The Status of the Indigenous Australians - Essay Example

?Indigenous Health Health is a concept related to overall well being that affiliates to an individual’s physical, mental and social fitness and in a broad perspective the concept of health pertains to absence of illness in or any form of injury to a person’s body. The issue of the health of the Aboriginal Australians has always remained a contentious issue for the health care professionals in this nation (Thomas 2001). There is no denying the fact that at the dawn of the European invasion, the Aboriginal Australians happened to be the most healthy and robust people in the country. However, with the passage of time, the health status of the native people of Australia has deteriorated to such an extent that it now stands to be commensurate with the people living in many third world economies (Cox 2011). The people serving in the Australian health care services that are the doctors and the nurses need to be cognizant of the meaning of health in the context of the Aboriginal people so that they may be able to extend to them the requisite health care facilities. In its scope and objective, this paper intends to delve on the Aboriginal health epidemiology and aspires to analyze it in the context of its social relevance. The paper analyzes the status of the Indigenous Australians in context of their health and tends to consider as to what the native Australians think about the Anglo-Australian medicine. The Aborigines always valued nature and its forces and cherished a strong bond with the elements of nature like the plants and the animals that lived in their vicinity. The paper also looks into the applicability of the two salient social theories that are the Goffman’s theory of game playing, presentation of self or stigma and the Marx’s view of class in the context of the health of the indigenous people of Australia and make the concomitant social policy recommendations for the future. The Epidemiology of the Indigenous Australians: The Torres Strait Islanders and the Aborigines happen to be classified as the indigenous people of Australia. As per the recent Australian Government’s estimates, the total population of the indigenous people in the country stands at 400,000. Australian indigenous people migrated to Australia from some place in Asia about 30,000 Years ago (Australian Statistician, 2006). In that context, the Torres Strait Islanders tend to be related to the people of Papua New Guinea as they do speak the Papuan language. Of the total number of the people who identify themselves as indigenous Australians, nearly 6 percent tend to specifically classify themselves as Torres Strait Islanders. At times this paper will collectively refer to the Torres Strait Islanders and Aborigines as the indigenous people. The colonization initiated by the Europeans at some time in the 1880s led to the social, cultural, political and economical marginalization of the Aboriginal people and made them vulnerable to disease and pestilence. Before the colonization of Australia by the Europeans, the indigenous people of Australia were regarded as some of the most healthy and robust races on the earth, however, since then, the health status of the indigenous people has significantly deteriorated (Wilson 2004). As compared to other ethnic groups in Australia, Aboriginal people tend to have a noticeably higher incidence of illness. The total count of the indigenous people in Australia stands to be somewhere between 418,800 and 476,900 as per the data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). As the mortality trends ascribed to the indigenous people tend to be slow moving, at the best it is only possible to detect and discern them over quiet a long period of time (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2008). There is exists some credible evidence that testifies to the falling incidence of mortality amongst the Indigenous people in other countries. Causes of Death: The populations of Aborigines and Torrey Strait Islanders happen to be predominantly concentrated in Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. Diseases of endocrine system, diseases of the circulatory system, cancer, metabolic and nutritional disorders (mainly diabetes), respiratory diseases, morbidity and mortality that could be ascribed to intentional harm, accidents and assaults happened to be the leading causes of death in the indigenous people in 2002-2006. This information could be culled out from the table 1 below. Deaths affiliated to these leading causes commanded a dominant margin amongst all the indigenous deaths. The incidence of deaths owing to circulatory diseases exceeded by 26 percent as compared to expected numbers in the indigenous people in the period 2002-2006. Evincing a similar trend, the deaths due to other causes, and endocrine, metabolic and nutritional disorders in the indigenous people, exceeded by 16 percent and 12 percent respectively, as compared to the expected figures in the same time period (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2012). If one considers the death due to all causes in the indigenous Australians than the observed figures registered a 100 percent jump over the expected figures in the period 2002-2006. The highest incidence of the rise in the observed figures over the expected figures of deaths in the indigenous people was registered in the segments circulatory