Keeping Them Home: Aboriginal Out-of-Home Care in Australia

Abstract

The issue of Aboriginal out-of-home care is one fraught with difficulty given the divergent perspectives on the problems associated with Aboriginal child welfare and wide-ranging opinions on their cause and effect depending on one's point of view. This article focuses on a particular analysis of Aboriginal out-of-home care in Australia rather than on child welfare generally. Its purpose is to highlight the complexity of the issues involved and, more importantly, to articulate the Aboriginal perspective on these issues. It does so from both a theoretical and practice perspective as one of the authors (BV) has a practice background in outof-home care spanning 30 years, including working with Aboriginal families, communities, and organisations. From an Aboriginal perspective, the Australian legal system is unequal, racist, and culturally biased such that the present Aboriginal care and protection system will not change until broader issues of Aboriginal trauma, dispossession, racism, and disadvantage are addressed.While one might question whether the number of Aboriginal children in the care and protection system and in out-of-home care is related to these issues, it is nevertheless true that Aboriginal children are over-represented in the care system. As of June 30, 2004, the number of children aged 0 to 17 years in care Australia-wide was 21,795. Of this number, 5,059 or 23.2% of these children were Aboriginal, and 16,736 or 76.8% were non-Aboriginal. In considering the number of Aboriginal children whose placements conform to the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle (ACPP), data was only available for 2,553 Aboriginal children as figures for New South Wales (NSW) were not available.

The over‐representation of indigenous children in the Australian child welfare system

“…The Child Placement Principle is routinely not followed. The number of indigenous carers is seen as the source of this problem, rather than other factors such as the large numbers of children being removed from home, inadequate resources, and the ever-tightening regulatory framework for out-of-home care (Tilbury, 2007;Valentine & Gray, 2006). In a similar vein, workforce development initiatives such as employing indigenous staff and cultural awareness training for non-indigenous staff are no doubt essential, but they are tangential to addressing a problem of this scale.…”

“…Yet indigenous agencies remain a relatively minor part of the child welfare service response, certainly compared with the numbers of indigenous clients. They are few in number and receive low levels of funding (Valentine & Gray, 2006). Despite the policy rhetoric about consultation and partnerships, in practice indigenous agencies have very limited powers in relation to decision-making.…”

Cultural Worldviews of Foster Parents

“…Matching language between foster children and foster parents has received some attention in the child welfare literature (Schwartz, 2007). However, in language-matched placements there are likely to be differences in the use of specific expressions, or in pronunciation and intonation that express meaning that may not be readily understood by the recipient (Hand, 2006;Smith & Devore, 2004;Trocmé, Knoke, & Blackstock, 2004;Valentine & Gray, 2006). These subtleties have not been studied to determine their nature or frequency yet are known to be multiple differences between dialects and systems of meaning within the same-language families (Dickason, 1993).…”

“…Religiosity has been the focus of some research in foster care (Scott, Munson, McMillen, & Ollie, 2006;Valentine & Gray, 2006). Caregivers who were introduced to fostering through religious affiliations report higher levels of satisfaction in their role than those who were introduced by family or other personal connections (Cox, Buehler, & Orme, 2002).…”

“…There were also references to organized religion. There is reference in the literature to religious observances in foster care for reasons to enter the fostering role, self-care, and activities engaged in as a family (Scott et al, 2006;Valentine & Gray, 2006). However, there is little attention to the content of the values, beliefs, and traditions associated with religious participation or the meaning of participation itself.…”