Fear of flying

The mining boom is making its mark on a number of regional centres in rural South Australia by bringing in a new population of people associated with this growth. A number of these centres have significant populations of Aboriginal people, who include the traditional owners. A recent ABC Radio National program 360 aired on 13/09/09 focussed on one such place, Port Augusta, and was entitled 'Port Augusta re-imagines'.(3) The program presented descriptions of the Aboriginal cultural landscape, including the significance of the Dreaming stories for this country at the top of Spencer Gulf. Does this imagining, and nourishment of the sensitivity to the landscape and the mysteries of existence, help centre the newcomer to these places and awaken a new Antipodeans' re-imagining or continue the fear of the frontier and Indigenous worldviews? The outcome of the effects to this re-location has importance for the social determinants of health, in particular that of social exclusion experienced by most Indigenous Australians and the associated issues of stress, unemployment, poor housing and so on. This paper draws upon a cultural studies and postcolonial theory base to examine the social determinants of health and possible implications for workforce development in places such as Port Augusta.