A Question of Power: Contemporary Self–Mutilation among Aborigines in the Kimberley

Non‐traditional self‐mutilation among young adult Aborigines in the Kimberley region of Western Australia has emerged in the 1980s in parallel to increases in other forms of intentional personal violence (including suicide, homicide and deaths from accidents). Having noted certain characteristics in common with self‐mutilators encountered in psychiatric practice in the wider society, the author proceeds to a socio‐historical analysis that foregrounds the changing intracultural dynamics of power among post‐referendum Kimberley Aborigines. The intercultural context of these changes and the role of alcohol are examined in terms of their impact on the construction of identity.