Dr Maggie Brady, ARC QEII Fellow, CAEPR
Maggie Brady is an experienced social anthropologist and has undertaken long-term
fieldwork on health and land issues in the Northern Territory, South Australia
and Western Australia. She researched the diet and lifestyle of Aboriginal people
in the vicinity of the Maralinga atomic test sites in preparation for, and following,
the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia (1985). She has
worked primarily on alcohol misuse and other substance abuse such as petrol
sniffing since the late 1970s. She has undertaken studies of drinking in Aboriginal
communities, in Tennant Creek (1984) and Alice Springs (1999), and participated
in a study of licensing restrictions in South Australia (2001).
In 1998 Maggie published the first edition of a book of community development strategies for managing alcohol problems – The Grog Book – winning an Australian Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing. A revised edition was published in 2005. Maggie is also a University Medal winner, receiving the JG Crawford Prize for her PhD thesis in 2000. Her interests include health and alcohol policies for indigenous peoples in Australia and internationally, the role of primary health care in alcohol interventions, and more recently, Aboriginal social enterprises and the liquor industry.
Link: Out of the Grog - Maggie Brady on problem drinking, ANU Reporter, Autumn 2007.
Recent Publications & Presentations
(Shortly to be released) First Taste. How Indigenous Australians Learned About Grog. Canberra, Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation, 2008
‘The historical burden of prohibition’. Of Substance April 2008, 6(2)
Alcohol regulation and the Emergency Intervention: Not Exactly Best Practice. Dialogue (Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia) 2007, 26(3):59-66
www.assa.edu.au
Out from the shadow of prohibition. In J. Altman, M. Hinkson eds. Coercive Reconciliation. Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia. Melbourne, Arena Publications Association 2007:185-194
Equality and Difference: Persisting historical themes in health and alcohol policies affecting Indigenous Australians. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2007, 61:759-653 http://journals.bmj.com/cgi/reprintform
Satellite TV live broadcast and podcast by the Rural Health Education Foundation: ‘The Can Do Initiative: Managing Mental Health and Substance Use in General Practice’. 10 October 2006. www.rhef.com.au
Chikritzhs, T. & Brady, M. (2006). 'Substance use in the 2002 NATSISS' in B Hunter (Ed) Assessing the Evidence on Indigenous Socioeconomic Outcomes. A focus on the 2002 NATSISS, CAEPR Research Monograph no 26, ANU E Press, pp.231-247.
Chikritzhs, T. & Brady, M. (2006). 'Fact or fiction? A critique of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey 2002', Drug and Alcohol Review (Harm Reduction Digest 32), 25(3) May:277-287.
Brady, M., Nicholls, R., Henderson. G. & Byrne, J. (2006). 'The role of a rural sobering up centre in managing alcohol-related harm to Aboriginal people in South Australia', Drug and Alcohol Review 25(3) May:201-206.
Brady, M. & Paradies, Y. (2005). 'Health and Wellbeing' in B. Arthur and F. Morphy (Eds), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia, The Macquarie Library Pty, Sydney, pp. 156-171.
A new revised edition of The Grog Book (first published in 1998)was launched in Alice Springs on 27 July 2005.
The Grog Book. Strengthening Indigenous Community Action on Alcohol. Revised Edition. Department of Health and Ageing, Canberra 2005. Available from http://www.alcohol.gov.au, or phone 1800 020 103 ext. 8654.
Maggie Brady and Kirstie Rendall-Mkosi (2005). Tackling Alcohol Problems: Strengthening Community Action in South Africa. University of the Western Cape/Blue Weaver, Cape Town. Available from director@dopstop.org.za.
Brady, M. and Rendall-Mkosi, K. (2005). 'The Grog Book goes offshore: Adapting an Australian Indigenous resource for use in South Africa. Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal 29(4):18-20.
Indigenous Australia and Alcohol Policy: Meeting Difference with Indifference, UNSW Press, Sydney 2004.
Brady, M., Byrne J. & Henderson, G. (2003). "'Which bloke would stand up for Yalata?': the struggle of an Aboriginal commuity to control the availability of alcohol", Australian Aboriginal Studies 2003/2:62-71.
