Telling stories: Nurses, politics and Aboriginal Australians, circa 1900-1980s

The focus of this paper is stories by, and about (mainly non-Aboriginal) Registered Nurses working in hospitals and clinics in remote areas of Australia from the early 1900s to the 1980s as they came into contact with, or cared for, Aboriginal people. Government policies that controlled and regulated Aboriginal Australians provide the context for these stories. Memoirs and other contemporary sources reveal the ways in which government policies in different eras influenced nurse's attitudes and clinical practice in relation to Aboriginal people, and helped institutionalise racism in health care. Up until the 1970s, most nurses in this study unquestioningly accepted firstly segregation, then assimilation policies and their underlying paternalistic ideologies, and incorporated them into their practice. The quite marked politicisation of Aboriginal issues in the 1970s in Australia and the move towards self-determination for Aboriginal people politicised many - but not all - nurses. For the first time, many nurses engaged in a robust critique of government policies and what this meant for their practice and for Aboriginal health. Other nurses, however, continued as they had before - neither questioning prevailing policy nor its effects on their practice. It is argued that only by understanding and confronting the historical roots of institutional racism, and by speaking out against such practices, can discrimination and racism be abolished from nursing practice and health care. This is essential r nursina s current andprofessional development and for better health for Aboriginal Australians.