The question of genocide and Indigenous child removal: the colonial Australian context

Robinson, Shirleene; Paten, Jessica

doi:10.1080/14623520802447818

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…For example, many professionally qualified social workers were not in the labor market because women employed in the public sector then (and most professionally qualified social workers were women) were routinely required to resign upon marriage or upon having children (Napier & George, 2001). It was also a state predicated on the systematic dispossession and exploitation of Indigenous Australians, with a Constitution expressly denying them politico-legal franchise (Bird, 1997; Robinson, 2013; Robinson & Paten, 2008). Indigenous peoples may have largely been a distant concern for most White Australians at that time.…”

Section: Discussion and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indigenous children were routinely taken since the early years of frontier expansion and warfare. However, the taking of Indigenous children became widespread as various colonies sanctioned the practice in the name of protecting the children, granting authority to church workers and state welfare officers, including qualified social workers (HREOC, 1997; Robinson, 2013; Robinson & Paten, 2008). In Queensland, an 1865 legislation essentially designated Aboriginality as constituting child neglect and made it a sufficient ground for the removal of Indigenous children (O’Connor, 1993; Robinson & Paten, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interrogating social work: Australian Social Work and the Stolen Generations

2018

Journal of Social Work

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Summary In the context of Australian social work’s “past complicity” in the disadvantaging of Indigenous Australians , this study examined what was said in the journal of the Australian Association of Social Workers about the taking of Indigenous children and the challenges confronting Indigenous Australians during the last two decades of the policies and practices that created what has since been known as the Stolen Generations. A content analysis was undertaken of 23 years of articles in the journal Australian Social Work between 1948 and 1970, the period roughly representing the first two decades of the journal’s publication and the last two decades of what was by then a time-honored practice that shaped the lives of thousands of Indigenous children and their families. Findings The study found that very little was said in the journal about the practice in question. Of the 331 articles in the journal within the period, only one article expressly touched on the care of Indigenous children beyond their biological family and community and only one article advanced a critique of the taking of Indigenous children. A landmark change in the constitution affecting all Indigenous Australians came and went without mention. Thus, some of the most important issues affecting the welfare and rights of Indigenous Australians were largely ignored in the professional journal. Applications It is argued that the findings in this study can inform a critical understanding of contemporary social work in different parts of the world.

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Section: Discussion and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interrogating social work: Australian Social Work and the Stolen Generations

2018

Journal of Social Work

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“…Colonising Western researchers’ perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and culture documented their research subjects as specimens and defined First Nations Peoples as less intelligent whilst using biased, ethnocentric methods that produced invalid results and scarring racial stereotypes [ 95 ]. With a powerful and privileged outlook [ 95 ] and predicated on racial separatism, scientific racism of the late nineteenth century [ 52 ] continues to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples good reason to remain vigilant of research and researchers alike today and into the future [ 95 ].…”

Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

Release of the National Scheme's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy 2020‐2025; the impacts for podiatry in Australia: a commentary

Gerrard

Godwin

Chuter

et al. 2021

Journal of Foot and Ankle Research

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Background Developing since colonisation, Australia’s healthcare system has dismissed an ongoing and successful First Nations health paradigm in place for 60,000 years. From Captain James Cook documenting ‘very old’ First Nations Peoples being ‘far more happier than we Europeans’ and Governor Arthur Phillip naming Manly in admiration of the physical health of Gadigal men of the Eora Nation, to anthropologist Daisy Bates’ observation of First Nations Peoples living ‘into their eighties’ and having a higher life expectancy than Europeans; our healthcare system’s shameful cultural safety deficit has allowed for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child born in Australia today to expect to live 9 years less than a non-Indigenous child. Disproportionately negative healthcare outcomes including early onset diabetes-related foot disease and high rates of lower limb amputation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples contribute to this gross inequity. Main body In 2020, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority released the National Scheme’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy 2020–2025 - empowering all registered health practitioners within Australia to provide health care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples that is inclusive, respectful and safe, as judged by the recipient of care. This recently released strategy is critically important to the podiatry profession in Australia. As clinicians, researchers and educators we have a collective responsibility to engage with this strategy of cultural safety. This commentary defines cultural safety for podiatry and outlines the components of the strategy in the context of our profession. Discussion considers the impact of the strategy on podiatry. It identifies mechanisms for podiatrists in all settings to facilitate safer practice, thereby advancing healthcare to produce more equitable outcomes. Conclusion Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples access health services more frequently and have better health outcomes where provision of care is culturally safe. By engaging with the National Scheme’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy, all registered podiatrists in Australia can contribute to achieving equity in health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

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“…A child born to an Aboriginal mother could be sentenced to a reformatory as a neglected child on that basis alone (Queensland, 1865: 6). This provision made the Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act the first piece of legislation in Australia which allowed for the removal of Aboriginal children based only on their Aboriginality (Robinson and Paten, 2008: 508). In this context, where Aboriginal children were necessarily neglected children under the governing legislation, their low representation among the ranks of reformatory boys demands explanation.…”

Section: Race and Reformatory Admissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reformatory schools and Whiteness in danger: An Australian case

Carden

2018

Childhood

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The Queensland Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act (1865) provided for the creation of a system of reformatory and industrial schools. This paper explores the early years of the reformatory for boys. The Act defined Aboriginal children as 'neglected' and eligible to be sent to this institution. However, of the first thousand children admitted, all but thirty-three were white. This paper explains this contradiction by positioning the reformatory as a space in which fears about the fragility of whiteness were enacted.

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The question of genocide and Indigenous child removal: the colonial Australian context

Cited by 13 publications

References 6 publications

Interrogating social work: Australian Social Work and the Stolen Generations

Interrogating social work: Australian Social Work and the Stolen Generations

Release of the National Scheme's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy 2020‐2025; the impacts for podiatry in Australia: a commentary

Reformatory schools and Whiteness in danger: An Australian case

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