A new study from Southern Cross University has ignited controversy by urging Australia to 'decolonise' its healthcare system and formally include cultural practices such as song, dance and spiritual healing.

The research, led by Southern Cross University fellow Alana Gall, claimed that 90 per cent of Indigenous Australians want access to cultural medicine, though many face significant barriers. The study also remarked that cultural treatments are notably absent from policies that inform clinical practice.

Gall argued that cultural medicine is frequently viewed as less relevant in Australia's healthcare framework.

SCU @NCNMSCU Health researcher Dr Alana Gall is advocating the protection, preservation and accessibility of Australian First Nations traditional medicines and healing practices 🌿.
Read about her awesome work here: https://t.co/rTSQS263sQ pic.twitter.com/qUHvUYPGaG

— Southern Cross University (@SCU_Australia) January 9, 2023

“Using both biomedicine, which is our standard type of healthcare in Australia, as well as cultural medicine” should be part of the system, she said. “It shouldn’t be one at the exclusion of the other. I see it as decolonising healthcare, but we need to do things in the right order.”

She added, “There was little to no guidance on what health professionals should do if their patients are either using or wanting to use cultural medicine.”

Cultural medicine, as outlined in the paper, includes herbal remedies, spiritual healing, Country as healer, ceremony, and expressive forms like dance and song.

Gall suggested that Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme could incorporate cultural medicine to empower both patients and practitioners. “We need cultural medicines to be integrated into mainstream healthcare, but we also need to put the work into defining, understanding and protecting the knowledge associated with them.”

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