"Illness is a Weapon" by Dr. Saethre

In Australia’s Northern Territory—where Aboriginal individuals have a life expectancy of approximately twenty years less than non-Aboriginal individuals—Indigenous identity has become inextricably tied to disease. Being Aboriginal often means being sick. Drawing on over a decade of research in a remote Aboriginal community, this colloquium explores the factors structuring ill health, the tactics individuals use to negotiate these realities, and the ways in which medical narratives are employed to construct, manage, and challenge social relations. For Aboriginal people, illness can act as an embodied tool of contestation. Cursing at nurses and throwing medicine in the trash are simultaneously acts of defiance and rejections of vulnerability.

Through medical dialogues and interactions, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people engage in a reciprocal discussion about the past, present, and future of Indigeneity.

Event Sponsor
Department of Anthropology, Manoa Campus

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