Associate Professor Daniela Heil
Associate Professor
School of Humanities, Creative Ind and Social Sci (Sociology and Anthropology)
- Email:daniela.heil@newcastle.edu.au
- Phone:(02) 4921 6790
Mediating cultural differences
Dr Daniela Heil's anthropological expertise is helping to understand the impact of cultural differences on the health of indigenous communities.
Dr Daniela Heil first started working with an Aboriginal community in Central Western NSW in 1997 as part of her PhD-related anthropological fieldwork and since then has developed lifelong relationships with Indigenous communities and people.
Her strong connection has given her great insight into why the health system is letting down Aboriginal people.
"Often non-Aboriginal policy makers refer to the way health care providers should behave in terms of 'cultural appropriateness', but this term has been coined from a non-Indigenous perspective," Dr Heil said.
"Instead Aboriginal people judge healthcare in terms of 'cultural safety'. They place a greater emphasis on what they have experienced over time, how they feel and how their feelings are addressed," she said.
With health statistics showing poor outcomes for Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders, including life expectancies of up to 15 years below those of non-Indigenous Australians, Heil's work has illustrated that such cultural differences are major factors in explaining why mainstream health interventions are not embraced by Aboriginal peoples in the same ways.
Heil, a researcher from the Faculty of Education and Arts, has built on her PhD research to address the question of whether the distinctive characteristics of Indigenous cultures can be successfully accommodated in health policy and practice, in Indigenous peoples' terms.
Her work, which has been published in the British Social Science and Medicine Journal, titled "Conceptualizing "risk taking" in Australian Aboriginal health" looks at discrepancies between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspective on health and wellbeing.
"Health providers need to look at Aboriginal perspectives in terms of what do they want and why they resist culturally appropriate terminology. They also need to look at risk management with patients – how health providers talk about risk and consider from the Aboriginal perspective what it means to do risky things," Dr Heil said.
Dr Heil says it's not that Indigenous people don't care about their health; it's just that they place a greater importance on others so putting their health first can end up contradicting their cultural values.
"If their doctors says 'you must take your medication – it's your priority', that order might contradict ten other social obligations that are their priority in culturally oriented terms. That is, for Aboriginal Australians greater emphasis is placed on responsibilities for family, so if they are seen to be putting their individual selves first, it's about risking and jeopardising the social acceptance of their kin," Dr Heil said.
The outcomes of Dr Heil's work contribute to informing health care policy formation with a greater emphasis on extended family networks and considerations for the differing local issues in each Indigenous community.
"If someone gets five minutes of advice on how to be healthy and then goes home and can't incorporate that into their life, it makes no difference. I'm proposing if you take the time to explain health care issues in culturally safe ways, even though it might cost more to do it properly in the long run, it will actuallyhave a significant affect on Indigenous health outcomes," Dr Heil said.
As an interesting side project, since 2006 Dr Heil has studied a relatively new phenomenon where German parents use Ukraine surrogates to give birth to the biological children of the former.
"Couples fly to the Ukraine where egg and sperm are implanted into surrogates, who then give birth nine months later," she said. "As soon as the child is born the parents go to Germany, get a passport issued, the mother says that she gave birth to the child in the Ukraine, then they fly home."
"I'm interested in it in terms of legality. In Germany it's illegal because the surrogate gave birth – they don't accept that the biological mother has given birth. The German government is trying to deal with how to accept these children and it will have consequences later when the children decide to marry as they do not have a proper birth certificate to this point in time," Dr Heil said.
Dr Heil's work in this area will soon be featured in the Cambridge Anthropology journal.
Mediating cultural differences
Daniela Heil's anthropological expertise is helping to understand the impact of cultural differences on the health of indigenous communities.
