Indigenous Circumstances Research Articles

Invoking “Indigenous Circumstances” in Disaster Governance Implications for Disaster Justice

Invoking “Indigenous Circumstances” in Disaster Governance Implications for Disaster Justice

The Genesis and Performance of an Australian Wage-Fixing System in Papua New Guinea

The functioning of inherited institutions, including those regulating labour markets, in former colonised countries is embedded with their character and history. Yet, there has been surprisingly little academic interest in the changing roles and performance of post-colonial labour market institutions. These institutions can express values - linked to, for example, fairness in decision-making and equitable distribution - strongly held in the colonising country at the time of transplantation. Such values can then shape institutional experience in the colony and post-colonial society. This article examines the establishment and performance, over four decades, of an Australian-styled system for fixing minimum wages established in colonial-era Papua New Guinea (PNG) and centred on the PNG Minimum Wages Board (MWB). The article uses documentary evidence, in-depth interviews and the author's own experience as participant in the important 2000 round of MWB deliberations. In doing so, it highlights how the MWB's composition changed to more fully reflect indigenous circumstances. It also examines how earlier priorities of socio-economic equity amid development, via arguments base on needs, have come under fierce pressures from organised employers' arguments for prioritising capacity to pay at the firm and national level. This reshaped MWB's wage fixing within a largely deregulated bargaining system despite the much more difficult economic circumstances of the lowly paid in this struggling, developing nation.

Socioeconomic disparities in physical health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Western Australia

Objective. Few empirical studies have specifically examined the relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and health in Indigenous populations of Australia. We sought to provide insights into the nature of this relationship by examining socio-economic disparities in physical health outcomes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Western Australia. Design. We used a diverse set of health and SES indicators from a representative survey conducted in 2000–2002 on the health and development of 5289 Indigenous children aged 0–17 years in Western Australia. Analysis was conducted using multivariate logistic regression within a multilevel framework. Results. After controlling for age and sex, we found statistically significant socio-economic disparities in health in almost half of the associations that were investigated, although the direction, shape and magnitude of associations differed. For ear infections, recurring chest infections and sensory function problems, the patterns were generally consistent with a positive socio-economic gradient – where better health was associated with higher SES. The reverse pattern was found for asthma, accidents and injuries, and oral health problems, although this was primarily observed for area-level SES indicators. Conclusion. Conventional notions of social position and class have some influence on the physical health of Indigenous children, although the diversity of results implies that there are other ways of conceptualising and measuring SES that are important for Indigenous populations. We need to consider factors that relate specifically to Indigenous circumstances and culture in the past and present day, and give more thought to how we measure social position in the Indigenous community, to gain a better understanding of the pathways from SES to Indigenous child health.

The Inflected Modernism of O’Neil Ford in Denton and San Antonio

Texas architect O’Neil Ford (1905–1982) remains largely unappreciated beyond his native state. However, he was a prolific architect who can be considered an “Inflected Modernist”: utopian and functionalist theoretical principles of twentieth-century Modernism are modulated and refracted in his work by historical considerations, indigenous circumstances, and clients’ needs.