undermine the existence of Aboriginal communities and families. The federal government wanted Aboriginal people to assimilate into Canadian society. According to Duncan Campbell Scott, the principal architect of Indian residential school policy, "Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there is no Indian question and no Indian Department. , I want to get rid of the Indian problem" (Titley, 1986, p. 50). In many communities, every child between the age of five and eighteen was taken from his or her family and put in residential schools. [source] The role of remote community stores in reducing the harm resulting from tobacco to Aboriginal peopleDRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 3 2006ROWENA G. IVERS Abstract The objective of this study was to assess the potential for reducing the harm resulting from tobacco use through health promotion programmes run in community stores in remote Aboriginal communities. The Tobacco Project utilised data from 111 stakeholder interviews (72 at baseline and 71 at follow-up after 12 months) assessing presence of sales to minors, tobacco advertising, labelling and pricing. It also involved the assessment of observational data from community stores and comments obtained from 29 tobacco vendors derived from community surveys. Sales of tobacco to minors were not reported in community stores and all stores complied with requirements to display the legislated signage. However, tobacco was accessible to minors through a vending machine and through independent vendors. Only one store displayed tobacco advertising; all stores had displayed anti-tobacco health promotion posters or pamphlets. Pricing policies in two stores may have meant that food items effectively subsidised the cost of tobacco. All stores had unofficial no-smoking policies in accessible parts of the store. Remote community stores complied with existing legislation, aside from allowing access of minors to vending machines. There may still be potential for proactive tobacco education campaigns run through community stores and for a trial assessing the effect of changes in tobacco prices on tobacco consumption. [source] An evidence-based approach to planning tobacco interventions for Aboriginal peopleDRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 1 2004ROWENA G. IVERS Abstract Systematic reviews have shown that interventions such as the delivery of cessation advice by heath professionals and the use of nicotine replacement therapy are effective at increasing cessation rates, however little is known about whether such interventions are appropriate and effective for and thus transferable to Aboriginal Australians. The aim of this paper was to assess whether evidence of effectiveness for brief interventions for cessation and nicotine patches from studies conducted in other populations was likely to be transferable to Aboriginal people in the NT. This paper involved assessment of systematic reviews of evidence for the use of brief interventions for smoking cessation and the use of nicotine replacement therapy, when planning two such interventions for delivery to Aboriginal people. Emerging themes are discussed. There were many factors which were likely to mean that these brief advice on cessation and the use of nicotine patches were likely to be less effective when implemented in Aboriginal communities. The planned interventions were delivered in primary care, and were of low intensity. Few studies included in systematic reviews were set in the developing world or in minority populations. Many features of the context for delivery, such as the normality of the use of tobacco among Aboriginal people, the low socio-economic status of this population and cultural issues, may have meant that these interventions were likely to be less effective when delivered in this setting. Further research is required to assess effectiveness of tobacco interventions in this population, as evidence from systematic reviews in other populations may not be directly transferable to Aboriginal people. [source] Kava in Arnhem Land: a review of consumption and its social correlatesDRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 3 2000Alan R. Clough Abstract The debate about the effects and public health importance of the way Aboriginal people drink kava has been confounded by claims, based on anecdote, of imputed health effects. Anecdote and comment have promoted the perception that dosage levels among Aboriginal people are much greater than in Pacific island societies. In this paper we review published data about kava consumption, and evaluate it with respect to information collected from observation of one Aboriginal community in Arnhem Land (Northern Territory) where people tend to consume kavaat a steady tempo; 37g of kava powder containing around 3800mg of kava lactones in 670ml of water in an hour. The highest levels of consumption in Arnhem Land have been reported to be up to 900g/week of kava powder with heavy consumers drinking at least 610g/week, levels comparable to estimates for Pacific-island societies. The significance of a steady drinking tempo means that an individual's weekly kava consumption relates directly to the amount of time spent drinking which, in turn, is correlated with categories of social setting of drinking (p < 0.0002). Lone drinkers appear to be the heaviest users while lowest consumption takes place in private domestic situations, where people enjoy kava as part of family group activities. Surrogates of consumption levels may be found in local socio-economic circumstances. This approach may be useful when more direct measurement of consumption is difficult or impossible. [source] Rainforests, Agriculture and Aboriginal Fire-Regimes in Wet Tropical Queensland, AustraliaGEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2000Rosemary Hill This paper challenges the hypothesis that Aboriginal fire-regimes in the coastal wet tropics of north Queensland have been responsible for significant rainforest decline in the past, and rejects the narrative that recent rainforest expansion is the result of the disappearance of Aboriginal people and their fire practices from the area. Mapping of vegetation in the Mossman district in c. 1890 from surveyors' plans, and in 1945 and 1991 from aerial photography demonstrates that the expansion of rainforest since 1945 represents a recovery following extensive