Brady, M. (2003). 'Healthcare in remote Australian Indigenous communities', The Lancet (supplement), December 2003:s2-s3.
Brady, M. & Long, J. (2003). 'Mutual Exploitation? Aboriginal Australian Encounters with Europeans, Southeast Asians and Tobacco', in W. Jankowiak and D. Bradburd (eds) Drugs, Labor and Colonial Expansion, University of Arizona Press, Tucson:31-58.
Brady, M. & MacKenzie-Taylor, M. (2002). 'Testing an Indigenous health resource: the participatory development process with The Grog Book', Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 13(3):247-249.
Recent Conference & Course Presentations
‘From nicki-nicki to Winfield Red: Exploiting Indigenous desires for tobacco’. Dangerous Consumptions Colloquium, School of Humanities, Australian National University 4-5 December 2006.
‘The special qualities of the GP in Indigenous health and alcohol interventions’. Keynote speaker at Population Health Forum, Australian General Practice Network Conference, Gold Coast, 25 November 2006.
'The prospects for cultural change in Indigenous alcohol use'. Keynote Address at the
Australian Winter School, Alcohol and Drug Foundation Queensland, Brisbane 4-7 July 2005.
'Moving on: Possibilities for change in Indigenous drinking patterns in the future'. Presented at Thinking Drinking: Achieving Cultural Change by 2020 convened by the Australian Drug Foundation, Melbourne, 21-23 February 2005.
'Indigenous Issues'. Presentation to the Parliament of Victoria, Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee, State Parliament Melbourne, 18 May 2004.
'A long-term approach to alcohol abuse: A remote Australian Aboriginal community success story', (with G Henderson and J Byrne), IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion and Health Education, Melbourne 25-30 April 2004.
'Brief alcohol interventions with Indigenous Australians: where to from here?', APSAD conference, Brisbane 16-19 November 2003.
Peter d'Abbs and Maggie Brady, 'Other drugs, other people, other places: The policy response to Indigenous petrol sniffing in Australia', Australian Institute of Criminology conference Inhalant Use and Disorder, Townsville 7-8 July 2003.
'Why GPs are appropriate providers of brief interventions with Indigenous patients', Central Western NSW Divison of General Practice Conference 'Going the distance. Alcohol and other Drug Issues in Rural General Practice', Orange 3 November 2001.
Key Publications & Research
M Brady, E Hunter (2003) Talking about alcohol with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. A brief intervention tool for health professionals (Flip chart resource available from nmm@nationalmailing.com.au)
'Making use of medics: Overcoming cultural constraints in alcohol interventions', in L. Taylor, G.K. Ward, G. Henderson, R. Davis and L.A. Wallis, The Power of Knowledge. The Resonance of Tradition, Aboriginal Studies Press Canberra, pp 130-140, 2005.
'Regulating Social Problems: The pokies, the Productivity Commission and an Aboriginal community', CAEPR Discussion Paper No. 269, ANU, Canberra, 2004.
D Martin and M Brady, 'Human rights, drinking rights? Alcohol Policy and Indigenous Australians', The Lancet 364, October 2:1282-3, 2004.
P. d'Abbs and M Brady, 'Other people, other drugs: The policy response to petrol sniffing among Indigenous Australians', Drug and Alcohol Review, September, 23:253-260, 2004.
'Aborigines and alcohol', Meanjin, 61 (2): 147-153, 2002.
BM Sibthorpe, RS Bailie, MA Brady, SA Ball, P Sumnerdodd, WD Hall, 'The demise
of a planned randomised controlled trial in an urban Aboriginal Medical Service',
Medical Journal of Australia,18 March, 176: 273-276, 2002.
'Historical and cultural roots of tobacco use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health,
26 (2): 120-124, 2002.
'Giving Away the Grog: A Positive Strategy for Addressing Substance Abuse, Australia',
in C. Gray, K. Knight and V. Weitzner (eds), Indigenous Peoples and International
Development: Case Study Profiles, Inuit Circumpolar Conference (Canada),
Ottawa: 2001.
'Alcohol policy issues for indigenous people in the United States, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand', Contemporary Drug Problems, 17(3) Fall:435-509, 2000.
