Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T00:14:52.347Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Racial complaint and sovereign divergence: the case of Australia's first Indigenous ophthalmologist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2020

David Singh
David Singh*
Affiliation:
Faulty of Arts, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland4072, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: David Singh, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

This is a reflective piece that examines the nature of racial complaint with reference to Dr Kris Rallah-Baker's concerns about the racism that characterised his medical education. It will further examine the anti-racist campaign that sprung up in support of Rallah-Baker with a view to illustrating the limits of conventional critical race theory in understanding the course of events. Using the work of Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Gramsci and Stuart Hall, it will be argued that the Rallah-Baker case illustrates that Australian hegemonic formations can never quite command total legitimacy because sovereign formations, anti-racist in outlook, erupt with a frequency and facticity that lay bare the conceit of settler-colonialism. In so doing the paper will work towards an understanding of the critical Indigenous/race paradigm that goes beyond critical race insights borne of other places and experiences. As will be seen, what followed Rallah-Baker's complaint, the campaign that supported him and the concessions finally won was not, as critical race theory is wont to claim, a case simply of ‘interest convergence’; rather it was, I propose, an example of ‘sovereign divergence’.

Keywords

Anti-racismhigher educationrace
Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 49 , Special Issue 2: Critical conversations on higher education as an enabler to building an Indigenous health workforce , December 2020 , pp. 145 - 152
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Australian Government (2013) National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013–2023. Available at https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/oatsih-healthplan-toc (Accessed 24 March 2020).Google Scholar
Australian Medical Council (2016) Accreditation report: the Training and Education Programs of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists by the Specialist Education Accreditation Committee. Available at https://ranzco.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/d8b2727e5835a74216317a31e7db05a71096d503_original.pdf (Accessed 29 July 2020)Google Scholar
Bond, CJ and Singh, D (2020) More than a refresh required for closing the gap of Indigenous health inequality. Medical Journal of Australia 212, 198–199. Available at https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/212/5/more-refresh-required-closing-gap-indigenous-health-inequality (Accessed 28 July 2020)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bond, CJ, Macoun, A and Singh, D (2019) Race, racism & the Australian Health System. Unpublished report to the National Health Justice Partnership, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Bonnett, A (2000) Anti-Racism (Key Ideas). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Delgado, R and Stefanic, J (2012) Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Fanon, F (1977) The Wretched of the Earth. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Gilroy, P (1993) The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London, New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Goodfellow, M (2020) Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats. London, New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Gopal, P (2019) Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent. London, New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Hall, S (2019) Race, Articulation, and Societies Structured in Dominance. In Morley, D (ed.), Essential Essays Vol.1: Foundations of Cultural Studies. Durham, London: Duke University Press, pp. 172–221.Google Scholar
Hall, S (2000) Conclusion: The multi-cultural question. In Hesse, B (ed.), Un/Settled Multiculturalisms: Diasporas, Entanglements, Transruptions. London, New York: Zed Books, pp. 209–224.Google Scholar
Home Office (United Kingdom) (1999) The Stephen Lawrence inquiry: report of an inquiry by Sir William Macpherson of Cluny. Available at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277111/4262.pdf (Accessed 20 March 2020).Google Scholar
Moreton-Robinson, A (2007) Introduction: Sovereign subjects. In Moreton-Robinson, A (ed.), Indigenous Sovereignty Matters: Sovereign Subjects. New South Wales: Allen & Unwin, pp. 1–11.Google Scholar
Paradies, Y (2006) A systematic review of empirical research on self-reported racism and health. International Journal of Epidemiology 35, 888–901.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Procter, J (2004) Stuart Hall: Routledge Critical Thinkers. London, New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, D and Sweet, M (2018) RANZCO urged to apologise to first Indigenous ophthalmologist—and more news from #MovingBeyondTheFrontline. Croakey. Available at https://croakey.org/ranzco-urged-to-apologise-to-first-indigenous-ophthalmologist-and-more-news-from-movingbeyondthefrontline/ (Accessed 3 March 2020).Google Scholar
Sivanandan, A (1990) RAT and the degradation of black struggle. In Sivanandan, A (ed.), Communities of Resistance: Writings on Black Struggles for Socialism. London, New York: Verso, pp. 63–122.Google Scholar
Te Ohu Rata ō Aotearoa (Māori Medical Practitioners Association) (2018) Letter by professor David Tipene-Leach, MNZM, Chair Te ORA (Māori Medical Practitioners Association). Available at https://croakey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Kristopher-Rallah.pdf (Accessed 28 July 2020)Google Scholar
United Nations (2007) Declaration of the rights of indigenous peoples. Available at https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf (Accessed 24 March 2020)Google Scholar
Watson, I (2009) In the northern territory intervention: what is saved or rescued and at what cost? Cultural Studies Review 15, 45–60.Google Scholar
Younge, G (2007) ‘We used to think there was a black community’: an interview with Angela Davis. Guardian Newspaper. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/08/usa.gender (Accessed 31 March 2020).Google Scholar
Zephaniah, B (2008) The race industry. Available at https://benjaminzephaniah.com/rhymin/talking-turkeys-2/ (Accessed 10 March, 2020)Google Scholar