rainforest destruction associated with sugar cane cultivation in the first 70 years of European occupation. Kuku-Yalanji Aboriginal people continued to occupy their traditional lands, and participated in the sugar industry, throughout this period. They adapted their fire management practices to the changed economic and social circumstances. Management of fire by the Kuku-Yalanji people prior to European occupation ensured the presence of extensive rainforest cover, whilst also providing access to fire-prone forests and their cultural resources. [source] Changing Fire Management in the Pastoral Lands of Cape York Peninsula of northeast Australia, 1623 to 1996GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2000G.M. Crowley Accounts of European explorers between 1623 and 1880 indicate that fires were lit by Aboriginal people on Cape York Peninsula in northeast Australia throughout the dry season (May,October). Diaries kept by three generations of pastoralists in the Musgrave area (1913,1952, 1953,1974 and 1976,1992) show that burning activities were largely confined to a two to six week period between May and early August. The timing of burning depended on the amount and date of cessation of wet season rainfall. More rarely, ,storm-burning', burning under hot conditions within a few days of the first heavy rains of the wet season, was undertaken. Long-term pastoralists felt a responsibility to use fire wisely and had a detailed knowledge of the role of fire in land management. Their decisions to burn were based on the extent of grass curing, and soil and weather conditions, all of which affected the extent of each burn. They used early dry season fires mainly to maintain forage and control cattle movements. Storm-burns were reputed to control woody weeds, but were used infrequently because of difficulty in controlling their spread and uncertainty as to when the next rains would stimulate new grass growth. [source] The Law of the Land or the Law of the Land?: History, Law and Narrative in a Settler SocietyHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2004Bain Attwood This article considers the influence of a controversial historical work on the law, politics and society of a settler nation. It argues that the impact of Henry Reynolds's 1987 The Law of the Land on legal consideration of indigenous rights to land in Australia can be attributed to the fact that it is best described as juridical history. As such, it told a lego-historical story that provided the High Court of Australia with a new way of interpreting its own traditional narrative, which had long denied Aboriginal people their rights to land, thus enabling it to make a new determination of those rights as well as resolve a crisis of legitimacy for the law and the nation. This article also contends that this history-making came to be accepted by many settler Australians because it provided the nation with a newly redemptive, liberal myth narrative. It assesses the cost of a story of this kind, asking whether such simple histories can have an enduring effect, especially where their authors are reluctant to signpost the historical or literary form of their texts. Finally, it suggests that histories truer to the complexities of the past might produce better political and social outcomes. [source] Contemporary landscape burning patterns in the far North Kimberley region of north-west Australia: human influences and environmental determinantsJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 8 2004T. Vigilante Abstract Aim, This study of contemporary landscape burning patterns in the North Kimberley aims to determine the relative influences of environmental factors and compare the management regimes occurring on Aboriginal lands, pastoral leases, national park and crown land. Location, The study area is defined at the largest scale by Landsat Scene 108,70 that covers a total land area of 23,134 km2 in the North Kimberley Bioregion of north-west Australia, including the settlement of Kalumburu, coastline between Vansittart Bay in the west and the mouth of the Berkeley River in the east, and stretching approximately 200 km inland. Methods, Two approaches are applied. First, a 10-year fire history (1990,1999) derived from previous study of satellite (Landsat-MSS) remote sensing imagery is analysed for broad regional patterns. And secondly, a 2-year ground-based survey of burning along major access roads leading to an Aboriginal community is used to show fine-scale burning patterns. anova and multiple regression analyses are used to determine the influence of year, season, geology, tenure, distance from road and distance from settlement on fire patterns. Results, Satellite data indicated that an average of 30.8% (±4.4% SEM) of the study area was burnt each year with considerable variability between years. Approximately 56% of the study area was burnt on three or more occasions over the 10-year period. A slightly higher proportion of burning occurred on average in the late dry season (17.2 ± 3.6%), compared with the early dry season (13.6 ± 3.3%). The highest fire frequency occurred on basalt substrates, on pastoral tenures, and at distances 5,25 km from roads. Three-way anova demonstrated that geological substrate and land use were the most significant factors influencing fire history, however a range of smaller interactions were also significant. Analysis of road transects, originating from an Aboriginal settlement, showed that the timing of fire and geology type were the most significant factors affecting the pattern of area burnt. Of the total transect area, 28.3 ± 2.9% was burnt annually with peaks in burning occurring into the dry season months of June, August and September. Basalt uplands (81.2%) and lowlands (30.1%) had greater areas burnt than sandstone (12.3%) and sands (17.7%). Main conclusions, Anthropogenic firing is constrained by two major environmental determinants; climate and substrate. Seasonal peaks in burning activity in both the early and late dry season relate to periods of optimal fire-weather conditions. Substrate factors (geology, soils and physiognomy) influence vegetation-fuel characteristics and the movement of fire in the landscape. Basalt hills overwhelmingly supported the most frequent wildfire regime in the study region because of their undulating topography and relatively fertile soils that support perennial grasslands. Within these