1st Edition
Aboriginal Children, History and Health Beyond Social Determinants
This volume traces the complex reasons behind the disturbing discrepancy between the health and well-being of children in mainstream Australia and those in remote Indigenous communities. Invaluably informed by Boulton’s close working knowledge of Aboriginal communities, the book addresses growth faltering as a crisis of Aboriginal parenting and a continued problem for the Australian nation. The high rate and root causes of ill-health amongst Aboriginal children are explored through a unique synthesis of historical, anthropological, biological and medical analyses. Through this fresh approach, which includes the insights of specialists from a range of disciplines, Aboriginal Children, History and Health provides a thoughtful and innovative framework for considering Indigenous health.
Foreword (Colin Tatz).
Preface
Part 1 The child in the human story
Chapter 2 The child and nurture in the human story
Gaynor Macdonald and John Boulton
Chapter 3 Childhood in deep human history: The evolutionary origins of human childhood
Ze’ev Hochberg
Chapter 4 Traditions of Aboriginal parenting
Gaynor Macdonald
Part 2 The child in political history
Chapter 5 A history of legislation and attitudes towards British, non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australian children
Rani Kerin
Chapter 6 The health of Aboriginal Children in Western Australian 1829 – 1960
Christine Choo
Part 3 Political and social disruptions to the pre-requisites of parenting
Chapter 7 Disrupting demography: population collapse and rebound
John Boulton
Chapter 8 Coolibah’s Story: Structural violence in the twentieth century
John Boulton
Chapter 9 The destruction of food resources at the colonial frontier
John Boulton
Part 4 Disorders of Child Growth and Development: a metric of structural violence
Chapter 10 Growth faltering as a metric of social exclusion and poverty
John Boulton
Chapter 11 A model of children’s growth and adaptation to nutritional stress
Ze’ev Hochberg and John Boulton
Part 5 Conclusion
Chapter 12 Growing up our way: beyond social determinants in the aetiology of growth faltering
John Boulton
Chapter 13 Reflections
John Boulton
Biography
John Boulton is Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
"Aboriginal Children, History and Health is both an emblematic story of the frontier in northern Australia and a guide to the hidden, persisting causes of indigenous disadvantage... Every sentence of his narrative breathes intellectual curiosity and empathy with his patients in the hectic, highly coloured remote community world."— Nicolas Rothwell, The Australian