Young Australian Skeptics

Disclaimer: the comparison of Indigenous healers to Alternative Medicine practitioners found in this article is only intended to reflect the content of a single short documentary and the individuals depicted. I have since realized that generalizations regarding the ‘Ngangkari’ healers are culturally insensitive and incorrect. For this reason, it is recommended that readers of this article also read the comments for an extensive discussion on the topic. The content of the article is not intended to cheapen or devalue Indigenous culture and I apologize if this seems to be the case.

In a Medical Anthropology tutorial last week, my class watched a short documentary regarding the ‘Ngangkari’ traditional healers. These healers, who service primarily indigenous communities in Central Australia, used methods utterly removed from conventional medicine to help their patients regain health. Such methods included ‘restoring the spirit’ of their patients and ‘sucking out blockages’ in the blood. Ultimately, it is my opinion that the medicine which they offer acts only as a powerful placebo. In this article, I discuss the attitude of the Ngangkari towards conventional medicine and how Western-​​style purveyors of alternative medicine could stand to benefit from adopting a similar stance.

It essentially goes without saying that many Naturopaths or Alternative Medicine purveyors (hereafter: alternative healers) discourage their clients from visiting conventional doctors; their industry depends on consumers using natural alternatives. Strong support for this assertion can be found in Ernst and Singh’s masterful dissection of alternative medicine in the book Trick or Treatment. There are numerous examples of this provided in the book, including:

“[Out of sixteen chiropractors surveyed]… only four (25 per cent) chiropractors advised immunization. Again, we can assume that those who withdrew from the survey would have had an even more negative attitude.”

Ibid, p. 185.

This attitude is both irresponsible and dangerous. While the placebo effect of alternative medicine has been shown to be effective on numerous occasions and some herbal medicines have been shown to be useful (though rarely moreso than the conventional alternative), adopting a stance as a primary healthcare purveyor is far from appropriate.

The Ngangkari healers of Central Australia use methods which would, no doubt, be admired by many alternative healers. In one memorable scene, the elder Ngangkari casts ‘his power’ out into the bushes, from whence it returns to him with the message that a man’s spirit is hiding amongst their roots. The Ngangkari collects the spirit and inserts it into the ailing man, who immediately straightens up and adopts a more cheerful aspect. While this ‘healing’ may seem somewhat comical or insubstantial to those familiar with conventional medicine, it is treasured amongst the indigenous people, who have used it for centuries.

Forgive me for being culturally insensitive, but it seems to me to be perfectly apparent that the Ngangkari healers are operating on placebo alone. Note that they did not administer any natural remedies, nor did they perform any surgeries (except for one slightly disturbing case of blood-​​letting, with the Ngangkari sucking out blood with his mouth). From a skeptical standpoint, it is hard to attribute much credibility to such an insubstantial therapy, which depends entirely on unobservable, unmeasurable ‘spirit’ phenomena to function. Nonetheless, it is the attitude of the Ngangkari (and indeed the documentary as a whole) which impressed me.

The Ngangkari were shown working alongside conventional doctors in a regional medical establishment and, when interviewed, were perfectly happy to state that there were some illnesses which only ‘whitefella’ medicine was able to cure. Not only this, but they encouraged their patients to seek additional help from ‘white’ doctors if necessary. In summary, they were decidedly non-​​antagonistic and were able to happily ‘augment’ conventional medicine, rather than attempting to subvert and replace it.

It is my opinion that the reason for this difference lies in the motivation for performing the service. That is to say; the Ngangkari expressed their distaste for accepting money (though admitted they had been forced to in recent years) and instead waxed poetic about the prestige and pride associated with being a traditional healer. I suspect that many alternative healers would balk at the suggestion of working for free in this way. Furthermore, the Ngangkari seem genuinely concerned about whether their patients recover and will not hesitate to recommend conventional medicine. Contrast this with the numerous examples of alternative healers who are (among other things) anti-​​vaccine, hostile towards cancer medications and who seem deeply mistrustful towards anything which was not invented by the grandfather of a Chinese alchemist, who himself found his instructions woven into the bottom of the Pazyryk carpet.

While it would be my personal preference that the booming ‘alt-​​meds’ industry would ‘put-​​up or shut up’ and choose to either take part in worthwhile research or disseminate its practitioners into real careers, I would never force people to leave alternative medicine behind (except in such cases where it is obviously dangerous; these should be outlawed immediately). Instead, I would prefer to see alternative healers do as the Ngangkari do; acknowledge the questionable efficacy of their treatments and recommend conventional medicine in addition to, or instead of, alternative medicine. At first, I would have suspected this would spell the end of the alternative medicine movement, but the Ngangkari seem to have done the impossible; retaining their prestige and traditional places while still recommending real, useful, non-​​placebo medicine.

A short synopsis of the documentary can be found here.

Tags: Alternative Medicine, Anthropology, Documentaries, Indigenous Australians, Ngangkari, Woo

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 7:54 am and is filed under Daniel Carabellese. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.