spatial and temporal constraints people significantly influenced the frequency and extent of fire in the North Kimberley thus tenure type and associated land uses had a significant influence on fire patterning. Burning activity is high on pastoral lands and along roads and tracks on some tenure types. While the state government uses aerial control burning and legislation to try to restrict burning to the early dry season across all geology types, in practice burning is being conducted across the full duration of the dry season with early dry season burning focused on sandstone and sand substrates and late dry season burning focused on basalt substrates. There is greater seasonal and spatial variation in burning patterns on landscapes managed by Aboriginal people. [source] The irreversible cattle-driven transformation of a seasonally flooded Australian savannaJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 5 2003Ben R. Sharp Abstract Aim ,Anecdotal historical and photographic evidence suggests that woody vegetation is increasing dramatically in some northern Australian savanna habitats. Vegetation change in savannas has important implications for pastoral land-use, conservation management, and landscape-scale carbon storage, and informs theoretical debates about ecosystem function. This study seeks to determine the nature, extent and cause(s) of woody vegetation change in a seasonally flooded alluvial savanna habitat. Location ,The study area is located within the seasonally inundated alluvial zone of the tidal portion of the Victoria River, Northern Territory, Australia. The study area has been grazed by domestic stock since c. 1900, prior to which the area was inhabited and more likely regularly burnt by Aboriginal people for thousands of years. Methods ,Digital georeferenced aerial photographic coverages were used to examine and quantify woody vegetation change between 1948 and 1993. Transect surveys of woody and herbaceous vegetation were carried out to ground-truth air-photo results and determine the nature and causes of observed vegetation changes. Results ,There has been a dramatic increase in woody vegetation cover throughout the study area. Vegetation change patterns are roughly uniform across the full range of edaphic habitat variation and are unrelated to the depositional age of fluvial sediments. Two woody species, Eucalyptus microtheca and Excoecaria parvifolia, are predominantly responsible for observed increases. Demographic analyses reveal that woody invasions have been episodic and indicate that in most locations peak woody species establishment occurred in the mid-1970s. Grasses are almost absent in a majority of habitats within the study area. Instead, large areas are covered by scalded soil, dense invasive weed populations, and unpalatable forbs and sedges. What grasses do occur are predominantly of very low value for grazing. The condition of the herbaceous layer renders most of the study area almost completely non-flammable; what fires do burn are small and of low intensity. Main conclusions ,Multiple working hypotheses explaining observed patterns of woody vegetation increase were considered and rejected in turn. The only hypothesis consistent with the evidence is as follows: (1) observed changes are a direct consequence of extreme overgrazing by cattle, most likely when stocking rates peaked in the mid-1970s; (2) prolonged heavy grazing effected the complete transformation of much of the herbaceous vegetation to a new state that is not flammable; and (3) in the absence of regular fire mortality, woody vegetation increased rapidly. The relatively treeless system that existed in 1948 was apparently stable and resilient to moderate grazing levels, and perhaps also to episodic heavy grazing events. However, grazing intensity in excess of a sustainable threshold has forced a transition that is irreversible in the foreseeable future. Stable-state transitions such as this one inform debates at the heart of ecological theory, such as the nature of stability, resilience, equilibrium and carrying capacity in dynamic savanna ecosystems. [source] Tobacco smoke exposure in hospitalised Aboriginal children in Central AustraliaJOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 4 2009Lee Hudson Aim: Child exposure to tobacco smoke is detrimental to health. Australian Aboriginal people have a higher rate of cigarette smoking compared with the national average. Thus, we aim to measure the proportion of children admitted to Alice Springs Hospital who are exposed to tobacco smoke at home, to correlate this with prevalence of regular cough and gauge smokers' interest in quitting. Method: A questionnaire was administered verbally to carers of children admitted to Alice Springs Hospital, November 2006 to January 2007. Main outcome measures were presence of a smoker at home and presence of a regular cough. We measured the interest of carers and speculated interest of other smokers in quitting. Eighty-two questionnaires were completed (60% of children admitted during the study period). Eighty-nine per cent of children were Aboriginal. Results: As so few non-Aboriginal children were included in the study, their results were not included in analysis. Sixty-four per cent of children lived with at least one smoker. Seventy per cent of children exposed to smoke at home lived with more than one smoker. Point prevalence of reported regular cough was 33%. Forty-three per cent of children who lived with at least one smoker had regular cough compared with 13% in those who did not (P= 0.035). The rate ratio for regular cough when living with a smoker versus when not living with a smoker was 2.77 (95% confidence interval: 1.06,7.23). Forty-two per cent of the smokers expressed interest in quitting. Conclusion: It is concerning that the majority of hospitalised children were exposed to tobacco smoke at home, while fewer than half of smokers were interested in quitting. [source] The Kalgoorlie Otitis Media Research Project: rationale, methods, population characteristics and ethical considerationsPAEDIATRIC & PERINATAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Deborah Lehmann Summary Otitis media (OM) is one of the most common paediatric illnesses for which medical advice is sought in developed countries. Australian Aboriginal children suffer high rates of OM from early infancy. The resultant hearing loss can affect education