ACTIVIST GETS STATE HEALTH JOB
18.08.1990
ABORIGINAL activist and health worker Ms Gracelyn Smallwood has been appointed as an adviser to the State Government on Aboriginal health issues.
The appointment has won overwhelming support from Aboriginal community leaders.
Ms Smallwood, known for her outspoken support of the causes of her own people, said there had not been any substantial changes to Aboriginal health over the past 20 years because most health programs had been directed from a white, middle-class perspective.
According to recent Health Department statistics Aboriginal babies are dying from malnutrition in communities at Cape York where cabbages cost $12 each and milk $2 a carton.
Infant mortality among Aborigines averages 28.2 deaths for every 1000 births compared with the Australian white population figure of 8.7 deaths per 1000.
Ms Smallwood will assist with the introduction of the new system of regional health administration which will include Aboriginal representation on governing councils.
The Health Minister, Mr McElligott, this week inspected the Cape York communities in the wake of Cabinet's decision to transfer all responsibility for Aboriginal health to the Health Department.
He has pledged to upgrade facilities on the communities to the same standard as those in other Queensland towns.
Ms Smallwood was born in Townsville in 1951. She also worked for the World Health Organisation and delivered addresses on Aboriginal health problems and AIDS in numerous international forums.
She said Australian Aborigines and Islanders were dying from diseases which have been eradicated in Third-World countries.
She is most critical of the effects of alcohol on Aborigines and said ""sly-grogging'' was rife in communities.
Some residents paid $240 for a carton of beer, $150 for a bottle of rum, whisky or a cask of wine.
The perpetrators were fellow Aborigines and more recently, some State and Federal public servants who visited the communities and took the opportunity of quick profit.
""Alcohol abuse causes domestic violence, the breakdown in health as well as cultural and social structures, and is the evil that has to be overcome on our communities,'' Ms Smallwood said.
""Health is the issue we have to fight for.
""Land rights is an issue but what is the good of land if there are no Aborigines alive to live on it?
""The undeniable reality is that infant mortality is three times higher than for white children, unemployment is three to five times greater, Aboriginal males are dying 20 years before their white counterparts and, on average, 70 percent of the prison population is black.''
Ms Smallwood was enthusiastic about the commitment to improvements of the present State Government but warned that improvement in Aboriginal health programs could not be achieved until the basic issue of poverty was addressed.
""Real progress towards an equal health status will require broad, wide-ranging programs and is unlikely to occur without greater Aboriginal initiative, leadership and high-level commitment with direct support and co-operation from State and federal governments,'' she said.
""Until proper sanitation, clean running water, healthy nutritional food, and good employment opportunities, all of which are enjoyed by the average white Australian, are seen as priorities for a healthy life, no real gains will be achieved.
""Social, political, economic, religious and spiritual elements are all relevant when examining the health status of my people.''
