The Wombat In The Room Chapter Summary

Hampton, R. & Toombs, M. (2013). Chapter 2: Racism, colonisation/colonialism and impacts on Indigenous people. In Indigenous Australians and Health: The Wombat in the Room. Oxford University Press: South Melbourne.

“A Wombat in the Room”, written by Ronald Hampton and Maree Toombs, was published in 2013 as a source of information relating to Indigenous Australian’s and health. The book aims to direct readers to recognise the history and consequences of colonisation in Australia. Within the text, the authors make reference to Racism, Colonialism and the impacts these factors had on the Indigenous population during the early years of British settlement.

Hampton and Toombs state biological features do not define race, instead, race is based

The formation of new colonies meant Aboriginal people were given lower access to education and healthcare services and exposed to racism. The introduction of British colonies to Australian soil in 1788 caused enormous repercussions. Indigenous Australians were displaced from their traditional land, triggering disruption to cultural practices and loss of human rights. Hampton and Toombs describe how this shift in landowners introduced potent diseases, which significantly reduced the size of the Indigenous population in Australia. Colonisation ultimately had the greatest impact on health among Indigenous

The purpose of the document is to inform healthcare professionals about standards and competencies within the profession and to educate readers about professional development. The document includes information relating to planning, assessment and intervention for Speech Pathology practice.

The content within the CBOS document is very important for future professional practice, as it includes standards relating to cultural competence. The document discusses how everyone has the right to gain access to the services by Speech Pathologists, the importance of understanding the background and cultural attitudes of a client and selecting materials appropriate for intervention, taking into account an individual’s culture.

Speech Pathology Australia’s CBOS document includes both strengths and weaknesses. The core strength of CBOS is that cultural competence and awareness are addressed in all of the key areas of practice. This includes planning, assessment, intervention and evidence. A weakness of the document is that there is no individual section dedicated to cultural competence. This would have been a valued addition to the document considering the large cohort of Indigenous people in society that we may need to work with as healthcare professionals.

Concluding