No abstract
Past histories charting interactions between British healthcare and Aboriginal Australians have tended to be dominated by broad histological themes such as invasion and colonization. While such descriptions have been vital to modernization and truth telling in Australian historical discourse, this paper investigates the nineteenth century through the modern cultural lens of mental health. We reviewed primary documents, including colonial diaries, church sermons, newspaper articles, medical and burial records, letters, government documents, conference speeches and anthropological journals. Findings revealed six overlapping fields which applied British ideas about mental health to Aboriginal Australians during the nineteenth century. They included military invasion, religion, law, psychological systems, lunatic asylums, and anthropology.
Background: Historical trauma related to phenomena such as invasion, colonisation and racial oppression can have long lasting effects on the social and emotional wellbeing of communities. Aim: This paper aims to show the importance of nurses increasing familiarity with the local history of communities they work in. Methods: A microhistory approach is used to explore research conducted on the skull of Aboriginal Australian man, Cannabayagal, at the University of Edinburgh in the early nineteenth century. Initial data was gathered through a review of historical literature focussed on the Appin Massacre, and the early nineteenth-century psychological system known as Phrenology. Hand searches of local library collections at Camden, Campbelltown, and Liverpool, along with the archives of the State Library of NSW, and the State Records Authority of NSW, were accompanied by online searches using databases such as Psych Info, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Primary documents outlining the study of Cannabayagal's skull were accessed through online databases of Edinburgh University and the National Library of Scotland. Findings: In 1816, as part of the Appin Massacre that took place in the south-west of colonial NSW, the head of Aboriginal Australian man Cannabayagal was cut off, sold, and then shipped to Edinburgh University in Scotland. There, Cannabayagal's skull was studied and written about in ways that reflected false science and supported racist ideology. Discussion: The Appin Massacre is memorialised with a local Aboriginal Australian ceremony every year, and the accompanying historical trauma is still felt by the local community. Microhistories like the one presented in this paper hold the potential to increase nurses empathy for communities they work in and may improve nurses' abilities to critique and challenge current day abuses of scientific power and position. Conclusion: Local community microhistories have the potential to inform nurses' delivery of traumasensitive, patient-focused interventions.
There are a variety of cultural and religious beliefs and customs worldwide related to menstruation, and these often frame discussing periods and any gynecological issues as taboo. While there has been previous research on the impact of these beliefs on menstrual health literacy, this has almost entirely been confined to low- and middle-income countries, with very little information on high-income countries. This project used the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) scoping review methodology to systematically map the extent and range of evidence of health literacy of menstruation and gynecological disorders in Indigenous people in the colonized, higher-income countries of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. PubMed, CINHAL, PsycInfo databases, and the grey literature were searched in March 2022. Five studies from Australia and New Zealand met the inclusion criteria. Only one of the five included studies focused exclusively on menstrual health literacy among the Indigenous population. Despite considerable research on menstrual health globally, studies focusing on understanding the menstrual health practices of the Indigenous populations of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are severely lacking, and there is little to no information on how Indigenous beliefs of colonized people may differ from the broader society in which they live.
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