From Sorcery to Laboratory: Pandemics and Yanyuwa Experiences of Viral Vulnerability.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted renewed attention among health professionals, Aboriginal community leaders, and social scientists to the need for culturally responsive preventative health measures and strategies. This article, a collaborative effort, involving Yanyuwa families from the remote community of Borroloola and two anthropologists with whom Yanyuwa have long associations, tracks the story of pandemics from the perspective of Aboriginal people in the Gulf region of northern Australia. It specifically orients the discussion of the current predicament of 'viral vulnerability' in the wake of COVID-19, relative to other pandemics, including the Hong Kong flu in 1969 and the Spanish flu decades earlier in 1919.