Career Summary
Biography
Research Expertise
My research expertise is in social and medical anthropology. I have established a sound reputation in Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and well being research. My research expertise derives from, and works with, the conjunctures and disjunctures of Australian Indigenous practices and mainstream health approaches. The overall aim of my research has been to set up, develop, elaborate and maintain approaches that mediate national Indigenous health policy agendas with the socio-cultural differences of localised Indigenous knowledges, practices and understandings. To date, my anthropological fieldwork and related research have been situated in Australian Indigenous communities in New South Wales, Western Australia and the Torres Straits. Further research interests address gestational surrogacy experiences and practices.
Medical anthropology, Critical medical anthropology, Australian Aboriginal anthropology, Indigenous health and health policy, Anthropology of the body, personhood and self, Anthropology of health and well-being; gestational surrogacy, kinship and moral order.
Teaching Expertise
SOCA1020 Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology
SOCA2325 Cultural Worlds of Health and Illness
SOCA3315 Bodies in Cultural Perspective
SOCA3630 Drugs in Culture
SOCA4090 Honours I
SOCA4100 Honours II
SOCA6190 Gender and Social Change
SOCA6100 International Health: Critical Social Science Perspectives
Administrative Expertise
Sociology and Anthropology Honours Convenor: January 2010-June 2015
Research Ethics Advisor (REA), Arts and Social Science, Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC): March 2012-June 2014
Acting Deputy Chair, Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC): August 2013-June 2014
Progress and Appeals Committee, School of Humanities and Social Science Representative: January 2013-December 2014
Acting Program Convenor, Master of Social Change and Development: Sem 1, 2013; Sem 1, 2014, Sem 1, 2015
Program Convenor, Graduate Certificate of Social Change and Development & Master of Social Change and Development: 2016
Deputy Head of School, Teaching and Learning, HaSS: January 2016-present
Membership
Australian Anthropological Society (AAS, Fellow)
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)
American Anthropological Association (AAA)
European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)
Collaborations
with Professor Francoise Dussart, Anthropology, University of Connecticut, United States of America
Qualifications
- PhD, University of Sydney
Keywords
- Anthropology of the body and embodiment
- Assisted reproductive technologies
- Critical Medical Anthropology
- Gestational surrogacy
- Indigenous Anthropology
- Indigenous health and well-being
- Medical Anthropology
- Personhood, dividuality and social selves
- Policy in praxis
- Social Anthropology
Languages
- German (Mother)
- English (Fluent)
Fields of Research
Code | Description | Percentage |
---|---|---|
440107 | Social and cultural anthropology | 40 |
440106 | Medical anthropology | 40 |
450103 | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural history | 20 |
Professional Experience
UON Appointment
Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|
Associate Professor | University of Newcastle School of Humanities, Creative Ind and Social Sci Australia |
Awards
Recipient
Year | Award |
---|---|
2010 |
Inaugural Online Teacher of the Year Award (OTOYA) The University of Newcastle |
Invitations
Speaker
Year | Title / Rationale |
---|---|
2013 |
Body Politics and their Medicalization in Aboriginal Australia: Mobile Bodies Keep the Ngyiampaa Healthy? Organisation: CASCA Conference, University of Victoria, Department of Anthropology Description: Canadian Anthropological Society (CASCA) Conference, May 2013, Hamilton, Victoria B.C. |
Thesis Examinations
Year | Level | Discipline | Thesis |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | Masters | Social Sciences | Integrated in a Segregated Society: FASD and Disability in the Kimberley, Western Australia |
2014 | PHD | Social Sciences | Looking After: Affect and Relatedness among Contemporary Wiradjuri |
2013 | Masters | Social Sciences | Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalopathy: A Knowledge-Based Approach to an Indeterminate Illness |
Publications
For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.
