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An Anthropological Study of an Australian Aboriginal Rehabilitation Centre

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An Anthropological Study of an Australian Aboriginal Rehabilitation Centre Richard Dean Chenhall Benelong’s Haven: An Anthropological Study of an Australian Aboriginal Rehabilitation Centre Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of London (London School of Economics & Political Science) June 2002 UMI Number: U17B269 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U173269 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 / H £S E- S f Soy IQ>7S6 3 2 Abstract This study examines the processes associated with indigenous recovery from alcohol and drug misuse within the context of an Aboriginal rehabilitation centre on the mid­ north coast of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Benelong’s Haven is an Aboriginal owned and controlled non-government organisation that was established in 1974 by Dr. Val Carroll (Bryant), O.A.M. Many of the residents, who originate from NSW and other states in Australia, are referred to the centre through the justice system as an alternative to a gaol sentence. The treatment programme is based on Alcoholics Anonymous and psychotherapeutic meetings involving residents reconstructing shared stories about their past experiences with alcohol and drugs. Importantly, substance use is depicted as undertaken in groups, therefore recovery must come from within the group. This is combined with an emphasis on Aboriginal spirituality, where culture becomes a form of symbolic healing that is employed by residents to assert their independence from white Australian society and develop a renewed sober status. Group solidarity and compliance with the rules is emphasised over resistance to staff, despite oscillating periods of discipline and nurturance. One of the essential problems of the treatment process is whilst many residents perceive they have experienced transformation in the programme, upon returning to their home communities some find it difficult to maintain their new status, where substance use continues amongst friends and relatives and where their position as Aboriginal Australians is stigmatised in the larger Australian society. However, those that return to substance use are not viewed as having failed by staff, nor that treatment has been unsuccessful. Rather, they are encouraged to return to the treatment programme and engage in a life long process of recovery. In examining the efficacy of alcohol and drug treatment programmes,, studies must account for indigenous understandings of recovery, which are embedded in the larger racial, political and socio-economic history of Aboriginal and white Australian relations. /. Contents Abstract...........................................................................................................................2 List of illustrations ........................................................................................................ 6 Acknowledgements........................................................................................................ 7 Introduction..................................................................................................................12 Ethnography in an Aboriginal residential treatment centre .................................. 12 Aboriginal substance misuse and Benelong’s Haven.................................................. 14 Theoretical concerns: Contextualising ‘structure’ and ‘practice’............................... 20 Fieldwork in Benelong’s Haven.....................................................................................29 Language and terms........................................................................................................36 Preview of the thesis.......................................................................................................38 Chapter 1 ......................................................................................................................40 A history of Benelong’s Haven................................................................................... 40 The founding of Benelong's Haven: Dr. Val Bryant (Carroll), OAM........................ 41 Benelong’s Haven today: Introduction to the staff, residents and programme 54 Programme of events.......................................................................................................63 Residential rehabilitation centres and ‘therapeutic communities’: The larger context ...........................................................................................................................................67 Conclusion....................................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 2 ......................................................................................................................74 The “new Aboriginal way”: Drinking and drugging in Aboriginal society........... 74 Understanding patterns of Aboriginal substance misuse............................................ 75 “Having a charge”: Drinking in Aboriginal society..................................................... 80 A case study: David........................................................................................................83 Gambling..........................................................................................................................85 Yamdi: “Makes you stress out”.....................................................................................87 Women’s drinking...........................................................................................................90 Heroin: “Going your own way”.....................................................................................90 Substance misuse as learned behaviour and as forms of resistance in response to powerlessness...................................................................................................................96 Problems with the ethnographic localised approach?..................................................99 Conclusion......................................................................................................................100 Chapter 3 ....................................................................................................................102 Aboriginal substance misuse and violence...............................................................102 Introduction....................................................................................................................102 Drinking and fighting: The social context of men’s drinking groups.......................103 Fighting: The construction of identity and negotiating social relationships.............105 Drug use and violence...................................................................................................109 The social context of family violence......................................................................... 109 Blackouts and shame.....................................................................................................112 Interpreting men’s violence.......................................................................................... 117 Conclusion: Problem deflation and going to a rehabilitation centre.........................127 4 Chapter 4 ....................................................................................................................129 Admissions and arrival to Benelong’s Haven ..........................................................129 Arrivals................................................................................................................ 129 Benelong’s Haven’s formal admission criteria...........................................................137 Dancing and the importance of learning one’s way................................................... 146 Conclusion: New arrivals as people without story..................................................... 156 Chapter 5 ....................................................................................................................158 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings: Learning to ‘share’ and the development of Aboriginal stories of substance misuse .....................................................................158 The Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.......................................................................... 159 Benelong’s Haven AA meetings in the larger community........................................163 Alcoholism, addiction and Alcoholics Anonymous................................................... 164 Different types of ‘shares’ within Benelong’s Haven............................................... 171 ‘Frames’: An emphasis on learning and interpretation.............................................. 180 Conclusion......................................................................................................................183 Chapter 6 ....................................................................................................................185 ‘Psych Groups’: Men’s group
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