Reading Doctors' Writing: Race, Politics and Power in Indigenous Health Research, 1870-1969

Reading Doctors' Writing is an important book for those interested in health research on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The way researchers write about Indigenous peoples in medical journals is important, as these representations influence the way we think about Indigenous peoples and their health and illnesses. Repeatedly labeled as an inferior race, many Indigenous peoples' lives have been diminished. Access to good health care was considered only minimally important because most doctors read, wrote and believed that the demise of the Aboriginal race was inevitable. Medical representations of Indigenous people as passive, powerless victims facilitated the denial of their chance to have a say in their own future. This book is not just a story about medical progress. Medical research was influenced by the politics of colonialism; the nationalist politics associated Federation; and most importantly by the politics of race, racism and anti-racism. This book invites those