and quality of life. As numerous factors contribute to the burden of OM, interventions aimed at reducing the impact of single risk factors are likely to fail. To identify key risk factors and understand how they interact in complex causal pathways, we followed 100 Aboriginal and 180 non-Aboriginal children from birth to age 2 years in a semi-arid zone of Western Australia. We collected demographic, obstetric, socio-economic and environmental data, breast milk once, and nasopharyngeal samples and saliva on seven occasions. Ear health was assessed by clinical examination, tympanometry, transient evoked otoacoustic emissions and audiometry. We considered the conduct of our study in relation to national ethical guidelines for research in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. After 1 year of community consultation, the study was endorsed by local committees and ethical approval granted. Fieldwork was tailored to minimise disruption to people's lives and we provided regular feedback to the community. We saw 81% of non-Aboriginal and 65% of Aboriginal children at age 12 months. OM was diagnosed on 55% and 26% of routine clinical examinations in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children respectively. Aboriginal mothers were younger and less educated, fewer were employed and they lived in more crowded conditions than non-Aboriginal mothers. Sixty-four per cent of Aboriginal and 40% of non-Aboriginal babies were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. Early consultation, provision of a service while undertaking research, inclusion of Aboriginal people as active members of a research team and appropriate acknowledgement will assist in ensuring successful completion of the research. [source] Art, Culture and Ambiguity in Wilcannia, New South WalesTHE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2008Lorraine Gibson The claim of most town whites that Aboriginal people of Wilcannia make art but have no culture and the claim by Aboriginal people of the town that their art work and art designs demonstrate their culture and cultural traditions opens up the powerful and productive dimensions of art and culture for closer scrutiny. In so doing, the ambivalence and ambiguity which saturates these categories is ethnographically revealed. How can the presence and production of artworks in Wilcannia and the white denial of culture be considered? Why indeed do these questions matter, in what ways do they matter, and to whom do they matter? How do the categories of traditional/remote, urban/settled and their avatars intersect with black and white notions of Aboriginal art and Aboriginal culture discursively and experientially? [source] Shifting Egalitarianisms and Contemporary Racism in Rural Victorian Football: The Rumbalara ExperienceTHE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2007Michael Tynan This article builds on our understanding of racism towards Aboriginal people in Australia through an examination of discriminatory belief structures pervasive in the mainstream community as evidenced through the important social field of country football in regional Victoria. It analyses the power and pervasiveness of the racial stereotyping that exists in some segments of the community by using Langton's (1997) notion of ,iconic images' as well as discussing the importance of particular ideological motivations around values such as ,egalitarianism'. This is achieved through analysing the views of players, supporters and officials of mainstream clubs towards the Aboriginal Rumbalara Football Netball Club. This analysis is structurally situated within a broader understanding of Australian national identity, in particular looking at the intersection of the powerful cultural domains of sport and evolving expressions of whiteness and egalitarianism. [source] European Settlement and the Making and Unmaking of Aboriginal IdentitiesTHE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2006Francesca Merlan This paper explores variation and change in Aboriginal people's connections to places, and place-related identity, as a function of their differential historical relationship to a town. Among Aboriginal people who have lived for some decades in camps around Katherine, Northern Territory, descendants of those who appear to have the most clearly discernable long-term relationship with the area in the vicinity of the town do not relate to places, nor conceptualise them, in stereotypically ,traditional' terms. Their relationships to town and nearby places tend to be of an ideologically unelaborated, homely sort. Kinds of territorial relationships their antecedents can be shown to have had to the area have undergone dissolution. The paper seeks to develop discussion of such variation and the historical and sociological processes involved. The Katherine case brings the social and historical significance of ,towns' as sites of Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal interrelationship into focus, and also requires a critical view of notions of ,group' that have tended to dominate recent public process and understanding in Australia. [source] Multiculturalism, Latin Americans and ,Indigeneity' in AustraliaTHE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2003Erez Cohen What are the relations between the discourse of ,multiculturalism' and that of ,indigeneity' in Australia? In problematising these relations this paper explores the affiliations that Latin American migrants and political refugees living in Adelaide have with the notion of indigeneity. For some Latin Americans affiliations with the struggle of Aboriginal people and indigeneity is a product of strong political identification with the political left and the struggle for human rights in their countries of origin. At the same time references to Latin Americans' indigeneity are often evoked within Australian multicultural settings and performances that promote ,cultural diversity' and are consumed by White Australians for their exotic otherness and as forms of cultural enrichment. Such representations work to marginalise further the migrants (and the ,indigenous') into a cultural sphere which marks them as the tolerated ethnic ,Other'. [source] Land Tenure and Naming Systems in Aboriginal AustraliaTHE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2002Mark Harvey Naming systems play a prominent role in discussions of land