Aboriginal Health Shame

Indigenous Health: High Aboriginal Mortality And Aboriginal Disease As Health Industry Resources

Apr 18, 2006 Woorama

Is Indigenous ill-health a resource cultivated by an exploitative Aboriginal health service industry? Or is it the bigotry of health workers that keeps us sick?

Why Warriors Lie Down And Die

Indigenous people around the world have a far shorter life expectancy than non-Indigenous people. There are numerous social causes of this problem, but it could be argued that the health services available to Indigenous people are a major factor in this shameful large-scale human rights violation. For the most compelling and insightful look at this problem, check out Richard Trudgeon's excellent book "Why Warriors Lie Down And Die". In the meantime, try to imagine yourself in the following encounter, and you'll get a pretty good idea of what I call the Indigenous sickness industry (a branch of the Aboriginal misery industry).

How Would You Cope In This Scenario?

Imagine your niece is screaming in agony. You suspect she has appendicitis, and take her to the local clinic - the only medical facility in your small Indigenous community. It is just after sunset, and the voice that responds to your signal through the intercom at the front is laden with annoyance and skepticism.

You describe the symptoms to a mic in the wall, while your niece cries and moans in your arms. You have had to carry her a fair way, so you're a little puffed, but you can't put her down on the ground where the pariah dogs prowl for scraps. You say she has been without appetite for two days, is continually vomiting, has a high temperature and abdominal swelling. You add that you think it is appendicitis, and that you're worried her appendix will burst.

The nurse (there is no doctor except on Thursdays) reminds you that it is not your place to make diagnoses. Then there is nothing more from the intercom. She didn't say to wait or anything, and you're not sure what to do, so you just stand there shouting, "Hello!" into the intercom. Family members who have come in support look worried. After about twenty minutes, the door to the clinic is unlocked and the nurse brusquely ushers you and your two sisters inside.

Treatment

You repeat the symptoms, and are interrupted with an angry, "If she can't speak for herself, she can't be treated." She then fires rapid questions at your niece, using terms like "initially" and "abdominal". Your niece asks you what she said, because she speaks Wik Mungkan as her home language, and her English is not advanced enough for her to understand. You begin to translate the questions for her, and you are sent out of the room by the nurse, who suddenly decides it is "too crowded". Now there are no family members inside who speak English as a first language.

Minutes later the rest of the family is ejected from the clinic and the doors locked again. As you carry your niece home, your sister tells you the nurse did not even examine her swollen belly. In the end, she just kept shouting, "Tummy ache? Tummy ache?" until the poor girl nodded in agreement. Your sister was given a small packet of salts to treat dehydration, and was told her daughter had probably eaten bad food. All the family is grim and angry, but also swamped with feelings of helplessness and shame.

Happy Ending?

Two days later, your niece's skin turns a greyish yellow colour, and she becomes delirious. This time when you take her to the clinic her mother fiercely demands that the staff examine her swollen abdomen. She will not back down, and when they finally agree to take a look, they become alarmed and immediately have her transported to hospital for surgery.

She has appendicitis. The operation is successful, and the surgeon manages to remove the appendix just before it bursts. You could weep with relief. You feel angry, but you don't do anything about it except swear under your breath every time you walk past the clinic from now on.

This is because you have no voice, and outsiders who service your dysfunction control every aspect of your life. You have no power. You don't even have the power to insist on basic human rights for your children, let alone for yourself.

The careers of those who speak for you depend on the sustainability of illness and health dysfunction in your community. So really, is it in their best interests to eradicate their most valuable resource - aboriginal ill-health?

The copyright of the article Aboriginal Health Shame in Aboriginal Rights is owned by Woorama . Permission to republish Aboriginal Health Shame in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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