Race, Culture, Indigeneity & The Politics of Public Health Yin Paradies & Emma Kowal

Acknowledgement of Country I would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people who are the Traditional Custodians of this Land. I would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present of the Kulin Nation and extend that respect to other Indigenous Australians present. I would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people who are the Traditional Custodians of this Land. I would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present of the Kulin Nation and extend that respect to other Indigenous Australians present. (Recommended by the Centre for Indigenous Education, University of Melbourne)

House keeping   Emergency exits, toilets   Seating in small groups (nametags)   Tea/coffee & refreshments (arvo tea on the go)   Quotes posted around the room   The course was developed in Darwin and so examples tend to relate to the NT context   Powerpoint presentations will be uploaded to the website so you don’t need to copy these down

Aims of the course   Introduce key concepts from anthropology, social psychology, sociology and critical Indigenous studies to assist public health practitioners   Illustrate theories and debates using local public health texts, including: journal articles, videos, newspaper articles, web resources and policy documents   Enhance the ability of public health practitioners to critically analyse texts and apply social science theory to practical public health problems

Course Program Monday   0900 – 1100 Session 1: Introduction to key terms and concepts   1100 – 1130: Morning tea   1130 – 1300 Session 2: Whiteness and Racialisation   : Lunch   1400 – 1630 Session 3: Explaining health inequalities

Tuesday   0900 – 1015 Session 4: Critiquing the burden of history   : Morning tea   1045 – 1220 Session 5: Indigenous health and the paradigm shift   1220 – 1230 Explanation of computer exercise   1230 – 1330: Lunch (incl. 15 min computer exercise)   1330 – 1600 Session 6: White racial identity theory

Wednesday   0900 – 1030 Session 7: ‘Culture’ in Indigenous health   : Morning tea   1100 – 1200: Session 8: The culture of Indigenous health   1200 – 1215: Introduction to Session 9   1215 – 1345: Lunch   1345 – 1500 Session 9: Approaches to Indigenous health   1500 – 1630 Session 10: Reflecting on Indigenous health

Course objectives Session 1:   Understand the concepts of construction, discourse and critique   Appreciate the various approaches to defining ‘race’ Session 2:   Understand the concepts of Whiteness & racialisation   Be able to critically analyse instances of racialisation and assess their impact on different social groups

Course objectives Session 3:   Appreciate the different reasons commonly given for poor Indigenous health and understand the categories into which these reasons fall   Analyse the nature of health inequalities and appreciate the theoretical issues involved in discourses of inequality Session 4:   Understand the major elements in the history of Indigenous health research   Appreciate the similarities and differences between past and present practices of Indigenous health research   Acknowledge that views of history are shaped by, and shape the attitudes of, those working in contemporary Indigenous public health

Course objectives Session 5:   Understand the major arguments for and against the current Emergency Intervention in the Northern Territory   Be able to analyse the different arguments using theoretical terms and concepts Session 6:   Appreciate the variety of responses to perceived racial and cultural difference   Understand White racial identity theory and be able to analyse its impact on Indigenous public health practice

Course objectives Session 7:   Appreciate the different ways that ‘culture’ is used in Indigenous public health   Understand the main cultural discourses utilised in public health texts and their impact on public health practice Session 8:   Appreciate the key themes and tensions that are inherent to the practice of Indigenous public health

Course objectives Session 9:   Be able to formulate and present an argument for one of the major perspectives on the causes of, and solutions to, Indigenous ill-health   Be able to articulate the similarities and differences between the major perspectives on Indigenous ill- health Session 10:   Be able to reflect on the practice of Indigenous public health from a personal and professional perspective

Ground rules Aimed at creating a safe space for honest consideration of the complex and difficult issues in Indigenous health   There are no right or wrong ideas or expressions   Raise your hand for clarification (there is no such thing as a stupid question)   Be respectful of and listen to what others have to say before responding   Critique ideas, don’t criticise people   Emotional expressions and discussion of feelings are encouraged (framed as ‘I’ statements)   Please contribute as together you have more knowledge and expertise than we have as presenters

QUESTIONS?

Session 1: Introduction to key terms and concepts

Different ways to understand reality   There is no definitive list and these categories are not mutually exclusive but…   Positivist – direct correspondence desirable : ‘objectivity’   Phenomenological – experience is the only knowable reality   Post/Structuralist – reality (including subjects) is an effect of shared meanings : ‘social construction’, ‘relativism’   Constructivist – perception and reality co-construct each other : attempt to surpass dichotomy “Perception”“Reality”

What do we mean by construction?   The result of a process by which reality is constituted within specific historical, social and cultural contexts   Thinking of X as constructed highlights that it need not have existed as it is or at all, that it could have been otherwise and is not inevitable examples: sexuality, manners, consumers, quarks, crime, grief, freedom   We are thus forced to consider why it is the way it is, how was meaning, reality and truth/falsity attributed to X as it is.   Being constructed and being real are not opposites!

How is knowledge constructed? Example of gender/sex   Modernity constructs sex as biological and dichotomous – produced through actions historically (dissection) and from birth (ambiguous genitalia is a medical emergency)   Feminists decoupled sex from gender in order to designate gender as a social construction (affirmative action) – gender constructed as a construction   There is now a resurgence of sex-differentials in science – no one construction is predominating

How is knowledge about Indigenous health constructed?   The key question of this course!

  A form of written or spoken interaction   Language, signs, music (“texts”) and the social context of their use – how meaning is created   Way of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges and relations between them (Foucault) Discourse

  What makes up discourse about Indigenous health?   System of knowledge – e.g. epidemiology   Tools of producing knowledge – e.g. surveys   Circulation of knowledge – media, academic journals   Subjectivities – of Indigenous people as suffering from disease, of non-Indigenous people as caring about Indigenous ill-health   Politics –the norms, beliefs and influences involved in making decisions or establishing social relationships (e.g. sexual politics)

Critique   This course asks you to critique constructions of Indigenous health and ill-health   E.g. “Indigenous ill-health is due to the erosion of culture”   E.g. “Indigenous health should be in Indigenous hands”   What is the discourse in which these statements make sense? (‘traditional culture’; transnational Indigenism)

  Critique vs. criticism – no value/truth judgments, & if they exist, they should also be critiqued   The aim is to understand better the limits and opportunities inherent in the way we currently construct Indigenous health, and possibilities (or lack thereof) for constructing it differently   To Critique is to analyse and explain rather than evaluate or prescribe Critique

QUESTIONS?

Identity exercise

Definitions of race   There are many ways to think about group identity   Race is an important way that the group identity of Indigenous people is constructed   We will consider three definitions of race   Critique these definitions and compare and contrast the way in which they construct ‘race’

Definitions of Race   What are the different aspects of these definitions?   Genes   Geography   Lifestyle/cultural patterns/language   History   Ancestry   Phenotype   What could be the social effects of adopting each of these different definitions?

Further critique   Social vs. biological   Self-identified vs. ascribed   What aspects of group identity does ‘culture’ draw on?   What aspects does ‘Indigeneity’ draw on?   Commonwealth working definition   Common-sense definition