Aborigines, sport and suicide

¹ Based on a paper presented to Pathways to Reconciliation Summit, Amman, Jordan, 15 December 2009.

Abstract

It is surprising that a nation so dedicated to sport has ignored its role in trying to alleviate youth suicide. Involvement in sport has shown to deflect, even deter, juvenile delinquency. Similarly, there is evidence (and reason) enough to show a strong connection between sport and suicide among the young. Sport is a major element in contemporary Aboriginal life: it provides meaning, a sense of purpose and belonging; it is inclusive and embracing in a world where most Aboriginal youth feel alienated, disempowered, rejected and excluded.

Notes

¹ Based on a paper presented to Pathways to Reconciliation Summit, Amman, Jordan, 15 December 2009.

² Quoted by Hunter and Harvey, ‘Indigenous Suicide in Australia’, 14.

³ Elliott-Farrelly. ‘Australian Aboriginal Suicide’, 2.

⁴ Tatz, ‘Aboriginal Administration’.

⁵ See McCorquodale, Aborigines and the Law, for a digest of such laws.

⁶ Attwood and Markus, The 1967 Referendum.

⁷ Tatz, ‘From Welfare to Treaty’.

⁸ Tatz, ‘From Welfare to Treaty’

⁹ Pholi, Black and Richards, ‘Is “Close the Gap”’, 1.

¹⁰ Horton, The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, 1286–90.

¹¹ HREOC (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission), Bringing Them Home; Tatz, Genocide in Australia.

¹² RCIADIC I, 1.

¹³ RCIADIC I.

¹⁴ RCIADIC I, 1.

¹⁵ Tatz, ‘Aborigines’.

¹⁶ See Tatz, Genocide in Australia and ‘Aboriginal Suicide is Different’.

¹⁷ Marx, The Social Context of Violent Behavior, 2–6.

¹⁸ Turnbull, The Mountain People.

¹⁹ Tatz, ‘Aborigines’, 28.

²⁰ See Tatz, ‘Pessimism in Australian Race Relations’ and ‘Aborigines’; Atkinson, ‘Violence in Aboriginal Australia’.

²¹ Tatz, ‘Aboriginal Suicide is Different’.

²² Kidson and Jones, ‘Psychiatric Disorders Among Aborigines’.

²³ Cawte et al., ‘Arafura, Aboriginal Town’.

²⁴ Jones, ‘Psychiatric Disorders Among Desert and Kimberley People’, 17–20.

²⁵ Eastwell, ‘The Low Risk of Suicide Among the Yolgnu of the Northern Territory’, 338.

²⁶ Hunter, ‘Changing Mortality Patterns in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia 1957–86’ and Aboriginal Health and History .

²⁷ Hunter et al., An Analysis of Suicide in Indigenous Communities of North Queensland, 91.

²⁸ McIlvanie, ‘The Responsibility of People’.

²⁹ Tatz, ‘Aboriginal Suicide is Different’, 20.

³⁰ Measey et al., ‘Suicide in the Northern Territory’, 317.

³¹ See works by Tatz, ‘Aboriginal Violence’; ‘Aboriginal Suicide is Different’; ‘Aboriginal, Maori and Inuit Youth Suicide’.

³² De Leo and Evans, International Suicide Rates and Prevention Strategies, 25.

³³ Hunter and Harvey, ‘Indigenous Suicide in Australia’, 19.

³⁴ Such as Goldney, ‘Is Aboriginal Suicide Different?’.

³⁵ Owston, ‘Declining Northern Territory Prison Populations’.

³⁶ McCoy, ‘Suicide and Desert Men’.

³⁷ McCoy, Holding Men.

³⁸ Sabo et al., ‘High School Athletic Participation and Adolescent Suicide, 5–23.

³⁹ Durkheim, Suicide.

⁴⁰ Sabo et al., ‘High School Athletic Participation and Adolescent Suicide, 5.

⁴¹ Chioqueta and Stiles, ‘Cognitive Factors, Engagement in Sport, and Suicide Risk’.

⁴² Babiss and Gangwisch, ‘Sport Participation as a Protective Factor’.

⁴³ Brown and Blanton, ‘Physical Activity, Sports Participation, and Suicidal Behavior Among College Students’.

⁴⁴ Tomori and Zalor, ‘Sport and Physical Activity as Possible Protective Factors in Relation to Adolescent Suicide Attempts’.

⁴⁵ Curtis, Loy and Karnilowicz, ‘A Comparison of Suicide-Dip Effects’, 1–14.

⁴⁶ North and South , ‘East Side Story’.

⁴⁷ North and South , ‘East Side Story’, 1–2.

⁴⁸ Denborough, Collective Narrative Practice.

⁴⁹ Bissinger, Friday Night Lights.

⁵⁰ Hunter and Milroy, ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide in Context’, 151.

⁵¹ McCoy, ‘Suicide and Desert Men’ and Holding Men.

⁵² Chandler and Lalonde, ‘Cultural Continuity as a Hedge Against Suicide’, 191.

⁵³ Sorokin, The Crisis of Our Age.

⁵⁴ Parker et al., ‘Our Games our Health’.

⁵⁵ Kral, ‘Transforming Communities’.

⁵⁶ Tönnies, Community and Society.

⁵⁷ Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 133.

⁵⁸ Kral, ‘Transforming Communities’.

⁵⁹ Kral, ‘Transforming Communities’, 256–8.

⁶⁰ Pritchard, Suicide.

⁶¹ Moodie, Tiwi Football Yiloga, 105.

⁶² Judd et al., ‘Rural Suicide’.

⁶³ Hillman, Suicide and the Soul.

⁶⁴ Améry, On Suicide, xviii.