Until recently, place has been of little interest to health research. While fundamental to anthropological accounts, place has been largely relegated to the bounded and inert ground on which human agency is exercised. In this dissertation the relationship between people and the places in which they live is brought to the foreground. I am interested in bridging the gap between human agency and the social structures that underpin health by examining the subjective experiences and narrative accounts of individuals linked to the social organisation of places and their histories. The social theory of Pierre Bourdieu and his concepts of habitus, field and capital, brings analysis of these health encounters closer to the experience of everyday practice. The broader interest that runs in the background of the thesis is the interplay between the social determinants of health, the capacity to act and health inequality. Based in the Warlpiri settlement of Yuendumu in Central Australia, the ethnography critically examines the engagement between Indigenous understandings of health, well-being and being ill, and the dominant biomedical discourse that shapes disease prevention and health promotion interventions. Against a landscape of a rapidly changing Warlpiri social world, the search for Indigenous health extends beyond the biomedical life world and into the tensions of a wider social context. These sites of engagement are imagined as borderlands - emergent intra-cultural meeting places between yapa and kardiya.

This exegesis covers a period of research and art practice spanning from 2004 to 2007. I have combined visual arts with theoretical research practice that considers the notion of Australian colonialism via a post colonial construct. I have questioned how visual arts can convey various conditions relationships between settler and Indigenous cultures and in doing so have drawn on both personal art practice and the works of Australian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. These references demonstrate an ongoing examination of black and white relations portrayed in art, ranging from the drawings of convict artist, Joseph Lycett, through to the post federation stance of Margaret Preston, whose works expressed a renewal of interest in Indigenous culture. In applying a research approach, I have utilised a Narrative Enquiry methodology with a comparative paradigm within a Creative Research framework, which allows for various interpretations of my themes through both text and visuals. These applications also express a personal view that has been formed from family and workplace experiences. These include cultural influences from my settler family history and settler historical events in general juxtaposed with an accumulated knowledge base that has evolved from my personal and professional experience within Indigenous arts and education. I have also cited examples from Australian colonial and postcolonial art and literature that have influenced the development of my visual language. These include applying stylistic approaches that incorporate various artistic aspects of figuration and the Picturesque and literal thematic mode based on satire and social commentary. Overall, my research work also expresses an ongoing and evolving process that has been guided and influenced by current Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian postcolonial critical thinking and arts criticism, assisting within the development of my personal views and philosophies .This process has supported the formation of a belief system that I believe has matured throughout my research and art practices, providing a personal confidence to assert my own analytical stance on colonial history.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / N/A

The hypothesis central to this study is that distinctly Aboriginal patterns of relationship between humans and dogs are still evident in contemporary Aboriginal groups. The relationship's sociological characteristics in traditional and contemporary settings and its implications for canine and human health are also investigated. Field research employing survey, quantitative observation and specimen analysis techniques was conducted in 9 Western Australian Aboriginal groups of various backgrounds and settings. Results were compared to historic-traditional accounts and dog ownership studies in non-Aboriginal groups. Traditionally dogs served Aboriginals most importantly for supernatural protection and to assist the collection of small game by women. In non-isolated groups, traditional utilitarian motives were superseded by the Western concept of dogs as companions. Demographically, the Aboriginal dog populations surveyed were relatively large, and most dogs were classified as medium sized non-descript cross-breds. Dogs were more commonly owned by adult and aged individuals, rather than by family units as is the Western cultural norm. Most dogs remained with their original owner and retained their original name for life. Traditional values of respect towards dogs were compromised to the discriminatory care of higher status animals only, effecting selection pressure against undesirable dogs, particularly females. Similarly, while many aged people were opposed to culling, most respondents regarded community pup production as excessive and accepted culling as necessary. Nevertheless prevention was the preferred option, with strong support for the previously unfamiliar concept of ovariohysterectomy. Pups were raised in some respects like children in the traditional manner, indulgence giving way in adulthood to expectations of self-reliance rather than obedience. Most dogs were in good physical and psychological condition, though more likely to be afflicted by sarcoptic mange than other Australian dogs. Other parasites occurred at or below expected frequencies. Close physical contact with dogs coupled with favourable microclimates allowed ample opportunity for transmission of canine zoonoses, but the actual risk to human health remains poorly documented.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Murdoch University, 1993. / Thesis submitted to the School of Veterinary Studies. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 463-484).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1993. / "Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the course-work requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Studies in Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Adelaide, November,1993"--Cover.

Thesis (M. Pub. Health)--University of Adelaide, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-116).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Linguistics, 1998. / Vol. 2 consists of unpublished or not readily available papers and miscellaneous material referred to in vol. 1. Includes historical material and Kaurna language texts. Includes bibliographical references (47 p. ).

Thesis (M.P.H.)--Dept. of Public Health & Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, 1999. / "An historical exploration of poor aboriginal health and the continuities of the colonial relationship as an explanation of the persistence of poor aboriginal health " Includes bibliographical references (leaves 334-349).

Thesis (M. Env. St.)--University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-117).