Remote as Ever by David Scrimgeour

Reviewed by Ian Lipke

During the 1970s, two significant Aboriginal social movements gained momentum across Australia. It is not to be assumed that these movements were triggered by activities that were specifically 1970. Their pressure was always being felt. An aspiration to self-determination and autonomy had always existed but what was different was the presence of more effective collective action. One of these social movements related to Aboriginal community-controlled health services, a successful attempt, in the main, to take control of their own primary healthcare services. The other movement was the voluntary relocation from Mission stations and government settlements to more dispersed localities on traditional lands.

Dr David Scrimgeour worked in a number of remote communities in the 1970s at a time when both of these social movements were active. He became involved thereby establishing his qualifications as an expert observer. However, making observations was minor among his qualifications. Hands-on experience became his lot and established his reputation as an expert. However, the author is quick to make the point that being non-aboriginal himself imposed certain limitations on his narrative. At the same time, he does not hesitate to identify obstacles to aboriginal autonomy that are the direct result of government policy.

The book takes the form of an account of a young doctor’s experiences as he satisfied the field component of his degree at Alice Springs. Health studies and administration were undertaken by a community group called ‘Congress’. This progressive organisation recognised its own inadequacy in meeting the demands of people who lived ‘beyond Alice Springs’. A research study led to Commonwealth funding of outstations offering health services in remote areas. Thus began Dr Scrimgeour’s experiences in remote Australia and a lifetime learning about remotely placed aborigines in the far west. Despite bureaucratic pressure to centralise services and facilities, a health survey showed that people at Utopia (a remote area) had more favourable health outcomes with respect to mortality, hospitalisation, hypertension, diabetes and injuries than people living in larger settlements. The author of the book under discussion provides reasons for this difference.

A second chapter provides a detailed history of the Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra tribal groups and the administration of their respective homelands. This introduces the character Charles Duguid, whom the author met in 1978. Duguid insisted on four principles that missions under his control should follow, and enforced these approaches with his staff. Duguid’s administration was regarded as progressive for the time. Chapter three follows with reports on the author’s experiences with the Pitjantjatjara people during his time there.

Chapter four is an account of the Strelley mob, an aboriginal organisation that arose out of the Pilbara pastoral strike seventy years before. This is fascinating history especially when the contributions of the Manyjiljarra people (or Martu) accompany the mix. The involvement of the author with health-service development in 1982 – 83 and again in 1994 – 95 is detailed in this chapter. The stories of the Pintupi and Spinifex peoples fill chapters five and six. The Pintupi, living in the vicinity of the McDonnell Ranges were one of the last tribes to interact with the white man, while the Spinifex people come from the sandhill and spinifex country of the Great Victoria Desert.

The final chapters tell the story of the demise of hunter-gatherers, various government initiatives usually attending to white interests, and the blackman’s response in moving to homelands in the desert. The book consists of one man’s story placed in the context of black attempts to operate health systems in accordance with white views, and a black solution that is yet to play out. Fascinating!

Remote as Ever

(2022)

by David Scrimgeour

MUP

ISBN: 978-0-522-87897-4

$39.99; 288 pp

 

 

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