tenure by Aboriginal people. Reference to one area of land and its owners is most commonly in terms of name ,X', whereas reference to another area of land and its owners is most commonly made in terms of name ,Y'. Much of the analytical literature examines how these names refer to groups of people. There is considerable dispute as to whether the reference of these names suffices to determine disjoint groupings of owners that can be described by the term ,clan'. This paper proposes that the analysis of linkages between names and areas of land should have priority over the analysis of linkages between names and groups of people. The evidence shows that the attachment of names to areas of land is more stable and consistent than their attachment to groups of people. There are differences in the ways that names attach to the landscape, and these differences are significant,they determine whether or not more than one name from the same system may be attached to an area of land. This paper focuses on two areas of Australia: the northern Kakadu-Oenpelli area and the Timber Creek area (both in the Northern Territory). It shows that naming systems identify disjunctive areas of land as the targets for claims of primary ownership in both areas. These disjunctive areas may reasonably be described with the translation term ,estates'. In the northern Kakadu-Oenpelli area, corresponding to these estates, there are disjunctive groupings of owners, which may be termed ,clans'. However, groupings of owners are not clearly disjunctive in the Timber Creek area, and there is little motivation for using the term ,clan'. This paper proposes that this difference reflects a general pattern in Aboriginal Australia, with naming systems stably and consistently identifying ,estates' across much of the continent. They do not identify ,clans' with equivalent stability and consistency. [source] Suzanne MacKenzie Memorial LectureConceptually unclad: feminist geography and Aboriginal peoples,THE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 3 2004Evelyn J. Peters This paper argues that feminist geography can provide some useful lessons in an attempt to increase Aboriginal peoples' representation in geography. It asks the question: How can we use the example of feminist geography to think about a geography that is more inclusive of Aboriginal people? The paper focuses on the issues of content in teaching, drawing on examples from urban and social geography, and on methodological challenges, especially the issue of reflexivity. Feminist geographer Suzanne Mackenzie argued that an emerging feminist geography left the discipline ,conceptually unclad', challenging scholars to consider new theoretical frameworks and new perspectives. I argue that emphasising the geographies of Aboriginal people also enriches geography, including feminist geography. Cet article témoigne en faveur de la géographie féministe qui peut nous donner quelques leçons utiles pour augmenter la représentation du peuple aborigène en géographie. L'article pose la question suivante: comment peut-on utiliser l'exemple de la géographie féministe pour penser à une géographie qui est plus inclusive du peuple aborigène? Cet article insiste sur les questions du contenu d'enseignement, tirant les exemples de la géographie urbaine et sociale, et des défis de méthodologie, particulièrement au sujet de la réflexivité. La géographe féministe, Suzanne Mackenzie, a disputé qu'une géographie féministe émergeante était partie du discipline d'un façon «conceptuellement nu», qui invitent aux érudits à considérer des nouveaux plans de théorie et des nouvelles perspectives. Je dispute que l'emphasis sur les géographies du peuple aborigène peut aussi enrichir la géographie, y compris la géographie féministe. [source] Environment, race and nation reconsidered: reflections on Aboriginal land claims in CanadaTHE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 4 2003Peter J. Usher The course of development in Northern Canada has been transformed in the last 30 years by the comprehensive land claims process. For much of the twentieth century, the settlement and development of northern Canada was experienced by Aboriginal people as a continuing process of encroachment on (and sometimes transformation of) their traditional territories, and of restriction of their customary livelihood. Examples of this process included the alteration of river systems by impoundment and diversion, the pollution and contamination of river systems, government restrictions on hunting and fishing and population relocation and sedentarization. Aboriginal political and legal action led, in the 1970s, to the establishment of a formal process for resolving Aboriginal land claims, and to revised judicial interpretation of Aboriginal and treaty rights. The paper describes how geographers have contributed to documenting those claims, and how land claims settlements have altered the land and resource regimes in northern Canada, and concludes with some observations on the effectiveness of those remedies, and on the changes in Canadian perspectives on Aboriginal northerners, the northern environment and northern development. Le cours du développement du Nord du Canada a été influencé durant les trente dernières années par la négotiation des revendications territoriales globales. Pendant une grande partie du 20ème siècle, la colonisation et le développement du Nord canadien ont été vécus par les autochtones comme un processus d'empiètement (et quelquefois de transformation) de leurs territoires traditionnels et de restriction de leur mode de vie. L'assèchement, le détournement, la pollution et la contamination des systèmes fluviaux, les restrictions gouvernementales concernant la chasse et la pêche ainsi que le déplacement et la sédentarisation de ces populations en sont quelques exemples. L'action politique et judiciaire des autochtones, dans les années 70, a conduit à l'établissement d'un processus officiel pour la résolution de leurs revendications territoriales et à la révision des interprétations judiciaires de leurs droits authochtones et des traités. Cet article décrit comment des géographes ont contribuéà rendre compte de ces revendications et comment celles-ci ont transformé les régimes d'exploitation du territoire et des ressources du Nord du Canada. En conclusion, quelques observations montrent l'efficacité de ces remèdes et les changements