Petrol Sniffing In Aboriginal Communities

Heavy metal: The social meaning of petrol sniffing in Australia.

This is a review of published and unpublished literature addressing petrol sniffing in Australian Aboriginal communities. In this executive summary, the main findings are itemised; however, because petrol sniffing, when it occurs, is invariably a product of a complex mix of causes findings should not be considered in isolation.

The kit contains booklets for health and community workers and and one in plain language to provide basic information to those in communities to enable them to decide what to do about petrol sniffing. The kit has come together from the many reports, studies and research that has been undertaken on the different approaches taken to address petrol sniffing.

The kit contains booklets for health and community workers and and one in plain language to provide basic information to those in communities to enable them to decide what to do about petrol sniffing. The kit has come together from the many reports, studies and research that has been undertaken on the different approaches taken to address petrol sniffing.

Dog Ear Cafe is a true-life adventure story about how one Aboriginal community beat the odds and defeated petrol sniffing. It tells of the Mt Theo Petrol Sniffing Program: a story of culture clash, of two lines of fire that meet in the desert night, of partnerships that cross Australia's racial divide. Woven throughout are humour, taboos, bush mechanics, hope and tragedy. In a colloquial and narrative manner, this book invites the reader to a deeper analysis of the assumptions behind white and black economics, indigenous alcoholism, welfare dependency and the failure of well intended policy and programs. Hidden in the subtext is a mud map for reproducing successful partnerships with indigenous Australians. The Mt Theo Program was founded in 1994, when half the teenage population of Yuendumu were sniffing. Eight years later no one sniffed, and ex-sniffers had become youth leaders and community workers. The elders of Mt Theo used their traditional bush knowledge to turn lives around.