Aboriginal art in a health science journal: Indigenous knowledge and healing

EDITOR– Congratulations on reproducing the Aboriginal artwork by Tan Martin (A Bird'sEye View of Aboriginal inclusion and knowledge sharing within the Australian Cerebral Palsy Register) in your journal.1 I doubt that anyone can say, with authority, what social and therapeutic functions such art actually exerts in the context of a scientific journal such as Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology. However, I believe that to recognize Indigenous Australians in terms that they wish to be recognized is the essence of what Australians call reconciliation. This is what I feel you are attempting. Your readers may know that in Australia a frequently used metaphor for reconciliation is ‘healing’. It is as if the nation, sickened by the brutal processes of its formation, is amenable to therapy and needs thoughtful care in the form of institutional reform and changes in Australians' basic assumptions. Reconciliation/healing is what many nonIndigenous Australians have been attempting, in good faith, without the comfort of knowing – with scientific certainty – the nature and extent of its therapeutic effect. It is a work in progress – a clinical trial of a new civics (if one wished to push the metaphor). In Australia it has become increasingly common for nonIndigenous authorities of various kinds (governmental, academic, corporate) to use Indigenous art gesturally – that is, to attach it in some way to themselves as insignia of respectful inclusiveness. I respect the good intentions of such gestures. In the world of knowledge production, in particular, it has become important to acknowledge that there are traditions of Indigenous knowledge that must be honoured and included. Australia's Learned Academies have recently resolved to find practical ways to do that, in all their fields of research and scholarship (https://acola.org/media relea seoctob er2021acola andaiats iscolla borat ion/). I expect that your decision to include the painting is based on thinking along these lines: your affirmation that Indigenous knowledge (that may include visual symbols) is integral to the production of knowledge about Indigenous society and health. Whatever may be the substance of each Indigenous knowledge contribution, the general point being made is that we (Western, colonialist authorities) must try to reconcile with those who have been colonized and marginalized epistemically. The gesture that makes this point may be said to have a healing effect, in itself, on the wider relationship of colonizers and colonized. Symbolic action is potentially problematic as well. These gestures of inclusion and respect are sometimes criticized as merely gestural and as not making a substantive difference. I am not implying that in this case. Reconciliation is a sincere project for many Australians – at all levels of society – but it is also in danger of promising more than it can deliver and of being something that nonIndigenous Australians do to make themselves feel good.