diseases, deaths due to external causes and deaths due to endocrine, metabolic and nutritional disorders, which stood at 26 percent, 16 percent and 12 percent respectively. There existed big gaps between the deaths owing to the specific disorders in all the categories and the expected numbers of deaths in all the categories for the indigenous people as is evinced by the figures in the Table 1. These figures directly testify to the conclusion that the morbidity and mortality rates in the indigenous people far exceeded the state expectations. Source: Australian Indigenous Health and Well Being- National Mortality Database Access to Health Care Services: As the indigenous people mostly prefer their natural systems of medicine and healing, they very rarely go to health centres. There is no denying the fact that owing to colonization, the Western systems of medicine got precedence over the native systems of medicine. Still, the good thing is that the indigenous systems of medicine and healing have managed to survive amidst this onslaught of modernization and are extensively practised and adhered to in the Northern Territory. This system owes its origins to the indigenous knowledge of the Australian flora and fauna and is intricately linked to the indigenous beliefs and values (Australian Statistician 2006). It has been referred to time and again that the indigenous people tend to explain causes of their diseases in terms of their native beliefs, irrespective of the fact that they use Western medicines. Indigenous people resort to the usage of medicinal plants for curing common ailments like pains, aches, cough and cold. Many natural pants are also used for treating wounds and sores. This paper will attempt to ascertain the causes as to why the indigenous people do not prefer to visit the health centres and the salient reasons behind this phenomenon in the light of the information given in the table 2. This table was configured in the light of a survey conducted in 2004-2005. One reason why indigenous people do not go to health centres is that in some areas health care services are simply not available. The extension of health care services to the indigenous people is impacted by a wide range of reasons like cultural constraints and barriers, extensive distance of the location of health centres, non-existence of transport facilities, languages problem and the soaring cost of health care. It was 14.7 percent of the indigenous people who reported that they needed to see a doctor in the last 12 months, but they did not go (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012). 7.5 percent of the indigenous people agreed that they needed to see some other doctor, but they did not go (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012). 6.7 percent of the indigenous testified that they did not go to a hospital even when it was required (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012). This survey also found that the indigenous females were more likely to abstain from visiting a dentist or a doctor, even when they needed to do so. INDIGENOUS PERSONS WHO DID NOT ACCESS HEALTH SERVICES WHEN NEEDED(a), by remoteness and sex - 2004-05 Remoteness Sex Non-remote Remote Male Female Total '000 % '000 % '000 % '000 % '000 % Needed to go to a doctor but didn’t 57.7 16.6 12.0 9.5 29.4 12.7 40.2 16.6 69.7 14.7 Needed to go to other health professional but didn’t 29.7 8.5 6.0 4.7 16.0 6.9 19.7 8.1 35.7 7.5 Need to go to a hospital but didn’t 23.0 6.6 8.8 7.0 15.4 6.6 16.4 6.8 31.8 6.7 Needed to go to a dentist but didn’t(b) 74.1 22.4 18.9 15.6 40.5 18.2 52.4 22.8 92.9 20.5 (a) In the previous 12 months. (b) Persons aged two years and over. Other categories include all Indigenous persons. Source: ABS 2004-05 NATSIHS Social theories and epidemiological relevance: There are a plethora of social theories that tend to explain health care related issues in a diversity of settings. This paper will tend to focus on two social theories that are Karl Marx’s theory of class, labour and alienation and Goffman’s Theory pertaining to games playing, presentation of self or stigma and their significance in the light of explaining the epidemiological issues faced by Australian indigenous people. Marxian Theory of Alienation and its significance As per Karl Marx, in the capitalist economies, the labour class is exploited and the capitalists tend to accrue maximal profits by resorting to a machine like exploitation of the workers to the extent that their very existence becomes irrelevant (Wennerlind 2002). In that context, Karl Marx tends to heavily criticize the capitalist system of production. As per the Karl Marx’s Theory of Alienation, in the capitalist societies the workers end up getting alienated owing to their inordinate exploitation by the dominant economic system and there are four aspects to this alienation of the working class that are the devastation of the direct control of the workers over the processes of production, over the outcomes of their labour, and the relationships they forge with oneself and with other members of the working class (Wennerlind 2002). Marx aspired that in an idealistic context, workers ought to be the owners of the work place where they labour, and from which they earned their living. Workers should have precedence in the ownership of the working places as they spent the greater and best parts of their lives there. Karl Marx has enunciated four