Alcohol consumption

No comprehensive statistics of alcohol consumption are available for Australian Aborigines, American and Canadian Indians, New Zealand Maoris, or other Pacific Islanders. Generally, available information on alcohol consumption comes either directly from prevalence studies or indirectly from alcohol-related morbidity and mortality statistics.

A study conducted among Australian Aborigines in Bourke during the early 1970s noted that of the 124 men surveyed, only 10 per cent were non-drinkers while 53 per

Page 63 cent were heavy drinkers consuming more than 80 grams of alcohol per day (Kamien,

1975a). Among males, drinking began between the ages of 14 and 19 years and most drinkers consumed some alcohol every day. Women were much lighter drinkers than men — only 4 per cent of the 128 women who were surveyed fit into the heavy drinking category. This study also noted that drinking was very much a social event which primarily occurred in two characteristic forms (Kamien, 1975a: 295). The first form of drinking tended to occur after work when men drank beer in the public bars of hotels in town, clearly enjoying the social benefits of drinking without trying to get drunk. By contrast, the aim of the second form of drinking was to get drunk. Cheap fortified wine was consumed by the riverbank or on the Bourke reserve over the space of a few hours. This form of drinking, the 'periodic binge', was the most common. A study of Aboriginal mortality patterns in the country regions of New South Wales noted that in 34 per cent of the male and 15 per cent of the female deaths reported, alcohol was mentioned on the death certificate as a significant medical problem. Alcohol abuse was most frequently reported for male and female deaths between the ages of 35 and 44 years; and was most frequently associated with deaths from diseases of the digestive system (especially of the liver and pancreas) and respiratory system (especially pneumonia) (Smith et al., 1983).

Alcohol is the leading and perhaps the most costly risk factor among American Indians. Alcohol abuse underlies many major causes of death and contributes to an array of physical conditions treated by the Indian Health Service. Four of the top ten causes of death among American Indians are alcohol-related — injuries (18 per cent of all deaths), chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (5 per cent), suicide (3 per cent), and homicide (3 per cent) (Rhoades et al., 1987b: 365).

However, several studies have noted that not all American Indians can be stereotyped as being heavy drinkers. For example, although the Hopi and Navajo Indians in Arizona have adapted to the same environment, their differing patterns of social organization

and socialization have led to very different rates of death from alcoholic liver disease, homicide, and suicide (Kunitz et ai, 1971; Kunitz, 1983, 1990b). Also, two studies in Oklahoma have found significant differences in alcohol-related deaths by tribal area (Stratton, 1981; Christian et ai, 1989). For example, Christian and colleagues (1989: 275) noted that the Cheyenne-Arapaho, Comanche, and Kiowa areas (in western Oklahoma) have higher contemporary alcohol-related death rates than the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Pawnee areas (in eastern Oklahoma). Overall,

historical and cultural factors are assumed to be important in explaining this east-west dichotomy.

Alcohol abuse among Canadian Indians also seems to be an ever-increasing problem. A health survey conducted by Young (1982) in and around Sioux Lookout, Ontario, noted that 29 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women over 15 years of age drank alcohol. The proportion of drinkers declined sharply among the older age groups; and drinking was more prevalent among the better educated. However, these response rates may not actually reflect the true state of affairs. Many northern Indian reserves have passed by­ laws banning alcohol, and although drinking still occurs in these 'dry' communities, the typical pattern is one of binge drinking when residents visit southern towns.

Also, a study of deaths among Canadian Indians living in 35 communities or reserves in Alberta estimated that a large majority of accidental and violent deaths (over 40 per cent) were directly or indirectly attributable to alcohol abuse. That is, four out of five deaths not due to natural causes were in part attributable to alcohol abuse (Jarvis and Boldt, 1980: 20).

Alcohol abuse occurs among all human populations, including those where its use is forbidden. Among indigenous populations alcohol abuse seems to be directly associated with the environmental and social-cultural context rather than due to any underlying biological or genetic susceptibility (Fisher, 1987: 81). As Kamien (1975a: 297) states about Bourke Aborigines:

Page 65 In this community, drinking was due more to group psychological

pressures rather than to individual psychological need. Because of this, any logical approach aimed at diminishing the alcohol problem needs to be community directed, and to influence the norms of peer groups rather than those of individuals. Heavy alcohol intake was a partially adaptive response to the life problems of Aborigines and until other available solutions are available to them, they will continue to drink in excess.

Thus, Aboriginal drinking habits, like those of other indigenous people, are tied to the general lack of employment, housing, education opportunities, proper health facilities, and general recreational outlets (see Perkins, 1976; Brody, 1977; Stratton, 1981; Fisher,

1987).