First Taste History & Culture in Indigenous Alcohol Use

18 September 2008

Dr Maggie Brady and Professor Robin Room

This public lecture challenges some of the common beliefs that surround Indigenous Australians and the history of 'grog', by discussing the findings of the newly released publication First Taste: How Indigenous Australians Learned About Grog by Maggie Brady (published by the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation). This publication was released the morning before the lecture and is a series of six books. The series is designed to educate and empower Indigenous people on alcohol issues, to illuminate the influence of history and social learning on drinking behaviour, and to contribute to greater understanding and reconciliation between Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians.

Broad Topics: Arts and Social Sciences

Sub-topics: Behavioural & Cognitive Sciences, Indigenous Studies, Society & Culture

Areas: ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

Maggie Brady is a social anthropologist holding an ARC QEII Fellowship at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at ANU. She has researched and published widely on Aboriginal health, drug and alcohol use, reaching both academic and community-based audiences. Her publications include the first (and only) anthropological study of petrol sniffing (Heavy Metal, 1992), and the widely circulated community action manual The Grog Book (1998, 2005).

Robin Room is an Australian sociologist who worked for many years in alcohol and drug studies in the U.S., Canada, Norway and Sweden. Since 2006, he has been a Professor in the School of Population Health of the University of Melbourne and the Director of the AER Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre. He has worked on social, cultural and epidemiological studies of alcohol, drugs and gambling behaviour, and studies of social responses to alcohol and drug problems.