Cultures in the consultation

Abstract

![][1] Some jokes hold no truth. ‘ What is the difference between Australia and yoghurt? After 200 years, yoghurt develops a culture.’ In Australia, as in the UK, cross-cultural consulting is a standard part of a GPs toolkit. In Australia, though, one of the cultures we are privileged to be exposed to is the longest continuous one in the world, Aboriginal culture. To work as a GP in an Aboriginal community is to work constantly across cultures. There’s a sense I get sometimes while consulting, of being disoriented, off balance; some of my assumptions evaporate to be replaced by tentative ‘what ifs?’ But my cross-cultural consultations … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif