Note: This is an archive of both published and unpublished papers.
It should be understood some of this material does not contain up-to-date information and is included only for potential historical value or research purposes.
Swensen, G. (1994)
Aboriginal law in action: A brief report of a field trip to Aboriginal sacred sites in Perth, September 1994
In September 1994 I participated in a day field trip organized by Catherine Iorns who taught the Aboriginal Legal Rights unit at the law course at Murdoch University. The trip itself was an about 200 kms tour in a mini-bus to a number of Aboriginal heritage sites in the Perth metropolitan area.
The excursion’s tour leaders, from the Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority and the WA Museum’s Aboriginal Sites Department, sketched out the history and significance at each of the seven sites visited. This underlined the importance of having good inter-relationships between historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, Aboriginal experts and consultants, local communities and legal people, to deal with the layers of sectional interests.
It became clear that each site was unique and encapsulated a complex legal and political history of conflict and dispossession, which reverberated up to the present with contemporaneous clashes that included local government, entrepreneurs and developers, private landowners, Aboriginal organisations and statutory authorities.
It was also apparent that through all of this were intermittent interventions by State and Commonwealth governments, with examples at each site of numerous difficulties that impeded and obstructed protection of Aboriginal sites of significance, illustrating levels of indifference and marginalisation of First Nations people’s interests by the dominant Western Australian community.
Click here to view or download a PDF version of this paper [242k].
Swensen, G. (1994)
Inequality of health between Aborigines and non-Aborigines.
This paper argued that a paradigm shift is required to address some of the profound health problems of First Nations people by developing a perspective of understanding the importance of underlying causes rooted in inequality.
Such a shift focusses on the sociocultural context of Aboriginal social and emotional well-being (SEWB) as being connected to an array of factors, in particular relationships to the land. Such a paradigm would foster the development of Aboriginal-centred understanding of SEWB, such as that illness is attributed to the violations of taboos, and healing involves working within the supernatural framework within which a person could locate themself.
The paper provided an overview in the mid 1990s of the differential health status of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, outlined key features of the then accepted paradigm for dealing with First Nations people’s health problems and argued the application of human rights principles as a framework for improving Aboriginal health and SEWB in Australia.
Click here to view or download a PDF version of this paper [95k]
Swensen, G. (1996)
Alcohol caused mental disorders in WA with reference to the Indigenous population, 1981-1991
This paper was written in 1996 and involved an analysis of trends variations in inpatient hospitalisations due to an underlying diagnosis of alcoholic psychoses in WA over the period 1981 to 1992 by examining the prevalence of this mental disorder in the Indigenous population compared with the non-Indigenous population in WA.
The study analysed fourth digit sub code of the ICD9-CM diagnosis code, based on nine sub groups, which were then grouped into four broad related categories –
- Alcohol withdrawal: DTs (ICD9=291.0) and other alcohol withdrawal (ICD9=291.8)
- Brain damage: Korsakov’s psychosis (ICD9=291.1) and alcoholic dementia (ICD9=291.2);
- Functional psychoses: Alcoholic hallucinosis (ICD9=291.3) and morbid jealousy (ICD9=291.5)
- Other alcoholic psychoses: Pathological drunkenness (ICD9=291.4) and unspecified (ICD9=291.9)
The context of the study was to develop a better understanding of four interrelated issues involved in Indigenous deaths in custody – incarceration in police cells, alcoholism and acute intoxication, alcohol caused disorders of ideation and perception and suicide.
Click here to view or download a PDF version [872k] of this paper.