apportés aux perspectives canadiennes au sujet des autochtones de cette région, de l'environnement nordique et du développement du Nord canadien. [source] Protocols, particularities, and problematising Indigenous ,engagement' in community-based environmental management in settled AustraliaTHE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010JENNIFER CARTER Many Aboriginal Australians in regional and urban Australia hold attachments to their homelands that have been compromised by policies of removal and dispossession. Government agencies and community groups have ,protocols' for engaging with Aboriginal communities, but these protocols have been transferred from remote parts of Australia where land tenure and rights are relatively secure and people can readily claim their community of belonging. The efficacy and applicability of engagement protocols are rarely evaluated, and have not been evaluated with respect to the differing tenure regimes of settled Australia under which rights to land and its resources remain contested and unfolding. This paper describes research conducted in three study areas of regional Australia, where resource management practitioners apply projects according to engagement protocols transferred from remote Australia. Analysis of government and community-based documents, and interviews with agency staff and Aboriginal people, identifies that genuine participation, cultural awareness, agreement-making, appropriate representation and the unique place-based factors affecting engagement remain key barriers to effective engagement with Aboriginal people by institutions in urbanising Australia. In particular, appropriate representation and a need for place-based approaches emerge as critical to engagement in settled Australia. This paper recommends that engagement be considered as a multi-layered approach in which generic ,engagement' threads are selected and re-selected in different combinations to suit contexts, places and purposes. Thus each place-based engagement initiative is not readily typified at the local scale, but taken together, make up a regional mosaic of different engagement structures and processes. [source] ,Stream of consciousness' and ,ownership of thought' in indigenous people in Central AustraliaTHE JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2000Leon Petchkovsky Fifteen Central Australian Aboriginal adults (8 patients, 7 colleagues) were presented with a culturally modified version of Flavell's ,stream of consciousness' experiment (pictures of persons with empty or ,busy' thought-bubbles, and an invitation to assign a picture to the mental state of a second experimenter seen reading or sitting quietly). Only 4 people assigned the empty thought bubble to the quiet experimenter. This result was at least as good as that of a sample of Stanford College students tested by Flavell. The experiment provoked detailed comments from the informants about subjectivity, suggesting great subtlety of phenomenological awareness in Central Australian Aboriginal people, and attributing a kind of subjectivity to non-human entities, including inanimate elements. We learnt that the Western Deserts dialect term watiya was reserved for the subjectivity attributed to trees and rocks. The ownership of all thought was attributed to the tjukurpa (the Aboriginal dreaming). These Aboriginal cultural attributions were compared and contrasted with reflections developed by Jung and the post-Jungian David Holt on the nature of subjectivity, and religious notions of the redemption of matter. [source] ,ALMOST TRUE': PETER RINDISBACHER'S EARLY IMAGES OF RUPERT'S LAND, 1821,26ART HISTORY, Issue 3 2009LAURA PEERS This article examines early watercolours and sketches by Peter Rindisbacher, who in 1821, emigrated with his family from Switzerland to the Red River Settlement in Winnipeg, Canada. Rindisbacher's work has been praised, and made use of, for its detailed renderings of clothing and objects typical of the Northwestern fur trade. The article examines both the materiality of the images and the materiality within them, in order to understand his European mindset and training and consider their implications for the veracity of his work, which reflects European stereotypes of Aboriginal people. Viewers' responses to Rindisbacher's images are also explored, and the correlation between the assumption of veracity in these images and expectations about the ,frontier' is noted. Rindisbacher's images both reflect such expectations, and complicate them. [source] The effect of a single burn event on the aquatic invertebrates in artesian springsAUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 8 2009NICOLA THERESE MUNRO Abstract Fire can often occur in aquatic ecosystems, which may affect aquatic invertebrates. Despite the importance of aquatic invertebrates to ecosystem function, the effect of fire on these environments has been little studied. We studied the effects of fire on aquatic invertebrates in artesian springs in the arid zone of South Australia. Artesian springs are a unique and threatened ecosystem, containing several rare and endemic species. Evidence suggests these wetlands were routinely burnt by indigenous Aboriginal people before European settlement over 100 years ago. Recently, burning has been suggested as a reinstated management tool to control the dominant reed Phragmites australis. A reduction in the cover of the reed may benefit the threatened flora and fauna through enhancement of water flow. Three artesian springs were burnt and aquatic invertebrates sampled from the burnt and three unburnt springs. A single fire in late winter completely burnt the dominant vegetation, followed by recovery of Phragmites over the following 2 years. A single fire event did not deplete populations of endemic aquatic invertebrates in artesian springs, but probably did not substantially benefit these populations either. Isopods, amphipods, ostracods and three species of hydrobiid snail survived the fire event, and most had increased in number 1 month post fire but then returned to pre-burnt numbers by 1 year post fire. Morphospecies richness of all identified invertebrates increased over time in all springs, but did not differ appreciably between burnt and unburnt springs. If burning artesian springs is to be adopted as a management tool to suppress the growth of Phragmites australis, we conclude that the endemic aquatic invertebrates will survive a single burn event, without negative effect to their populations. [source] Two proxy records revealing the late Holocene fire history at a site on the central coast of New South Wales, AustraliaAUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2006SCOTT. Abstract: The local fire history of a coastal swamp catchment in New South Wales was reconstructed using two proxy records of fire: sedimentary macroscopic charcoal and fire-scar analyses of Xanthorrhoea johnsonii. The charcoal analysis provided a record of fire activity spanning the last 2800 years, while the Xanthorrhoea record covered the last approx. 