The new removals: Aboriginal youth in the Queensland juvenile justice system

Abstract

The pattern and practices of dispossession and displacement of indigenous populations displayed similarities in lands subject to European settlement. Aboriginal people were displaced from their lands, with consequences for their economic, family, community and spiritual life. Dispossession was initially effected by military and civil force, followed by strategies to pacify the population and eradicate the culture. In both North America and Australia ... the displacement and centralisation of native populations reduced their economic capacity and led to dependence on public aid. Efforts to resocialise and assimilate the Abongines (typically as manual labourers) included breaking up families and communities, compulsory residential education and encouragement of religions missions. (Barsh, 1988: 95) Child welfare practices were a central strategy in the attempted eradication of traditional culture, and the 'resocialization' and assimilation of Aboriginal children. Throughout the colonized countries Aboriginal peoples have commenced reclaiming the stolen generations, recovering their histories and insisting that welfare workers and the welfare system accept some responsibility for the process and consequences of dispossession. Among other matters, they have fought for the implementation of the child placement principle (see, for example, Australian Law Reform

Risk and Resilience: Crime and Violence Prevention in Aboriginal Communities

“…This is entirely unsurprising given what is now known about the impact on children of the disruption of family and community supports (Developmental Crime Prevention Consortium, 1999b). It is also significant that this is not simply a past phenomenon as the practice continues in some areas where children are removed, for a range of reasons, for custody or care (O'Connor 1994). Moreover, there are many people whoare currently unable to trace their fathers or other family members because of the general ectopic nature of Aboriginal settlements (Corporal1997).…”

“Resetting the Relationship” in Indigenous Child Protection: Public Hope and Private Reality

“…Reports dealing with Aboriginal services emphasize poor outcomes in all areas of human services more broadly (Baldry, Green, and Thorpe 2006). Indigenous juvenile justice and adult incarceration rates remain disproportionately high, with the current generation of detained Indigenous juveniles being characterized as “the new removals” (Cunneen and White 2007; Muncie and Goldson 2006; O'Connor and Cameron 2002; O'Connor 1994). The statistics suggest that Aboriginal families continue to be torn apart, albeit through different institutional means, in response to children being assessed as abused, neglected, uncontrollable, or at risk.…”

A Review of Literature on the Involvement of Children from Indigenous Communities in Anglo Child Welfare Systems: 1973-2018

“…The literature included in this category focuses on the impacts of colonialism on Indigenous families and children. Some of this literature frames recent policies resulting in mass removal of Indigenous children from their families and communities as an extension of the cultural genocide enacted against Indigenous people through settler colonial policies and practices (Cross & Blackstock, 2012;Cunneen & Libesman, 2000;O'Connor, 1994;Richardson & Nelson, 2007). Discourse justifying the persistent state intervention in Indigenous communities include "for their own good" rhetoric and the importance of civilizing the "savage" and "deviant" "Native" (de Leeuw et al, 2010, p. 286;Landertinger, 2016, p. 1;Palmer & Cooke, 1996, p. 710).…”