Indigenous Australians: A Psychological Analysis

1) What would you like to achieve/learn during the course? What would you like to know about Indigenous Australia and people? Please comment in relation to both your personal and professional life/perspective.

I personally am interested in learning more about the historical culture of Indigenous Australian’s based in South Australia throughout this course. Having lived in South Australia for the last 20 years of my life, I believe it is part of my heritage to be knowledgeable of all cultures and their historical rights, rather then just my own. I am particularly interested in learning and understanding the historical beliefs and rituals of Indigenous Australians and how they may cause diversity in psychological treatment. As a part of my

Clary’s article speaks of how psychologists’ interest in Indigenous Australians mental health has grown drastically due to alarmingly high statistics. These statistics particularly worried the community-orientated psychologists whom have been unable to correctly meet the mental health needs of Indigenous Australians since the European Invasion.

The psychological impact this made on Indigenous Australians’ had been disregarded and communities were beginning to be affected by substance and violence abuse. With such prominent mental health issues in communities, Indigenous Australians’ themselves began to seek psychological training to enable a greater control of mental health services, specific to cultural and spiritual ways.

As a part of their growing interest, non-native psychologists began to question their own cultural competence. Psychologists began to realize that they might have been culturally insensitive and racist to the ways of the Indigenous Australian’s due to their own personal values and beliefs. While this knowledge alerted psychologists that change needed to occur, still in our current generation three in ten Indigenous Australian’s still face barriers when trying to access mental health services in the western world (The Lancet, 2012, pg.

To efficiently exert cultural competence, they must be skillful in patience, listening and tolerance of silence, while also removing their own personal values, beliefs and biases from therapeutic relationships.

11) In the Australian context, what do you think psychology graduates should know in order to develop effective therapeutic relationships with Indigenous Australians? (approx 50 words)

For psychology graduates and Indigenous Australians to form effective therapeutic relationships a respectful and trustful bond must be formed. This bond formation will require psychology graduates to have a respectable understanding of previous historical events. Including the colonization of land, the stolen generation and the taking of sacred sites, referred to in Dudgeon’s article “Australian Psychology and Indigenous People” (Dudgeon 2003, p.38-44) as the taking of ones historical and spiritual bonds. Psychology graduates will also need to develop an understanding of power balance as to not appear superior to their