Australian Indigenous

This section of the Bulletin contains a review of recent books of relevance to Indigenous health. Books are reviewed by experts in the field. If you know of a new book of interest to our users, please contact us. If you are pubisher and would like a book reviewed, please supply us with the book and relevant details.

Addictions and healing in Aboriginal country

Phillips G (2003)
Addictions and healing in Aboriginal country.
Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press
(xix + 210pp, RRP $29.95) ISBN 0 85575 450 8

Reviewed by Professor Sherry Saggers
School of International, Cultural and Community Studies, Edith Cowan University

Alcohol, marijuana, petrol and other psychoactive substances are part of everyday life in Indigenous communities across Australia, and the consequences of their misuse include often severe emotional, health, social, economic and political impacts. Health professionals and community members alike struggle to devise strategies, which will reduce the adverse health and social effects of misuse, while contributing to the ability of Indigenous people to manage their own lives and communities.

This book, Addictions and healing in Aboriginal country, makes an important contribution to a growing number of publications, which document the extent of substance misuse among Indigenous Australians, review existing strategies, and recommend ways ahead. An important difference with this publication is that the author, Gregory Phillips, is Indigenous (from the Waanyi Aboriginal peoples from north-west Queensland), is a self-described recovering alcoholic, and undertook the research upon which this book is based as part of a Master of Medical Science degree at the University of Queensland. Phillips had worked in the northern Queensland community termed ‘Big River’ as an Alcohol and Drug Project Officer with an Indigenous health advocacy organisation, and was invited to return to further that work through his research. This background allows him to draw upon a diverse range of understandings to the issues of Indigenous substance misuse.

The book is structured in four parts. The first describes evocatively the ethical and methodological issues around research with Indigenous people and makes a valuable point regarding the difference between following ethical guidelines (which may not make sufficient allowance for the local circumstances) and doing ethical research. Also in this section is a useful chapter on Indigenous and non-Indigenous models of substance misuse, and the way in which models, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction, while valuable, need to take account of Indigenous perspectives of health and illness.

The second section outlines the extent of substance use in Big River, reasons for misuse, and the range of strategies used to tackle problematic use. This provides a vivid account of the way in which ‘grog, gunga (marijuana) and gambling’ have taken over the lives of many Big River residents. People there draw upon personal (such as family tragedy or poor parental role models) and structural (colonisation and current disadvantage) reasons for their problematic use. The community acknowledges the issue but individuals struggle with issues of blame and responsibility, frequently laying the responsibility for change at someone else’s door. Phillips helps the reader to understand why some good ideas – such as the provision of an indoor recreation centre – don’t work, because there are insufficient resources to employ someone to maintain the equipment or provide supervision. Anyone who has worked in Indigenous communities, particularly in remote Australia, will recognise this syndrome.

The third section describes programs developed in Canada for First Nations’ peoples dealing with substance problems. These are based upon an eclectic combination of Indigenous spirituality, western therapeutic approaches and the AA 12-step model of addictions.

Finally, Phillips develops his own vision for healing and change in section four, stressing the importance of a wide-ranging strategy including cultural, spiritual, personal, political and economic dimensions, which can draw upon the work developed among indigenous peoples elsewhere in the world. For him, what is missing in Australian interventions is the centrality of Indigenous spirituality for personal healing.

The book deserved better editorial support – to remove repetition in some areas, and correct the footnoting, which, in many places, refers to inappropriate references. These are small quibbles, however, and the book will be an inspiring read for students, health professionals, and Indigenous people.

Last updated: 4 July, 2005