Book (1 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2018 | Macdonald G, Nettheim A, Heil D, The Anthropology Companion, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, United Kingdom, 320 (2018) |
Chapter (6 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 |
Chenhall R, Senior K, Heil D, 'Medical anthropology', Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health, Springer, Switzerland (2023) [B1]
|
Nova | ||||||
2019 | Heil D, 'Well-being and Wellness', Second Opinion: An Introduction to Health Sociology, Oxford University Press, Melbourne 44-56 (2019) | |||||||
2015 | Evans G, Heil D, 'Fighting for the Heart, Soul and Future of Newcastle', Radical Newcastle, NewSouth, Sydney 285-293 (2015) [B1] | Nova | ||||||
2014 | Heil D, 'Well-being and wellness', Second Opinion: An Introduction to Health Sociology, Oxford, Melbourne 40-58 (2014) [B2] | Nova | ||||||
2012 | Heil D, 'Happiness in an Aboriginal Australian community: What it means 'to be well' and 'to enjoy life' in Central-Western New South Wales, Australia', Happiness Across Cultures: Views of Happiness and Quality of Life in Non-Western Cultures, Springer, Dordrecht 195-208 (2012) [B1] | Nova | ||||||
2009 |
Heil D, 'Embodied selves and social selves: Aboriginal well-being in rural New South Wales, Australia', Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective, Berghahn Books, New York 88-108 (2009) [B1]
|
Nova | ||||||
Show 3 more chapters |
Journal article (7 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022 |
Heil D, 'Gaynor Macdonald (1948 2022)', Oceania, 92 245-249 (2022)
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2017 | Heil D, 'Thai in Vitro', The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 28 385-387 (2017) | ||||
2016 | Heil D, 'Trapped in the gap: Doing good in indigenous Australia', Medical Anthropology Newsletter, (2016) | ||||
2015 |
Heil D, 'Sociological Social Work', International Journal of Social Welfare, 24 408-409 (2015) [C3]
|
||||
2008 |
Heil D, MacDonald G, ''Tomorrow comes when tomorrow comes': Managing Aboriginal health within an ontology of life-as-contingent', Oceania, 78 299-319 (2008) [C1]
|
Nova | |||
2007 | Heil D, 'Benelong's Haven: Recovety from alcohol and drug abuse within an Aboriginal Australian residential treatment centre', AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL STUDIES, 184-185 (2007) | ||||
Show 4 more journal articles |
Conference (19 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Heil D, 'Ngyiampaa Difference in Contemporary Australia: Responses to NSW state cultural awareness training sessions from Ngyiampaa perspectives', Ajaccio, Corsica, France (2022) | ||
2019 | Heil D, 'dOCUMENTA 13, Indigenous art, and collaborations', dOCUMENTA 13, Indigenous art, and collaborations, Vancouver (2019) | ||
2018 | Heil D, 'Revisiting Anthropological Imagination within the German Nation-State: Working with a Detour Via the Ukraine to Turn Assumed Illegal Matters Into Legal Ones', San Jose, California (2018) | ||
2011 | Heil D, 'The Social and the person, not the individual: Traces and legacies of Australian Aboriginal Ngyiampaa understandings of obligations to and responsiveness from 'the social'', Abstracts of the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Montreal, Quebec (2011) [E3] | ||
2010 | Heil D, ''Renting a womb': surrogacy in Ukraine and genetic parents from Germany', American Anthropological Association 2010 Annual Meeting Program and Abstracts, New Orleans, LA (2010) [E3] | ||
2009 | Heil D, ''Health' as a human right: Addressing Aboriginal understandings of 'well-being' in rural Australia through institutional approaches', AAA Annual Meeting Program, Philadelphia, PA (2009) [E3] | ||
2009 | Heil D, 'Mediating bureaucratic imperatives with Australian Indigenous understandings of well-being', Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Celebrating 50 Years of Interdisciplinarity: Conference Session Abstracts, New Haven (2009) [E3] | ||
Show 16 more conferences |
Other (1 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2018 | Heil D, 'Ngyiampaa Non-Compliance with Boring Medicare Cards', Ngyiampaa Non-Compliance with Boring Medicare Cards: Society for Medical Anthropology (2018) |
Grants and Funding
Summary
Number of grants | 5 |
---|---|
Total funding | $24,000 |
Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.
