Foster Homes for Aboriginal Children

Interrogating social work: Australian Social Work and the Stolen Generations

“…Since the practice of removing Indigenous children may have involved adoption and the use of foster families, foster care and adoption were terms used in enumerating potentially pertinent articles. A total of 10 articles primarily dealing with the topic of foster care were found, with only one—that of Gale (1968)—explicitly examining the subject in relation to Indigenous children. Smith (1963, p. 27) and Nock (1963, p. 36) made vague references to “colored” and “half-caste” children in discussing the difficulties in finding suitable foster parents without touching on the question of how such children ended up in need of foster care.…”

“…2–3) made mention of children of “non-European racial origin” and Vaughan (1967, p. 23) talked about the case of a child with “mixed racial background” in exploring the challenges of finding suitable adoptive families for “hard to place” children but there was no effort in both articles to detail the circumstances that led to the need for adoptive services. Of a total of 331 articles published during the period in review, only two articles—that of Gale (1968) and LeSueur (1970)—substantively (albeit not centrally) touched on issues involving Indigenous children who had been removed from their families. What was said about the removal of Indigenous children in these two articles?…”

“…In examining 50 years of articles on Indigenous and immigrant Australians in the professional journal and its predecessors, McMahon (2002) found that very little was published about social work practice with Indigenous Australians and that articles on Indigenous Australians tended to uncritically accept social policies. McMahon (2002) indicated, that in the first 50 years of the journal, there were only five articles that made mention of the Stolen Generations, with only one article, that of Gale (1968), appearing within the period of interest in this article. The study failed to include one other article—that of LeSueur (1970).…”

Writing diversity: ethnicity and race in Australian Social Work, 1947-1997

“…The 16 articles fall into three categories (see Table 1): seven provided research findings about Indigenous Australians (Carter et al 1970a; Gale 1966, 1968, 1970b; Gale & Wundersitz 1986; O’Connor 1993; and Williams 1971); two articles wrote about policy towards Indigenous Australians (McMahon 1997 and Tomlinson 1986) and seven articles emphasised social work practice with Indigenous Australians (Downing 1969; Jackson 1974; Webber 1978; McMahon 1990; Freedman & Stark 1993; Trevallion 1993 and Crawford 1997). It was not until 1969, 22 years after publication began, that the first publication dealing with practice, which, interestingly, urged a community organisation approach (Downing 1969), was published.…”

“…The practice articles tend to emphasise Indigenous self‐management and, in one case (Crawford 1997) land rights. The Stolen Generations were mentioned in five articles (Gale 1968; Tomlinson 1986; Freedman & Stark 1993; O’Connor 1993; McMahon 1997) and Indigenous people’s negative view of social workers/welfare workers is mentioned in four other articles (Carter et al 1970a; 1970b; Crawford 1997; Gale 1966). The process of Reconciliation was not mentioned at all.…”