Morality, duty, and the arts in health: A project on Aboriginal underage pregnancy

Abstract

Underage pregnancy in the Aboriginal population of Australia represents a serious set of physical, social, and mental problems. The shifts that have taken place in the population make-up of the communities due to this birth pattern are having detrimental effects on the well-being of individuals and families, including a destabilising of the sense of identity and belonging. The paper looks at the social and medical problems involved and summarises a project which aims to address them through the arts. It also considers the moral and ethical aspects of the situation, including the difficulties of any sort of intervention. It also considers the issue of duty for both medicine and the arts in such situations.

Keywords:

• Aboriginal/Aboriginal Health
• morality
• Kant
• contraception
• social agency
• video diaries
• photovoice

Notes

^1. The Woorabinda community is known as a troubled one, and this example of forcible use of contraceptive patches is a part of a longer series of issues. Domestic violence, underage sex, and alcoholism have all been reported. Of note is a programme that was run in 2006 which sought to address the issues of domestic violence. As part of the Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention Forum, this programme looked at using arts-based approaches to address and eventually stop domestic violence. It is telling that the programme began by getting the participants to introduce themselves tribally (giving them a sense of tradition and background). One of the techniques used in the programme is worth mentioning in detail: “A Power Exercise (using sets of photo language cards) is conducted early in the programme and again later in the programme. The exercise involves the display of numerous photos (of landscapes, children, beaches, horses, many different photos) and participants are asked to choose 3 photos that speak to them. They are asked why they choose those photos and to discuss what feelings prompted those choices e.g. loneliness may have prompted the choice of a photo – the facilitator will speak with the participant about the feelings and then talk about the positive aspects of the photograph and the potential that the image can contain, in effect encouraging looking forward in a positive way and not perpetuating the negative feelings that might presently be associated with the participant's life.” (Hennessy & Willie, 2006.)