Australian Indigenous Psychology

The Nature and Challenges of Indigenous Psychologies

“…The journal AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, was founded in 2005 and aims "to present scholarly research on Indigenous worldviews and experiences of decolonization from Indigenous perspectives from around the world" (from journal homepage, www.alternative.ac.nz/con tent/alternative-journal, retrieved January 2018). In line with these developments, Dudgeon (2017) concluded that in recent decades psychology has shifted from viewing indigenous people as objects to be researched to seeing…”

Community Psychology and Indigenous Peoples

“…Substantial conceptual knowledge and theoretical background has been laid for our understanding of Indigenous psychologies, that is, distinctive facets of mind and mentality among Indigenous populations that persist despite centuries of contact and colonization (e.g., see Denzin, Lincoln, & Smith, ; Dudgeon, ; Duran & Duran, ). Numerous authors around the world have discussed a postcolonial Indigenous psychology and the practice of decolonization.…”

“…For example, Duran & Duran's () book “Native American Postcolonial Psychology” set a foundation for embracing an Indigenous psychology grounded in differing cosmologies—that is, a psychology that legitimatizes and engages with the unique and valid worldview of Indigenous peoples. More recently, in 2017, the “Australian Psychologist” published a special issue on “Australian Indigenous Psychology” (Dudgeon, ) that includes a number of articles focused on “closing the mental health gap” including understanding the Aboriginal concept of social and emotional well‐being (Calma, Dudgeon, & Bray, ) and the necessity of decolonizing psychology (Dudgeon, Bray, D'Costa, & Walker, ).…”

Why Clinical Psychology Needs to Engage in Community‐Based Approaches to Mental Health

“…Aboriginal psychologist and academic Pat Dudgeon and colleagues have recently written extensively, in a special issue of this journal (Indigenous Psychology, ), on the need for a radical decolonisation of psychology to close the significant gap in Aboriginal mental health. For Dudgeon (), Indigenous Psychology must actively confront the core assumptions of our Western traditions and rely on Indigenous concepts to improve health and well‐being. The western concept of depression, for example, might be described instead as being “sick for country”, the result of long‐term removal from the place of your birth (Ford, ).…”

“…In terms of psychological practice, the priority is for Indigenous communities to solve their own problems, rather than for the development of new interventions, imposed from the outside (Dudgeon, ). Ridani, Shand, and Christiansen () demonstrate the enormous potential of Aboriginal‐led community‐based initiatives for youth suicide, in their seminal review of 67 programs.…”