Beyond Mammography: Sovereignty and Relational Breast Care With Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women.

Abstract

Despite Australia's universal breast screening programs, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have lower screening participation rates and higher breast cancer mortality. Public health explanations focus on awareness of breast cancer risk and the accessibility of screening, yet these framings often overlook how biomedical screening practices assume a colonial anatomical lens of the body that does not align with Indigenous relational understandings of embodiment. Drawing on Indigenous scholarship, feminist body theory and trauma-aware care, this article argues that breast screening encounters can become sites where bodily sovereignty and biomedical surveillance intersect. Relational, culturally safe, healing-centred and sovereignty-affirming practices, supported by Indigenous-led initiatives, such as culturally designed screening shawls, can transform screening from a clinical encounter into health care that offers a therapeutic relationship built on trust, dignity and informed consent.