Medical interactions, complaints, and the construction of Aboriginality in remote Australia
Medical interactions, complaints, and the construction of Aboriginality in remote Australia Journal Article
Social Identities
Abstract: In remote Australian Aboriginal communities, medical interactions between non-Aboriginal nurses and Aboriginal patients often use health narratives to enact and contest social identities. Nursing staff complain that Aboriginal patients do not comply with their prescribed medication nor attend the clinic appropriately. Nurses often blame these behaviours on irresponsibility and laziness. Conversely, Aboriginal people complain that nursing staff are racist and state that foods and medicines from the bush are more efficacious than biomedical treatment. Through medical interactions and discourse, non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal residents seek to circumscribe and challenge notions of Aboriginality.
- Urls: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630903372496
- Keywords: Aboriginal Australia, nurses, medical treatment, race