Elliott, Lana M., Briese, Jennie, and Duthie, Deb (2024) Instruments of colonial administration and white saviorism: The past and present of public health. In: Ravulo, Jioji, Olcoń, Katarzyna, Dune, Tinashe, Workman, Alex, and Liamputtong, Pranee, (eds.) Handbook of Critical Whiteness Deconstructing Dominant Discourses Across Disciplines. Springer, Singapore, pp. 823-840.

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Abstract

Public health's origins are inextricably linked to the field of hygiene and tropical medicine, and its role as a tool of imperialist expansion and control. These roots often remain underexamined by contemporary public health and global health research, policy, and practice. Further, the discipline's skew towards positivist epidemiological and statistical forms of knowing often drown out local and more critical perspectives. Public health's discomfort in interrogating intersectional power dynamics and failure to recognize, let alone reckon with, the colonial (and neo-colonial) causes of inequity challenges the field's ethos in redistributing social wins and losses in a more equitable way. The public health profession in Australia and the health of Australian First Nations peoples demonstrates how Whiteness perpetuates negative repercussions across the field; evidenced in the continuous domination of Western biomedical practices that disguise cultural and historical contexts. Applying a critical Whiteness lens to exploring past and present public health practices seeks to examine how colonial legacies and Western biases that shape the discipline, risk further entrenching the very inequities it seeks to address. Insights from cultural safety offer public health research, policy, and practice a long overdue opportunity to reflect on the discipline's past and rethink its future. Positionality Statement Lana is an Australian academic in public health and health management. With a background in human rights, international relations, and global health, she is a beneficiary of colonization and has spent much of her career working across the Pacific region. Lana has seen first-hand the ongoing damage caused by colonization and neo-colonial approaches to aid and development in Australia and abroad and is a fierce advocate for structural change in global health. Jennie identifies as a First Australian with strong connections to Giabal country. She is a mother and grandmother with lived knowledge of barriers impacting access to culturally safe, affordable, and accessible health services. Jennie is also a facilitator of knowledge-sharing spaces in disability studies and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies. Students actively participate as both learner and teacher in these spaces and often share rich knowledge from their own experiences. This knowledge contributes to the discussions here. Deb is a Wakka Wakka Warumungu woman with family ties to Cherbourg Queensland and Tennant Creek, Northern Territory. Living and working on Turrbal and Yagura lands (Meeanjin), she is the Director of Indigenous Health (QUT Faculty of Health) and an academic in Indigenous Studies and social work practice. Deb is a strong advocate for Indigenous rights underpinned by a social justice framework.

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