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Unequal Treatment: The Possibilities of and Need for Indigenous Parrhesiastes in Australian Medical Education

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Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between the unacceptably poor levels of Indigenous health in Australia, the very low levels of representation (As at 2009, approximately 140 Indigenous medical graduates Australia wide) of Indigenous people within the medical field, and the potential for parrhesia (translated as “fearless speech”) to challenge the medical hegemony, and as a tool of self-care for Indigenous medical students. This paper outlines the elements that make up parrhesia, the current state of Australian Indigenous (ill) health and Indigenous participation in the Australian health workforce, with some international comparison. Using Huckaby’s (Educ Phil Theor 40: 770–788, 2008) conceptualization of specific parrhesiastic scholars, the paper introduces the idea of an Indigenous parrhesiastes. The paper then discusses, and endeavors to briefly address three questions that Foucault articulated in his series of lectures on parrhesia in 1983: “How can we recognize someone as a parrhesiastes? What is the importance of having a parrhesiastes in the city? What is the training of a good parrhesiastes?” (Foucault, http://foucault.info/documents/parrhesia/, 1985). In conclusion, this paper shows that Indigenous parrhesiastes could make a strong and positive contribution to medicine and medical education.

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Notes

  1. Pearson notes, “The text was compiled from tape-recordings made of six lectures delivered, in English, by Michel Foucault at the University of California at Berkeley in the Fall Term of 1983 … . Since Foucault did not write, correct, or edit any part of the text which follows, it lacks his imprimatur and does not present his own lecture notes … the present text is primarily a verbatim transcription of the lectures”.

  2. A parrhesiastes is the one who uses parrhesia, i.e. is the one who speaks the truth.

  3. Self-assessed health status is a strong indicator of how long people are likely to live [5].

  4. This is a census figure—the Australian Indigenous Doctors' Association estimate 129, with about the same number of students http://www.aida.org.au/pdf/Numbersofdoctors.pdf.

  5. ‘Abos’ is a derogatory colloquialism for Aborigines.

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  1. Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, Centre for Health and Society, Melbourne School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Shaun C. Ewen

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Ewen, S.C. Unequal Treatment: The Possibilities of and Need for Indigenous Parrhesiastes in Australian Medical Education. J Immigrant Minority Health 13, 609–615 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-010-9352-6

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