20211 grants / $15,000
Reimagining Quality of Life Post-COVID 19$15,000
Funding body: Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle
Funding body | Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Dr Hamed Hosseini (Lead); A/Prof Penny Buykx; A/Prof Daniela Heil; Dr Chris Krogh |
Scheme | Strategic Network and Pilot Project Grants Scheme |
Role | Investigator |
Funding Start | 2021 |
Funding Finish | 2021 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
20111 grants / $1,500
Traces, Tidemarks and Legacies (AAA2011), Montreal, QC, Canada, 16 - 20 Novemeber 2011$1,500
Funding body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Daniela Heil |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2011 |
Funding Finish | 2012 |
GNo | G1100747 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20101 grants / $1,500
Circulation, Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA,, 17 - 21 November 2010$1,500
Funding body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Daniela Heil |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2010 |
Funding Finish | 2011 |
GNo | G1000877 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20092 grants / $6,000
Caring to Close the Gap: Indigenous Health in Policy and Practice$5,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Daniela Heil |
Scheme | New Staff Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2009 |
Funding Finish | 2009 |
GNo | G0190607 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
The End/s of Anthropology, Philadelphia, USA, 2-6 December 2009$1,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Daniela Heil |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2009 |
Funding Finish | 2009 |
GNo | G0190331 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
Research Supervision
Number of supervisions
Current Supervision
Commenced | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2024 | Masters | How Does Place Inform Perspectives of Air Pollution in the Upper Hunter Valley? | M Philosophy (Sociol & Anthro), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2024 | PhD | Tracing Cultural Threads: An Anthropological Study of the Rohingya Community Diaspora in Bangladesh | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2019 | PhD | Exploring Social Epigenetics to Develop a Risk Assessment for Health Care Professionals | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | What Role Does Community Cultural Development Play in Developing a Connection with Cultural Identity and Sense of Place for (Urban) Indigenous Communities | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2016 | PhD | Psychiatric Encounters from Different Cultural Perspectives | PhD (Psychiatry), College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
Past Supervision
Year | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2024 | PhD | Technologies of Power and Subjectivities of Care in NSW Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Management | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2023 | PhD | Female Garment Workers (Non-) Understandings of Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Bangladesh | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2023 | PhD | Negotiating Migration, Labour Market Integration, Identities and Belongings: Skilled Vietnamese Migrants in Australia | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2023 | PhD | Social Protection Systems In-Sufficiently Protecting Children in Bangladesh | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2020 | PhD | Healing the Spirit: Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine in a Remote Australian Context | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2020 | PhD | Exploring Sexuality and Gender Diversity in Contemporary Australian Sex Education: A Transgender Perspective | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | (M)other Love: Cultural Difference and Gendered Practices in Queensland, Australia | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2016 | PhD | Beyond Resettlement as Refugee: Enduring and Emerging Dimensions of 'Displacement' as Cosmological Rupture for Central African Refugee Women | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2013 | PhD | A Sociological Investigation of Trust in Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2012 | PhD | Obesity is Killing our People: Social Constructions of Obesity and the Impact on the Health and Well-being of Maori and Pacific Island Migrants in Australia | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
News
News • 24 Mar 2015
Radical Newcastle launched at Newcastle Writers Festival
Watch talks by Newcastle radicals Vera Deacon, Professor John Maynard and Dr Daniela Heil, along with an official launch by Vice-Chancellor Professor Caroline McMillen of the Radical Newcastle book.
Associate Professor Daniela Heil
Position
Associate Professor
Sociology and Anthropology
School of Humanities, Creative Ind and Social Sci
College of Human and Social Futures
Focus area
Sociology and Anthropology
Contact Details
daniela.heil@newcastle.edu.au | |
Phone | (02) 4921 6790 |
Office
Room | SR136 |
---|---|
Building | Social Sciences-Building |
Location | Callaghan University Drive Callaghan, NSW 2308 Australia |