300 years. The ability of each method to accurately record fire events was verified by cross referencing against the recent (post 1968) historic fire record. Fire history was then extrapolated beyond the historic record, to reveal an unprecedented level of fire activity in the last 35 years, which coincides with increased human activity in the area. In the prehistoric period charcoal and fire scars are comparatively rare, which is most parsimoniously ascribed to little fire activity, but perhaps represents skilful fire manipulation, as is often attributed to Aboriginal people. The comparatively minor fluctuations in macroscopic charcoal during the prehistoric period were approximately coeval with previous evidence of late Holocene environmental change in south-eastern Australia, suggesting that fire frequency at the site responded to climatic variability. The longer temporal perspective of this palaeoenvironmental approach provides information for the contemporary management of fire in this conservation reserve. [source] The Gudaga Study: establishing an Aboriginal birth cohort in an urban communityAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 2010Elizabeth Comino Abstract Objective: This paper describes the establishment of the Gudaga Study, an Aboriginal birth cohort in south-west Sydney, and our approach to follow-up of participants. The Study describes the health, development, and services use of Aboriginal infants and their mothers. The research team works closely with the local Aboriginal community to implement the research. Methods: All mothers in the maternity ward of an urban hospital were surveyed to identify mothers with an Aboriginal infant. These and some additional mothers identified through other networks were recruited to the study. Results: The number of mothers were surveyed was 2,108. Mothers of Aboriginal infants were younger (25.3 years compared to 28.4 years, p<0.001), less likely to be married (16.1% cf. 58.4%, p<0.001) and to have completed school (63.2% cf. 77.8%, p=0.002) than mothers of non-Aboriginal infants. Of 155 identified mothers of Aboriginal infants, 136 were recruited and 23 through other networks. At 12 months, 85.5% of infants were followed up. Conclusions: This study, to our knowledge, is the first cohort study of this kind on the eastern seaboard of Australia. The study has strong community support and follow-up, contrary to views that Aboriginal people are reluctant to participate in research. These data have national and regional significance. [source] C-reactive protein: an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease in Aboriginal AustraliansAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 2010Zhiqiang Wang Abstract Objectives: We assessed the independent contribution of C-reactive protein to the risk of cardiovascular disease in Aboriginal Australians. Methods: High sensitivity CRP levels were measured in 705 Aboriginal participants aged 20,74 years free from CVD at baseline. Participants were followed for a median of 11 years. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the association of CRP with the risk of developing CVD events. Results: A total of 114 participants were diagnosed with CVD. Incidence rates were 5.4 and 21.4 per 1,000 person-years for the lower (<3 mg/l) and the higher (,3 mg/l) CRP groups, respectively. After adjusting for age, sex, total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, smoking status, diabetes, BMI and waist circumference, the association between CRP and CVD remained significant, with a hazard ratio of 2.40 (95% CI: 1.25, 4.62) for the higher CRP group relative to the lower CRP group. The population attributable risk was 52% (95% CI: 14%, 74%). Conclusions: CRP is an independent predictor of CVD in Aboriginal people. A large proportion of CVD cases are associated with elevated CRP levels. Therefore, controlling the conditions that cause inflammation may be beneficial to cardiovascular health in Aboriginal communities. [source] Avoidable mortality trends in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations in the Northern Territory, 1985-2004AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 6 2009Shu Qin Li Abstract Objectives: To analyse rates of avoidable mortality in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents of the Northern Territory (NT) from 1985 to 2004, in order to assess the contribution of health care to life expectancy improvements. Methods: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) death registration data for NT residents were used to identify ,avoidable' deaths, with further separation into three categories of conditions amenable to either medical care or health policy, and a category for ischaemic heart disease (IHD). A Poisson regression model was used to calculate the average annual change in avoidable mortality by sex and Aboriginality in the NT compared with Australia as a whole. Results: In the 20 years between 1985 and 2004, avoidable mortality rates fell 18.9% in NT Aboriginal people, 61.1% in NT non-Aboriginal people and 59.5% in Australians overall. NT Aboriginal people continued to experience higher avoidable mortality than other Australians and the disparity increased over time. Most of the decline in avoidable mortality for Aboriginal Territorians occurred for conditions amenable to medical care. Conclusion: Medical care has made a significant contribution to improvements in Aboriginal life expectancy in the NT, however, reductions in avoidable mortality from IHD and conditions amenable to health policy have been variable. Implications: The results highlight the need for ongoing investment in comprehensive programs incorporating appropriate health policy interventions and management of chronic