In the preceding paper information was presented on a series of recent Aboriginal suicides in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In this paper the author proceeds to an examination of the social and historical context of these events, which have occurred in conjunction with increases in other violent behaviours. Drawing from information generated by a survey of a stratified random sample of Aborigines from across the region, the rapidly changing environment of childhood is discussed, with particular attention to the structural and functional changes in caretaking roles. The inter-cultural context of these, as yet, largely intra-cultural manifestations of disadvantage, are emphasised.
References
1.
HunterEM. Using a socio-historical frame to analyse Aboriginal self-destructive behaviour. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry1990; 24: 191–198.
2.
ReserJ. Aboriginal deaths in custody and social construction: A response to the view that there is no such thing as Aboriginal suicide. Australian Journal of Aboriginal Studies1989; 2: 43–50.
3.
HunterEM. A question of power: Contemporary self-mutilation among Aborigines of the Kimberley. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 1990; 25: 261–278.
4.
HunterEM. Changing Aboriginal mortality patterns in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, 1957–86: The impact of deaths from external causes. Aboriginal Health Information Bulletin1989; 11: 27–32.
5.
RadfordAJHarrisRDBriceGAvan der BylMMontenHMattersDNeesonMBryanLHassanR. Taking control: A joint study of Aboriginal social health in Adelaide with particular reference to stress and destructive behaviours, 1988–1989. Monograph No. 7, Department of Primary Health Care, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, 1990.
6.
HunterEM. The intercultural and historical context of contemporary Aboriginal personal violence. Australian Psychologist, (in press).
7.
AtkinsonJ. ed. Beyond Violence: Finding the dream. Video and booklet produced by The Aboriginal and Islander Sub-program, National Domestic Violence Education Program, Office of Status of Women, Canberra, 1990.
8.
HunterEHallWSpargoR. Patterns and correlates of alcohol consumption in a remote Aboriginal population. Monograph of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Sydney, 1991.
9.
BennettS. The 1967 referendum. Australian Aboriginal Studies1985; 2: 26–31.
10.
SansomB. The camp at Wallaby Cross: Aboriginal fringe dwellers in Darwin. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1980.
11.
SackettL. Resisting arrests: Drinking, development and discipline in a desert context. Social Analysis1988; 24: 66–84.
12.
JonesIH. Social unrest in an Aboriginal community. Medical Journal of Australia1977; 1(suppl. 4): 5–7.
13.
ReserJ. Research paper No. 9: The design of safe and humane police cells: A discussion of some issues relating to Aboriginal people in police custody. Canberra: Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, 1989.
14.
McAndrewCEdgertonRB. Drunken comportment: A social explanation. Chicago: Aldine, 1969.
15.
FlanaganRJ. The Aborigines of Australia. Fasc. ed. Brisbane: Boolorang, 1988 [1888].
16.
GrayAHoggR. Mortality of Aboriginal Australians in Western New South Wales, 1984–1987. New South Wales Department of Health, Sydney, 1989.
17.
Northern Territory Department of Health. Health indicators in the Northern Territory. Darwin: Government Printer, 1986.
18.
KahnMW & The Behavioural Health Team. Wife beating and cultural context: Prevalence in an Aboriginal and Islander Community in Northern Australia. American Journal of Community Psychology1980; 8(6): 727–731.
19.
BarberJGPuntJAlbersJ. Alcohol and power on Palm Island. Australian Journal of Social Issues1988; 23(2):87–101.
20.
SansomB. The Aboriginal commonality. In: BemdtRM ed. Aboriginal sites, rights and resource development. Perth: University of Western Australia Press, 1982:117–138.
21.
NurcombeB. Children of the dispossessed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1976.
22.
CollmannJ. Fringe-dwellers and welfare: The Aboriginal response to bureaucracy. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1988.
23.
McGrathA. ‘Born in the cattle': Aborigines in cattle country. Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1987.
24.
FiskEK. The Aboriginal economy in town and country. Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
25.
HunterEM. Resilience, vulnerability and alcohol in remote Aboriginal Australia. Aboriginal Health Information Bulletin, (in press).
26.
GilbertK. ed. Inside black Australia: An anthology of Aboriginal poetry. Ringwood: Penguin, 1988.
27.
GaleF. (1978). Introduction. In: GaleF. ed. Woman's role in Aboriginal society. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies: 1–33.
28.
BowlbyJ. Developmental psychiatry comes of age. American Journal of Psychiatry1988; 145(1):1–10.
29.
BrodyEB. Cultural exclusion, character and illness. American Journal of Psychiatry1966; 122: 852–858.
30.
GeeVWebbSMHolmanCD. Perinatal statistics in Western Australia: Fifth annual report of the Western Australian Midwives’ Notification System, 1987. Health Department of Western Australia, Perth, 1989.
31.
BrehmSSBrehmJW. Psychological resilience: A theory of freedom and control. New York: Academic Press, 1981.
32.
CollinsJJ. Suggested explanatory frameworks to clarify the alcohol use/violence relationship. Contemporary Drug Problems1988; 15: 107–121.
33.
MarxE. The social context of violent behaviour: A social anthropological study in an Israeli immigrant town. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976.
