© John Miles/Getty ImagesThe Australian Psychological Society says researchers used ‘assessment techniques and procedures that have conveyed misleading and inaccurate messages about the abilities and capacities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’.
The Australian Psychological Society has made a formal apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for decades of mistreatment through exploitative and disrespectful practices that contributed to the erosion of Indigenous culture.
The apology, delivered by director of the society's board, Tim Carey, acknowledged exploitation of Indigenous people by psychological researchers and "inappropriate use of assessment techniques and procedures that have conveyed misleading and inaccurate messages about the abilities and capacities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people".
Carey, speaking at the Australian Psychological Society Congress in Melbourne on Thursday, said treatments were developed that "both implicitly and explicitly, dismissed the importance of culture in understanding and promoting social and emotional wellbeing".
Comment: This might be a valuable first step if the Australian Psychological Society worked with the government to make amends towards the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through action. But how does a government compensate for such an egregious decades long oppression?