Australian Aboriginal people are marginalised, severely disadvantaged and subject to discrimination. The Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families has focused international attention on their plight. However, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and the High Court Mabo decision provide avenues for change. This paper asks: is there a role for psychiatrists in the reconciliation process?
The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.The path to reconciliation: renewal of the nation. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1997.
2.
The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.Addressing the key issues for reconciliation. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1997.
3.
ReynoldsH.Frontier. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987.
4.
ReynoldsH.Doing battle in a land long shared. The Age, 9 June 1997.
5.
StannerWEHAfter the Dreaming–Boyer Lecture. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1968.
6.
McKendrickJHPatterns of psychological distress and implications for mental health service delivery in an urban Aboriginal general practice population. MD thesis. Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 1993.
7.
CawteJ.Medicine is the law. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1974.
8.
KamienM.The dark people of Bourke. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1978.
9.
HunterE.Aboriginal health and history—power and prejudice in remote Australia. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
10.
WilsonRDodsonM.National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families. Bringing them home. Sydney: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1997.
11.
McKendrickJHThorpeMCutterTNA unique mental health network for Victorian Aboriginal people. Medical Journal of Australia1990; 153:349–351.
12.
KleinfeldJBloomJ.Boarding schools: effects on the mental health of Eskimo adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry1977; 134:411–417.
13.
WestermeyerJ.Cross-racial foster home placement among Native American psychiatric patients. Journal of the National Medical Association1977; 69:231–236.
14.
MansonSMShoreJHBloomJDThe depressive experience in American Indian communities: a challenge for psychiatric theory and diagnosis. In: KleinmanAGoodB, eds. Culture and depression. Studies in the anthropology and cross-cultural psychiatry of affect and disorder. California: University of California Press, 1985:331–368.
15.
RaphaelB.The anatomy of bereavement. London: Routledge, 1984.
16.
HerrmanJLTrauma and recovery. New York: Basic Books, 1992.
17.
SwanPRaphaelB.Ways forward—national consultancy report on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1995.
18.
DunlopS.All that Rama Rama mob. Alice Springs: Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, 1988.
