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In a world of rapid change and interpenetration of cultural groups and belief systems and an increasingly globalized society, health psychologists need to recognize the complexity and diversity of dynamic and interlocking systems rather than assume that our health belief systems are fixed (MacLachlan, 2000).

BOX 6.1 The false stereotype of the ‘Drunken Aboriginal’

Traditionally, Aboriginal people consumed weak alcohol made from various plants. Their problems with alcohol began with the colonial invasions of the eighteenth century. Contrary to all popular stereotypes, surveys find that roughly similar proportions of Aboriginal people drink alcohol to the European colonial population. The media distort the facts and reinforce stereotyping.

Evidence shows that the lifetime risk of alcohol consumption for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is similar to that of the non-indigenous population for both males and females. Similar proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-indigenous people of the same age and sex exceed lifetime risk guidelines, apart from women aged 55-plus where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are significantly less likely than non-indigenous women to exceed lifetime risk guidelines (7% compared to 10%) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014).

So where did the false stereotyping come from? One answer lies in early colonial art. A lithograph was created by Augustus Earle (1793–1838) and printed by C. Hullmandel, London, in 1830. A group of bedraggled indigenous Australians are sitting in a Sydney street. They wear ragged remnants of European clothing or simply material wraps. Empty ‘grog’ bottles are scattered on the ground. Behind them there is a two-storey hotel with a kangaroo sign and another sign on the side of the building says ‘George Street’. Fashionably dressed British settlers promenade down the street or stand near the hotel. Beyond is a glimpse of Sydney Harbour, with masts and rigging of sailing ships. The picture references the ‘grog culture’ of the early colonial years – ‘grog’ being a mid-eighteenth-century term meaning cheap alcohol. Two men gather round a bucket of ‘bull’, a cheap source of alcohol made by soaking and fermenting old sugar bags.