Table Of ContentAlcohol in the
Maggie Brady
Outback
and
Kingsley Palmer
Two studies of drinking
Australian National University North Australia Research Unit
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Alcohol in the Outback
Two studies of drinking
Maggie Brady
and
Kingsley Palmer
Australian National University North Australia Research Unit
Monograph
Darwin 1984
First published in Australia 1984.
Printed in Australia by the Australian National University
c North Australia Research Unit
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for
the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or
review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may
be reproduced by any process without written permission.
Inquiries should be directed to the publisher, Casuarina
NT 5792, Australia.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-publication entry
Brady, Maggie.
Alcohol in the outback
ISBN 0 86784 407 8.
1. Aborigines Australian - Alcohol use.
I. Palmer, Kingsley, 1946- . II Australian
National University. North Australia Research
Unit. III. Title.
362.2192
Orders
North Australia Research Unit, PO Box 41321, Casuarina 5792.
A STUDY OF DRINKING
IN AN
ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY
PY
MAGGIE BRADY AND KINGSLEY PALMER
iv
LIST OF CONTENTS
L studY of Prinking in an Aboriginal Community
List of Tables v
List of Figures vi
Preface vii
Authors' note x
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: The Social Background to the Study 8
Chapter 2: The Drinking Act 19
Chapter 3: The Hangover - The Morning After 31
Chapter 4: Towards a Sociological Analysis of Drinking 66
Conclusion 75
Bibliography 80
Appendix I: Alcohol-related health check sheet 83
Appendix II: Diamond Well people evacuated to hospital for 84
alcohol-related causes
Appendix III: Diamond W7ell people who have died from alcohol- 85
related causes
Appendix IV: Death by alcohol-related illness 86
Alcohol and Drug Use Among Youth in the Northern Territory,
Bibliography and Feview 87
V
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 (a) A breakdown of alcohol-related 39
injuries and illnesses requiring
evacuation to hospital, 1976-1982
Males, N = 59
Table 1(b) As above, Females, N = 52 40
Table 2 Alcohol-related evacuations by sex, 40
1976-1982, N = 11
Table 3 Diagnoses of alcohol-related illness 41
requiring evacuations to hospital,
1976-1982
Table 4 Consultations for alcohol-related 45
illness, January-June 1982
Table 5 Consultations by sex 46
Table 6 Consultations by month 46
Table 7 Consultations by day of week 46
Table 8 Type of injury by sex 48
Table 9 Type of injury by month 51
Table 10 Visit number by injury 52
Table 11 Severity of injury by type of 53
inj ury
Table 12 Severity of injury by visit number 55
Table 13 Assailant by type of injury 57
Table 14 Consultations for single or multiple 58
inj uries
Table 15 Part of body by type of injury 59
Table 16 Sex distribution of injuries to 60
body parts
Table 17 Causes of alcohol-related death for 63
the ten years 1972-1982
vi
LIST OF FIGUFFS
Figure 1 Number of visits to the Clinic 44
by number of individuals
Figure 2 Consultations by type of injury 49
Figure 3 Severity of injury by sex of 54
victim
Figure 4 Assailant by sex of victim 56
vii
PREFACE
This monograph is not the first detailed study of alcohol consumption
in an Aboriginal community, but there have not been too many. Most
disquisitions on the subject of Aboriginal drinking have depended in large
measure on opinions and fairly subjective observations - not to mention
misconceptions and prejudices - rather than facts and well informed
judgements. Ms Brady's and Dr Palmer's study is all the more welcome
because it impresses as being about as objective as one can be on an issue
of this kind.
There is a wealth of reports of parliamentary committees, departments,
and other government bodies on the effects of alcohol in Aboriginal
communities. Much less has been published about how Aboriginal people
actually use alcohol, and their apparent attitudes towards it. Empirical
data has also been lacking. The authors have reached certain conclusions
based on their studies of Diamond Well, and in my experience they hold good
for many (if not most) Aboriginal communities in similar situations.
In certain respects, approaches towards liquor consumption by
Aboriginal people differ little from those of most other Australians. We
need not always search for special reasons for occasional or even regular
over-indulgence: Aboriginal people may drink liquor simply because they
feel economically deprived or socially disadvantaged. On the other hand,
and in other ways and this is especially true of Aboriginal people living
more or less in a traditional society - it seems clear that alcohol is used
and viewed in a way which most white Australians find hard to comprehend.
For example, in Australian society and under its judicial system, a person
is not absolved of responsibility for actions committed whilst intoxicated.
If the matter is one which comes before a court, the court may well take
the fact of intoxication into account in assessing the penalty, but not in
determining the question of guilt.
In traditional Aboriginal communities, liquor is very differently
regarded. A man may become drunk and abuse or assault or cause great
injury or offence to someone, but he is not necessarily in any way blamed;
it is the 'grog' which did it. Indeed, liquor becomes a thing personified
and discussed as though it was an entity with a life of its own. It is
commonly regarded as a thing of malign - influence which Aboriginal people
must exclude from their communities. It is for this reason that in many
Aboriginal communities, community leaders believe that the only way they
can deal with problems of alcohol is by total exclusion or the creation of
'dry areas', and this attitude is not simply the result of past church
missionary influence as some researchers are inclined to believe.
'Alcohol in the Outback' is in one sense a study of the way in which
the Aboriginal community at Diamond Well has tried to come to terms with
alcohol. Whether it has done so successfully depends upon your
perspective, and the authors have been careful not to suggest that any one
approach has been or will prove to be more successful than another. At the
conclusion of the study, Christian evangelistic influences at Diamond Well
had apparently led to a decrease in the amount of alcohol consumed. This
may not be sustained as more recent news suggests. The process is
obviously not yet over.
viii
I commend the work of Ms Brady and Dr Palmer to all who are interested
in a problem which is so wide-spread in aboriginal communities, especially
if they are themselves trying to assist people in these communities in
ameliorating the effects of a substance which British subjects introduced
with such dramatic consequences.
Tan Pitman
Director,
Office of Aboriginal Liaison,
Darwin; formerly Chairman,
NT Liquor Commission.