categories of the alienation of labour in the capitalist societies: 1. The alienation of workers from their produce 2. The alienation of the workers from the processes and means of production 3. The alienation of workers from their selves 4. The alienation of the workers from the other members of the working class The alienation of the workers from their produce In the capitalist societies, works do not command the ownership of what they produce. As in the capitalist societies the workers get alienated from what they produce, this pushes the workers into conditions of poverty and dearth (Rovane 2004). As per Marx, in the capitalist societies, the rich keep on getting richer while the workers are forced to subsist on the pittance they get that is described as wages, or in many cases the workers end up getting unemployed (Rovane 2004). In the light of the epidemiology analysis attempted before, the alienation theory of Karl Marx could very poignantly explain the alienation of the indigenous people from health care facilities. The colonizers who predominantly happened to be Anglo-Australians took advantage of the indigenous Australians by depriving them of the natural means of production like land, thereby denying them access to health care as the indigenous Australians simply lacked the material resources to afford health care because it was dearer or because the health care facilities were located far away from where the indigenous people lived. The Alienation of workers from the processes and means of production While analyzing this type of alienation, Karl Marx tends to state that in the capitalist society’s workers are not extended any preferential or special statuses in the system of production (Rovane 2004). The primary task of thinking and decision making is left to a hierarchy of managers who supervise the workers (Capetillo-Ponce 2004). The managers and administrators divide the complex processes of production into simple steps which the workers are required to repeat in a mechanical fashion. Workers get divested from the processes of production because they simply do not own varied other factors of production like capital that are required to produce goods and services (Capetillo-Ponce 2004). The capitalists who own the factors of production like the land and the capital also end up owning the labour of the workers who work for them. Hence, the automatic outcome of this system is that the workers not only are required to work under the guidance of the capitalist classes, but are also required to pass on the ownership of what they produce to the capitalist classes (Capetillo-Ponce 2004). This puts the cart before the horse in the sense that rather than machines being the extension of the workers, the workers become the appendages of the machines they operate. In that sense it could automatically be assumed that the aborigines have been left aside in the configuration of health standards in Australia as most of what belonged to them was usurped by the immigrants, and it is these immigrants who own the health care institutions. Hence, the aborigines are just required to work in these health care institutions without benefitting significantly from them. The Alienation of workers from their selves As per Marx, the capitalist system of production, relegated human beings to the status of lifeless machines rather than extending to them a sense of satisfaction and self actualization. In the capitalist economies, the dry and brazen market forces decide and determine varied facets of the society and the individuals scarcely get a chance to develop their potential to the utmost. The aborigines and the indigenous Australian people never got the chance or the opportunity to develop the full potential of their native systems of medicine and healing because since the immigrants divested them of what belonged to them and forced them to adopt new schools of health care with which they were not familiar or comfortable with. The alienation of the workers from the other members of the working class Capitalism abrogates the social relationships and bonds they forge in the common quest to earn a living, and reduces the labour to the status of a lifeless commodity to be traded in the market place (Capetillo-Ponce 2004). As in the capitalist societies, the workers share the status of a machine, this dehumanization makes them sever their relationships and bonds from the other members of their class or community and they tend to lose their grip over reality. The discrimination introduced by the immigrants in terms of health standards ascribed to the indigenous Australians made them distance themselves from their community and the Anglo-Australians thereby making them strongly relate to their own systems of healing and cure rather than adopting new schools of medicine. Hence, Karl Marx in his critique of the capitalist economies and societies elaborates on the status of the varied social classes in these societies and in a way explains the selective and meagre extension of the health care services to the indigenous Australians. Table 2 ample explains as to the reasons why the indigenous people do not visit health centres because of the resources related constraints and also owing to the fear of Anglo-Australians as they cannot imagine as to how they will respond to their visits. Goffman’s Theory of the presentation of self and its significance Goffman happened to be one of the earliest