This study was inspired by the ethnographic classic Death Without Weeping by Nancy Scheper-Hughes (1992). The methodology used for the study in the Ngaanyatjarra context is participant observation and in-depth interviews with 16 women who bore their children from the 1960s to 2007. The themes explored are how successive generations have nurtured and fed their children, and their aspirations for their children’s future. The findings stress the slow pace of cultural change as expressed through how children are reared; and the strength of the cultural emphasis on personal independence for very young children. Both these findings have important implications for the selection of strategies to address the growing epidemic of Type II diabetes in Australian Indigenous populations.

Gill Shaw is a consultant researcher with Bowchung Consulting.

Please note the change of venue for this seminar from the Haydon Allen Building to the Jon Altman Room in CAEPR.