Health of indigenous people: Traditional medicine is being practised successfully

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7421.989

BMJ 2003;327:989 (25 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7421.989

Letter

Health of indigenous people

Traditional medicine is being practised successfully

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Ring and Brown mentioned that indigenous practitionersare being trained in Western methods.¹ Although this may bebroadly true, many members of staff in remote health servicesin Australia's indigenous communities (Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander health workers and Nungkaris (witch doctors),etc) are trained in and practise traditional medicine.

I recall an incident in a community in Australia's NorthernTerritory, where I was a remote area nurse a long time ago.A young woman had a fit, and all the paraldehyde and other Westernintervention we tried would not stop it. In came the Nungkariand worked his magic, and the fit stopped.

In the back room of another clinic was kept a collection ofbush medicine that was used regularly. Even the remote areanurse used some of the herbs.

In the Torres Strait one of the Torres Strait Islander healthworkers spent a lot of . . . [Full text of this article]

Elizabeth S Mattock, locum remote area nurse

PO Box 914, Lobethal, SA 5241, Australia Lizmattock@bigpond.com