Introduction

You are about to begin a short but compact course in Pitjantjatjara culture. The effectiveness of the training manual stems from two sources. The most important source is the presentation of cultural information in a goal-specific way. For your purposes - as a prospective medical worker with Aboriginal people - you need to know the implications of cultural differences for the specific practical work you have to do. This is what the present manual tries to do. This specific approach is, of course, not the only way to learn about Aboriginal culture. It is possible to learn by reading books, hearing lectures, looking at pictures and movies, studying art forms, talking to Aboriginals or actually visiting the Aboriginal areas, observing through participation in their daily life. Each method has its particular advantages, and each has its limitations.

It is assumed that the primary purpose of the reader is to accomplish a specific medical goal and not to learn about Aboriginal culture in a general abstract manner. Your aim is not to be an anthropologist but rather to learn about cultural differences which could affect the achievement of your medical goals. Hence the unique emphasis of this training manual is upon showing how cultural differences can affect the success of medical procedures you might want to employ.

The second major feature of this manual is its form of presentation. Material is presented which allows the reader to become an active and not passive learner. You are required to think about specific incidents that could occur to you when working with Aborigines.
On the basis of information presented in each incident and information you should have acquired from past incidents, you are required to make a choice from a number of alternatives concerning explanations of what happened in the particular incident described.
If you indicate by a correct response that you know something you will be instructed in the feedback to go on immediately to learn something else. If you give an incorrect response you will need to re-read the incident and make another choice. You will not be timed at all but will proceed at your own pace. This method of presentation gives you the opportunity of learning about aspects of Aboriginal culture by participating in it in a special way. You are presented with significant situations which you are asked to consider, analyse, interpret, and respond to in various ways. Then you are given evaluative feedback about your responses which should help you to see the effect that this interpretation and associated response to the situation would have had in an actual cross-cultural interaction.

There are some qualifications about the use of this training manual.

Firstly, the information given is incomplete. Although the authors interviewed a large number of people, Caucasian and Aboriginal, in order to obtain accurate and detailed information about Pitjantjatjara culture, there are still gaps in our understanding of this culture. This is not an authoritative text. Further research may indicate that some statements should be revised and more statements added. Furthermore, the cultural problems described in the manual may change over time and warrant a revised edition. Care should therefore be taken by the reader so that he or she does not adopt the principles described in a mechanical and rigid manner.

A second qualification concerns the scope of the manual. It has been constructed for workers on tribal or semi-tribal reserves where the Aborigines are Pitjantjatjara. Hence many incidents and interpretations are not likely to be applicable to other tribal groups nor to Aborigines who now reside in cities.

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