diseases. [source] Engaging with Aboriginal communities in an urban context: some practical suggestions for public health researchersAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 1 2009Priscilla Pyett Objective: In this paper, one Indigenous and two non-Indigenous public health researchers reflect on our combined experience of over thirty years in Aboriginal health, in order to develop some practical guidelines, particularly for researchers working with urban Indigenous population groups. Approach: Public health research is important not only to address the health inequities experienced by Australia's Indigenous populations, but also to build knowledge and confidence and to inform practice in Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations. Ethical guidelines and previous research experience demonstrate that researchers need to engage with the communities that may be involved in or affected by the research they propose. Although more than half of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population live in urban and regional centres, most research and commentaries address the health and social issues of remote communities. Researchers often do not know how to engage with urban Aboriginal communities and how to approach the particular research challenges within this context. Conclusion and Implications: The practical guidelines suggested in this paper may assist public health researchers to conduct ethical health research that is planned and carried out in a culturally appropriate way and that will benefit urban Aboriginal people. While not intended to be prescriptive, we believe that the lessons learned in Victoria will be applicable to other urban Indigenous contexts around Australia. [source] Cancer mortality in Aboriginal people in New South Wales, Australia, 1994,2002AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 5 2006Rajah Supramaniam Objective:To describe, for the first time, mortality from cancer for Aboriginal residents of New South Wales (NSW). Methods:These are the results of a descriptive study of cancer deaths from the NSW Central Cancer Registry for 1994 to 2002. Standardised mortality ratios were calculated with Poisson confidence intervals to compare the relative rates in the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Results:The overall standardised mortality rates were 66% higher for males and 59% higher for females for Aboriginal people compared with non-Indigenous people. Mortality from lung cancer was 50% and 100% higher than for NSW non-Indigenous males and females respectively. The high mortality rate from cervical cancer in Aboriginal females is contrary to the trends in the general population since the introduction of free population-based screening. Conclusions:For the first time, data are available for cancer mortality for Aboriginal people in NSW. Mortality for all cancers combined was higher than that of the non-Indiaenous population. This suggests that a combination of later diagnoses and perhaps poorer treatment outcomes as well as being diagnosed with poorer prognosis cancers is occurring in Aboriginal people of NSW. Implications:It was possible to increase the rate of identification in a population register using routinely collected data, but the completeness and accuracy of Indigenous status should, and can, be improved in all notifying data collections. Public health planners in NSW can now begin to address the issues of prevention, treatment and palliation of cancer in Aboriginal people with local, rather than imputed, evidence. [source] Public health, political morality and compassionAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 3 2002Gavin Mooney Objective: To put the case that public health professionals have a responsibility to foster a more informed, autonomous community. Method: To argue that the current Australian Federal Government is failing to provide the impetus for building a compassionate society, particularly with respect to social justice for asylum seekers and Aboriginal people. Results: There is a need for public health professionals to assist in promoting an informed debate about what it means to be a minimally decent Australian. Conclusions and implications: Education of the citizenry and by the academy in public debate and public debating is the lifeblood of democracy. This is the ethical goal of public health. [source] Effectiveness of a community-directed ,healthy lifestyle' program in a remote Australian Aboriginal communityAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 2 2000Kevin G. Rowley Objective: To assess the sustainability and effectiveness of a community-directed program for primary and secondary prevention of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in an Aboriginal community in north-west Western Australia. Method: Evaluation of health outcomes (body mass index, glucose tolerance, and plasma insulin and triglyceride concentrations) in a cohort of high-risk individuals (n=49, followed over two years) and cross-sectional community samples (n=200 at baseline, 185 at two-year and 132 at four-year follow-ups), process (interventions and their implementation) and impact (diet and exercise behaviour). Results: For the high-risk cohort, involvement in diet and/or exercise strategies was associated with protection from increases in plasma glucose and triglycerides seen in a comparison group; however, sustained weight loss was not achieved. At the community level, significant reductions were observed in fasting insulin concentration but no change in prevalence of diabetes, overweight or obesity. Weight gain remained a problem among younger people. Sustainable improvements were observed for dietary intake and level of physical activity. These changes were related to supportive policies implemented by the community council and store management. Conclusions: Community control and ownership enabled embedding and sustainability of program, in association with social environmental policy changes and long-term improvements in important risk factors for chronic disease. Implications: Developmental initiatives facilitating planning, implementation and ownership of interventions by community members and organisations can be a feasible and effective way to achieve sustainable improvements in health behaviours and selected health outcomes among Aboriginal people. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||