Towards cultural competence : Australian Indigenous content in undergraduate psychology

This paper discusses the development and preliminary analysis of psychology undergraduate courses on cultural competence in relation to Indigenous Australians. The paper summarises the process that led to the formation of draft curriculum guidelines for psychology academics, including the need to critically examine the assumptions and history of Western psychology in relation to Indigenous peoples, the inclusion of non-conventional teaching and learning methods, staff and institutional support, and appropriate staff development. The paper then discusses the responses of students to one of the courses developed from these guidelines. The courses were well received by students and although they do not in themselves teach professional psychological skills in working effectively with Indigenous people, they provide a solid basis for the development of such skills. Because this is a relatively new area, it is likely that there will be much refinement of these courses in coming years.

Anger and indigenous men : understanding and responding to violent behaviour

This book is for social work and criminal justice practitioners who wish to develop culturally appropriate and effective programs for reducing anger-related violence perpetrated by Indigenous men. It places cultural context at the heart of any intervention, broadening the focus from problematic behaviour to a more holistic notion of well-being.

Researching anger in indigenous men in prison : a perspective from non-indigenous researchers

In this chapter, the attempts of non-Indigenous researchers to develop an appropriate research methodology to investigate anger in Indigenous men in prison are described. The chapter examines the need for research that can meaningfully inform service provision to be conducted in the context of Indigenous critiques of mainstream research methodologies and describes some of the issues that arose in our attempt to achieve this. What emerged was an appreciation of the way in which the research methodologies that were available to us were inescapably representations of our own cultural backgrounds and that effective and culturally acceptable research practice was not a question of mere methodology, but of being prepared to remain conscious of the potential for our research to do harm.

Shades of grey : reflections on researching indigenous Australian issues

This paper contains our reflections and responses to a recent research project which sought to understand the meaning of anger in Indigenous Australian prisoners. Throughout this project the authors became increasingly aware of the essential ambiguities inherent in Indigenous research practice: the potential for our research to reproduce inequities and contribute to the colonisation of knowledge, the demands for academic accountability, the juxtaposition of world views and the central importance of difference. Our aim throughout this project has been to examine our responses to the process of indigenous research practice. This paper contains reflections that may assist others who might embark on indigenous qualitative research and those interested in theorizing the production of knowledge.

Effective anger intervention for indigenous prisoners : research and development in a South Australian study

Although the need for the development and provision of culturally appropriate rehabilitation programs for offenders is widely acknowledged, there is a lack of empirical data that can be used as the basis for the development of new programs. This paper reports the findings of two studies - first a qualitiative study exploring the meaning of anger for Indigenous men in prison; and second a comparison of Indigenous and non-Indigenous male prisoners on a range of measures relevant to the experience of anger by indigenous prisoners in Australia. The results suggest that Indigenous participants are more likely to experience symptoms of early trauma, have greater difficulties identifying and describing feelings and perceive higher levels of discrimination than non-Indigenous prisoners. The implications of this work for the development of culturally appropriate and effective anger management programs for indigenous male prisoners and those from other imnoirty cultural groups are discussed.