Reading Doctors' Writing: Race, Politics and Power in Indigenous Health Research, 1870-1969

Reading doctors’ writing is an important book for every Australian who
reads or writes health research about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples. The way researchers write about Indigenous peoples in medical
journals matters. These representations have influenced the way all
Australians — Indigenous and non-Indigenous — think about Indigenous
peoples and their health and illnesses.Repeatedly labelled as an inferior race, many Indigenous peoples’ lives
have been diminished. Access to good health care was considered only
minimally important because most doctors read, wrote and believed that
the demise of the Aboriginal race was inevitable. Medical representations
of Indigenous people as passive, powerless victims facilitated the denial
of their chance to have a say in their own future.Reading doctors’ writing is not just a story about medical progress. Medical
research was influenced by the politics of colonialism; the nationalist
politics associated Federation; and most importantly by the politics of
race, racism and anti-racism. This social and political colonial context
rendered these past representations of Indigenous people plausible to
earlier medical readers — but not inevitable.This history of Indigenous health research fuels the suspicion of
researchers and research felt by Indigenous people today. Reading doctors’
writing invites those involved in health research about Indigenous
Australians to confront rather than evade the history and politics of their
work. Although not easy, this should lead, ultimately, to better Indigenous
health research.