Smoking Ceremony

We're moving out of a sagging, seven story tower in the heart of downtown Liverpool, where CHETRE has been based the last seven years, into a spanking new research compound adjacent to the local hospital. It's definitely an upgrade, but the move has got the office in a tizzy. Yesterday we inaugurated the new site with a traditional Aboriginal smoking ceremony. Around one hundred staff and faculty gathered in the building's lobby for the ceremony. 'Uncle Steve', the local elder, began by acknowledging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders past and present as Australia’s first Peoples and the traditional owners and  custodians of the land on which the site was constructed. He then walked through the crowded lobby with an assemblage of smoking green leaves immersing us and the room in a cloud of smoke. Participants were invited to fan the smoke and take in the smoke. The ceremony is meant to cleanse the space, to leave behind troubles and initiate something new. The ceremony reminded me of when, during mass, the priest walks down the aisle swinging that metal box full of incense. The folks I work with were like get the American up there pronto. A lot of picture were taken. 

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I know Uncle Steve from some work I've done at a local community health center and first met him after he led an invocation to inaugurate a statewide, mandated Aboriginal cultural competency course for frontline community health workers. There are many of these symbolic gestures made throughout Australian society that acknowledge and pay respect to the Aboriginal peoples that I can't imagine occuring in the United States. Before countless television programs I've watched (ermm...research) there are title card warnings to use caution viewing, as it may contain images or voices of dead persons, presumably out of respect for the cultural beliefs of indigenous Australians. It is in fact protocol at public events to first acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are Australia’s first Peoples and the traditional owners and custodians of the land.  

Given the continued systemic marginilization, the blatantly racist policies of the Australian government (the Northern Territory Intervention being just one deplorable example) and the current status of Aboriginal health, I don't know how to feel about these symbolic gestures. Are they more important now that there doesn't seem to be any structural solutions on the horizon or do they stand-in for and act as a substitute for meaningful strategies addressing economic justice, social cohesion and health equity?

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's never too late to salute America

How I actually 'celebrated' the 4th of july: thai, tim tams and bubble gum. Once a month we have staff day at the CHETRE offices where the different research streams (community & primary health care services; disadvantaged communities; early childhood; aboriginal health; and HIA and healthy public policy) come together and discuss recent work, bounce ideas off each other, rehearse ppts. It's really informal, but it kind of drags on. We're moving to a new building at the Liverpool Hospital at the start of August so most of the 5 hr meeting was dominated by discussions about parking vouchers and seating arrangements at the new location.

Yesterday's meeting was more festive than usual, owing to the american flag printouts and red, white and blue streamers that decorated the conference room when I arrived. I love the folks I work with! I snapped a blurry photo.

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We snacked on tim tams (an Australian biscuit named after the winning horse at the 1958 Kentucky derby-so there's the American connection), oranges and bubble gum.  I got to choose lunch-we ordered Thai takeout. Before we broke for lunch the early childhood group, in preparation for an upcoming conference, presented the preliminary results of the Gudaga project - a five year federally funded project that is following a birth cohort of Aboriginal children from birth to 5 years in order to describe their health, development and service. The focus of the presentation was on developmental outcomes at 1 yr., 3 yr. and pre-school. They provided a very brief overview of the history of settler colonization/ resistance through the 20th century, most of which was familiar territory but nonetheless deeply disturbing. I did learn that it wasn't until 1972 that the Department of Education was no longer allowed to refuse Aboriginal students entry into public schools! The presentation stimulated a really interesting conversation about engaging history more critically in public health research, and representing marginalized voices. The day offered a parallax view of the history and current practices of the U.S. that I was meant to be commemorating. Like studying U.S. history in Northern Ireland.