Healing the spirit: traditional, complementary and alternative medicine in a remote Australian context

Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (TCAM) has an essential role in health care worldwide, yet there is little research about TCAM in remote areas and none on its role in remote Australia. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised that TCAM fills a gap in health care, particularly in remote areas because it is available, affordable and socio-culturally accessible. This thesis explores the role of TCAM with the aim to understand how people use and practise in the specific remote Australian context, here named Apmere Thetheke. The setting is defined by cultural diversity, ethnically-based health disparities and notoriously poor health outcomes, with people falling through the gaps in health care. Narrative interviews have been conducted in situ with 44 users and/or practitioners of TCAM and the recorded data analysed thematically. The analysis works with theories of recognition to explore how health care is impacted by social position and cultural identity. Feminist framings explain how health experiences extend to social and spiritual dimensions. Theories of biomedical dominance are applied to chart the marginalisation of TCAM in health care. Findings show that practitioners adapt healing practices to meet local health needs and that people engage with TCAM beyond the treatment of biomedically-defined disease. People use TCAM to embed and belong in the landscape, as a vehicle to establish social positions and identities, and to express spirituality. Additionally, TCAM is used to counter the effects of direct and vicarious trauma which characterise the area. The thesis highlights the role of TCAM in a specific Australian context where health is impacted by remoteness. This thesis provides insights into people’s engagement with TCAM, including its role in filling health care gaps in this remote Australian context. It adds to literature for those committed to and interested in making health care culturally more accessible and, thus, safe to diverse populations.