Antonio Gramsci and Pierre Bourdieu
"whiteness" and indigenous healthcare
pp. 191-204
in: Fran Collyer (ed), The Palgrave handbook of social theory in health, illness and medicine, Berlin, Springer, 2015Abstract
Race acts as a powerful social and cultural force in countries colonised by Western nations where Indigenous or First Nation peoples often remain disadvantaged across all socio-economic indicators including education, health, employment and housing (Browne 2005; Walters and Saggers 2007). In Australia, Moreton Robinson (2009:xix) describes "White Anglo-Australian cultural and racial dominance' as the "invisible omnipresent norm'. It is rarely interrogated or seen as a difference, instead it is the benchmark by which differences from that norm are measured, valued and often ignored. Power relations based on race can reproduce inequalities and discriminate against Indigenous people, yet often remain "natural, normal and unmarked' (Moreton Robinson 2009:183), including in healthcare. Mainstream healthcare delivered to Indigenous people in post-colonial countries is located within a racialised social structure where the ideas, values and practices of the dominant, racial and cultural group are accepted as the norm (Kowal 2008; Moreton Robinson 2009).
