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The impact of culture on interpreter behaviour 225

tients. Given the backdrop of such disparities, interpreters are often the only individ-
uals in a position to recognize a problem and advocate on behalf of an individual
patient. However, the Patient Advocate role must remain an optional role for
each individual healthcare interpreter in light of the high skill level required
and the potential risk to both patient and interpreter. [bold in original]
California Healthcare Interpreters Association (2002: 45)
Kaufert (1999) reports that Aboriginal language interpretation programmes in
Canada vary in their official commitment to interpreters acting as advocates.
However, he maintains that the interpreters in his study frequently worked in-
formally as mediators, using their power as gatekeepers over the exact content
of the message conveyed, and that sometimes they adopted a clear advocacy
role. For example, he reports that many health professionals showed discomfort
with the extended process of family decision-making that Aboriginal patients
typically prefer, and thus tended to offer only a limited range of palliative care
options. In these situations, the interpreters stepped into an advocacy role, tell-
ing patients that they had the right to make informed choices about the type of
care they wanted to receive and explaining that they could refuse or delay treat-
ment. The interpreters’ involvement in mediation under these conditions was
regulated, however, by their own professional code of ethics, which demanded
objectivity and neutrality in the translation of messages.

3. Using untrained interpreters

Many guidelines on the use of interpreters (e.g. the guidelines produced by The
Office of Ethnic Affairs, Te Tari Matawaka, New Zealand) recommend strongly
that only trained interpreters should be used, and warn of the risks of using un-
trained interpreters. Nevertheless, in practice, and especially in less formal situ-
ations of intercultural contact, people who are more or less bilingual in the lan-
guages involved frequently take up the role of interpreter. This section explores
some of the hazards (as well as some of the advantages) associated with this
practice that relate to cultural factors.

3.1. Relatives as interpreters

In much public service or community interpreting, a family member takes on
the role of interpreter. Sometimes this can work well, and it is what the family
wants. For example, in the case (reported in section 1.1) of the 72-year-old Abo-
riginal man with urinary tract problems, Kaufert (1999: 418) reports that after
he was found to have cancer, the man’s son insisted on acting as the interpreter.
When the official interpreter started to convey the diagnosis to the patient, the
son immediately interrupted and would not allow him to continue. He explained