social theorists who extended a theory as per which whenever a person comes in contact with strangers, one tries to manage the expression one renders on those strangers by altering personal appearances to favourably influence the manner in which the strangers perceive one (Hosseini 2005). Hence, the individual in an alien social context ends up becoming a performer, and ascribes an audience status to everyone around one (Callero 2003). Goffman classified this approach as dramaturgical perspective, which are the attempts made by a person to make one perceived favourably by changing or manipulating one’s persona and settings (Callero 2003). The irony is that the other entity involved in a dramaturgical perspective tends to cull out the information pertaining to an individual in the light of the personal alterations being made by one (Strate 2003). Goffman held that all the individuals engaged in a social setting tend to indulge in a dramaturgical perspective so as to refrain from being ashamed or embarrassing others (Strate 2003). This facilitates a positive analysis of the notions of self and perception. As already said, Goffman attributed a theatrical aspect to such interactions and its natural conclusion is that their do is a background stage or a personal space where a person can be what one is without any considerations as to how one is perceived by others. Goffman held that it is this sense of secrecy that plays a pivotal role in the day to day social interactions. In the context of the indigenous Australians, the knowledge of herbal medicines and natural systems of healing was something that was shared by the families and the communities. Aborigine healers have special knowledge of the Australian flora and fauna and have drafted many books on this topic. This means that though the indigenous people do go to the modern health care facilities put in place by the immigrants, they also resort to their special knowledge of the plants and fauna to cure and heal. This theory is applicable here because in Table 2 it is clear that many indigenous people do not go to the modern health care facilities when they need, perhaps because they affiliate to their native methods of healing and cure. In that sense the aborigines engage in a dramaturgical perspective in the sense that at the backstage setting they adhere to their traditional methods of cure, while visibly they pretend to use the Western medicines. Conclusion The government needs to take seriously the health care needs and requirements of the indigenous people. In the light of the Marxian Theory of alienation, it is not appropriate to alienate the indigenous people as this may give way to resentment and may lead to a backlash aimed at subverting the dominant political system. The poor health status of the indigenous people to a large extent is attributed to the difficulties they face in accessing the health care facilities as compared to the Anglo-Australians concentrated in the urban hubs. Helping the indigenous people stay healthy will definitely remove many pressures from a health care system that is stressed and facing a dearth of resources. The Goffman’s Theory also supports a bicultural approach towards health, based on a propitious combination of native healing techniques and the modern medicine. Besides, the augmenting global recognition to the Alternative Systems of Healing promises much to the aboriginal traditional methods of healing and natural medicines. References Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2012). Experimental Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, June 2006', cat. no. 3238.0.55.001, ABS, Canberra. Retrieved 3 June, 2012, from . Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2008). Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008. 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey: detailed findings. Drug statistics series no. 22. Cat. no. PHE 107. Canberra: AIHW. Retrieved 4 June 2012, from . Australian Statistician. (2006). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, 2004–05 (ABS Cat. 4715.0). Australian Bureau of Statistics , Table 6. Australian Statistician. (2006). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey,2004-05 (ABS Cat. 4715.0), Table 1. Retrieved 2 June 2012, from . Callero, Peter 2003, ‘The Sociology of the Self’, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 29, 115-119. Capetillo-Ponce, Jorge 2004, ‘Contrasting Simmel’s and Marx’s Idea of Alienation’, Human Architecture, Vol. 3, no. ?, 117-118. Cox, Leonie 2011, ‘Queensland Aborigines: Multiple Realities and the Social Sources of Suffering’, Oceania, Vol. 80, no. 3, 241-243. Hosseini, Sheerin 2005, ‘Accepting Myself: Negotiating Self-Esteem and Conformity in the Light of the Sociological Theories, Human Architecture, Vol. 4, no. ?, 29-31. Rovane, Carol 2004, ‘Alienation and the Alleged Separateness of Persons’, The Monist, Vol. 87, no. 4, 554-556. Strate, Lance 2003, ‘Something for Nothing. Seeking a Sense of Self’, et Cetera, Vol. 60, no. 1, 4-6. Thomas, Cora 2001, ‘From Australian Aborigines to White Australians’, Australian Aboriginal Studies, Vol. 2001, no. 1, 21-23. Wennerlind, Carl 2002, ‘The Labor Theory of Value and the Strategic Role of Alienation’, Capital & Class, Issue 77, 1-6. Wilson, Tikka 2004, ‘Racism, Moral Community and Australian Aboriginal Autobiographical Testimony, Biography, Vol. 27, no. 1, 78-84. Read More

 

Read More