'Aboriginal art in the social marketing of health', The Oxford Companion to
Aboriginal Art and Culture, S. Kleinert and M. Neale (eds), Melbourne, Oxford
University Press 2000: 450-451.
E. Hunter, M. Brady and W. Hall, National Recommendations for the Clinical
Management of Alcohol-Related Problems in Indigenous Primary Care Settings,
Canberra, Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, 1999.
'The politics of space and mobility: Controlling the Ooldea/Yalata Aborigines
1952-1982', Aboriginal History 23:1-14, 1999.
The Grog Book. Strengthening Indigenous Community Action on Alcohol,
Department of Health and Family Services, Canberra 1998.
Giving Away the Grog: Aboriginal accounts of drinking and not drinking,
(Collected and edited by M. Brady). The Drug Offensive, Department of Human
Services and Health. AGPS Canberra, 1995. Reprinted 1998.
Anderson, I. and M. Brady. (1999) 'Performance indicators for Aboriginal health
services', in L. Hancock (ed), Health Policy in the Market State, Allen
and Unwin, St. Leonards.
Brady, M., S.J. Kunitz & D.G. Nash. (1997) 'WHO's definition? Australian
Aborigines, conceptualisations of health and the World Health Organisation',
in L. Marks and M. Worboys (eds), Migrants, Minorities and Health. Historical
and Contemporary Studies. Studies in the Social History of Medicine Series,
London, Routledge: 272-290.
"Harm reduction - already happening? Comments on Landau's 'The prospects
of a harm reduction approach among indigenous people in Canada'", Drug and
Alcohol Review 15(4):407-409, 1996.
'Culture in treatment, culture as treatment. A critical appraisal of developments
in addictions programs for indigenous North Americans and Australians', Social
Science and Medicine 41(11):1487-1498, 1995.
Broadening the base of interventions for Aboriginal people with alcohol
problems, Technical Report No 29, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre,
University of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995.
Heavy Metal. The social meaning of petrol sniffing in Australia, Canberra,
Aboriginal Studies Press, 1992.
Palmer, K. & M. Brady. Diet and Dust in the Desert. An Aboriginal community,
Maralinga lands, Canberra, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1991.
Where the Beer Truck Stopped. Drinking in a Northern Australian Town.
Darwin, Australian National University NARU, 1988.
Unpublished
Research
Monitoring the long-term social and environmental effects of changes in
alcohol availability in an Aboriginal community: a ten year follow up study,
(with Joe Byrne and Graham Henderson), (2001), Report to Yalata Community Inc
and Australian Brewers Foundation.
M. Brady and M. McKenzie-Taylor, (2000), Preparing an indigenous health resource:
the use of ethnographic diagnostic interviews with "The Grog Book",
Report to the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Department
of Health and Aged Care.
Dealing with Alcohol in Alice Springs: an assessment of policy options and
recommendations for action, (1998) (with David Martin), Report to the Northern
Territory Liquor Commission, from the Alcohol Reference Group and ATSIC Alice
Springs.
The potential impact of poker machine gambling on Aboriginal residents of
Yalata and the Maralinga Lands, prepared for Maralinga Tjarutja, SA. 1998.
Towards a Framework for Community Based Action to Prevent and Manage Substance
Use, technical paper prepared for the WHO Project on Indigenous Peoples
and Substance Use, 1996.
Resume
Fellow, CAEPR, Australian National University (2001 to present).
Visiting Research Fellow, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Studies.
1995-2000 — Strategies for Alcohol Management.
1991-1995 — Research into individual and community recovery from alcohol abuse
among Aboriginal people.
1987-1990 — The social meaning of petrol inhalation among Aboriginal adolescents
(RIDAG grant).
1995 — National Drug Strategy Fellow, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre,
University of New South Wales.
1994 — CAEPR, Visiting Fellow.
1985-1986 — Senior Project Officer, Human Rights Commission, Canberra.
1983-1985 — Anthropologist, Northern Land Council, Darwin.
1980-1982 — Coordinator, Western Desert Project, School of Medicine, Flinders
University of South Australia.
