Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:47:09.145Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Healing through ICT: Enhancing wellbeing in an Aboriginal community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2012

Dianna Madden ,
Yvonne Cadet-James ,
Felecia Watkin-Lui  and
Ian Atkinson
Dianna Madden*
Affiliation:
James Cook University, Townsville, Australia
Yvonne Cadet-James
Affiliation:
James Cook University, Townsville, Australia
Felecia Watkin-Lui
Affiliation:
James Cook University, Cairns, Australia
Ian Atkinson
Affiliation:
James Cook University, Townsville, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Dianna Madden, School of Indigenous Australian Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, 4811, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many Aboriginal Australians report a diminished sense of wellbeing in their everyday activities due to racism and separation from their traditional lands and culture. Our research sought to discover whether access and use of culturally appropriate Information and Communication Technology's (ICTs), could have an ameliorative benefit, enhancing participants’ sense of support and engagement with their culture. While multiple studies have shown that access and use of ICTs can provide real benefits in regards to empowerment, few studies have focused specifically on the well-being aspects. The research in this project was a Participatory Action Research (PAR) study with women and girls of the Gugu Badhun (an Aboriginal Australian language group) to explore ways to better support their familial and cultural activities associated with identity and group sustainability. The research was divided into three action-research cycles: group interviews and focus groups, use of a technology probe, and feedback from the participants. The technology probe was a web-based application with access limited to the women in the study. Use of the probe enabled the participants to mentally revisit scenes that had been highly significant to them and to reframe these incidents in ways that enhanced their feelings of wellbeing. The probe site allowed the women a platform to discuss concepts intrinsic to their lives, and how these ideas interlink and enmesh with each other, such as the importance of connection to country, and offline activities surrounding identity and sustainability as a group thereby enhancing their wellbeing.

Keywords

wellbeingICTAboriginal womencommunityfamilyspiritualityconnection to country
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Tropical Psychology , Volume 2 , June 2012 , e6
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council. (2008). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance. Framework report. Canberra: AHMAC.Google Scholar
Bernard, H.R. (2005). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (4th ed). Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.Google Scholar
Benebed, F. (2009). An indigenous holistic approach to colonial trauma and its healing. Literary Paritantra (Systems), 1, 83–91.Google Scholar
Esler, D. (2008). Participatory action research in indigenous health. Australian Family Physician. 37, 457–459.Google Scholar
Fredericks, B. (2006). Which way? Educating for nursing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Contemporary Nurse, 23, 87–99.Google Scholar
Garvey, D. (2008). A review of the social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous Australian peoples - considerations, challenges and opportunities. Retrieved from http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/sewb_review.Google Scholar
Gaver, B., Dunne, T., & Pacenti, E. (1999). Cultural probes. ACM Interactions (Jan/Feb), 21–29.Google Scholar
Gray, D.E. (2004). Doing Research in the Real World. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Hardy, D., Bidwell, N., Atkinson, I., & Cadet-James, Y. (2007). Domesticating Design by a Disenfranchised Community. Paper presented at the Proceedings of Workshop on Mundane Technologies SIMTECH, Melbourne, Australia.Google Scholar
Hardy, D., Morgan, M., Atkinson, I., McGinty, S., Cadet-James, Y., Hannan, A., & James, R. (2008). Enabling lightweight video annotation and presentation for cultural heritage. Paper presented at the eResearch Australasia 2008, Melbourne, Australia.Google Scholar
Mason, J. (1996). Qualitative Researching. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Mead, M. (1986). Fieldwork in the Pacific islands: 1925-1967. In Gold, P. (Eds.), Women in the Field: Anthropological Experiences (2nd ed.). Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Nakata, M. (2002). Indigenous knowledge and the cultural interface: underlying issues at the intersection of knowledge and information systems. IFLA Journal, 28, 281–291.Google Scholar
Paradies, Y. (2006). A systematic review of empirical research on self-reported racism and health. International Journal of Epidemiology, 35 (1), 888–901.Google Scholar
Reynolds, H. (1999). Why Weren't We Told? : A Personal Search for the Truth About our History. Ringwood, Vic: Viking.Google Scholar
Silverman, D. (2010). Doing Qualitative Research. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Smith, L. (1999). Decolonising Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed Books, Ltd.Google Scholar
Social Health Reference Group. (2004). Social and emotional wellbeing framework: A national strategic framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and social and emotional wellbeing. Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Svalastog, A.L., & Eriksson, S. (2010). You can use my name; you don't have to steal my story – a critique of anonymity in Indigenous studies. Developing World Bioethics, 10:2, 104–110.Google Scholar
Williams, C., Thorpe, B., & Chapman, C. (2003). Aboriginal Workers and Managers: History, Emotional and Community Labour and Occupational Health and Safety in South Australia, Seaview Press, Henley Beach, SA.Google Scholar
Williams, A., Anderson, K., & Dourish, P. (2008). Anchored mobilities: mobile technology and transnational migration. Paper presented at DIS 2008, Feb 25-27, 2008, Cape Town, South Africa.Google Scholar
Zubrick, S.R., Dudgeon, P., Gee, G., Glaskin, B., Kelly, K., Paradies, Y., Scrine, C., & Walker, R. (2010). Social determinants of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing. In Purdie, N., Dudgeon, P. & Walker, R. (Eds.), Working Together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar