Indigenous Child Protection In Australia: Present Reality And The Way Forward

Common Types of Neglect and Abuse for Indigenous Children

Children from the aboriginal communities in Australia including those who hail from the Torres Strait Islands, tend to be over represented when it comes to both child protection as well as out of home protection and care in comparison to all the non indigenous children in the country. As argued by Bailey et al. (2016), the reasons behind this are quite complex in character, with many of these being connected to colonial legal and past policies. For Churchill and Fawcett (2016), intergenerational trauma, discrimination, assimilation policies, poverty as well as the forceful removal of children have all ended up contributing to over representation of Torres Strait Island children and aboriginal children when it comes to child protection and care services, as have the cultural differences in family structure and child rearing practices in Australia. The child protection authorities in the country as stated by Bailey et al. (2017), today will be asked to intervene only if children are at risk of any serious harm or danger or are currently being harmed by oppressive forces. This report identifies the present day reality for aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia by describing the common types of neglect and abuse prevalent among children from the aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities in Australia, discussing the way in which child maltreatment differs between non indigenous and indigenous children and by elaborating on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle and its limitations. The report also analyzes why aboriginal and Torres Strait Island children tend to be more neglected and subjugated when compared to white Australians, and, concludes with a discussion on where this reality headed by mentioning the steps being taken by government and civil society to improve the child protection services for aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Correlations to the course content are identified in the process.

1.In order to carry out the research for this report on indigenous child protection in Australia, I read extensively on the indigenous led sources and grey literature in the form of reports, websites, peer-reviewed journal articles, peer-reviewed book chapters and books. Some of the keywords that I used to conduct by research were, “child protection in Australia,” “aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia and the current situation”, “laws on the protection of aboriginal children in Australia” etc. The aim of doing this research, was to identify the present reality for aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia, why their protection and care appears to be severely neglected when compared to other children in Australia and where exactly in this reality headed, that is, what is being done by the government and civil society to improve the situation. It is important to note in this respect that, since the indigenous led sources were rather hard to locate, in-depth research was carried out on the subject, which at times involved looking at references in certain reports or articles as well as examining the content of these reports and articles and also determining the appropriateness of the authors.

Differences in Child Maltreatment

2.

According to Dowell et al. (2018), there are four important types of child maltreatment that can be witnessed with regard to the aboriginal and Torres island strait children in Australia. These are sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional neglect as well as emotional abuse. Indigenous children living in Australia are seen to suffer from such forms of abuse on a regular basis with little or nothing being done to provide them with relief and comfort in their time of need. As argued by Funston and Herring (2016), the indigenous children are easy to victimize as they are not as conscious of their rights and privilege as children from the white Australian community and are therefore oppressed and subjugated very frequently.

According to Giffard et al. (2016), emotional abuse as well as neglect of the indigenous children refers to the failure on the part of parents and other adult members of the families to which these children belong, to care for them and provide for them in the manner that is desired. This includes the inability to provide them with the right amount of food that they need, in order to grow and develop like non indigenous children. In the view of Gillingham (2016), abuse takes place when the parents of these indigenous children or their care givers subject them to severe mental and emotional trauma, and make them feel fully responsible for the disadvantaged social and economic condition of their families.

Child maltreatment tends to be far more severe for the indigenous children in Australia than it is for children who hail from white Australian families. This is largely due to the fact that the indigenous children come from families that are socially and economically quite backward when it comes to their white Australian counterparts. The parents of indigenous children are often unable to give them the standard of life that white Australian children are provided by their parents, even for those who belong to a middle income background. Due to poverty and social inequality, parents tend to take out all their anger and their frustration on their children who consequently become victims of domestic violence. More often than not, incidents of domestic violence and abuse against indigenous children take place due to alcoholism in the family, which itself is triggered by adverse socio-economic situations like unemployment, lack of opportunities, denial of proper professional positions due to issues such as racism etc. Most of the indigenous children living in Australia are those who come from disadvantaged families and usually become a punching bag for their parents or care givers who end up torturing and abusing them to no end.

Limitations of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle

Since indigenous children living in Australia are not entirely aware of their rights and are also denied the privileges that are usually made available to white Australian children, they are not able to approach care givers or social workers with the confidence needed to resolve their terrible situations. While there are many non-profit organizations working actively to end violence meted out to children in prominent Australian cities and towns, the indigenous children are often unaware of such facilities and mechanisms and are not able to use these to their benefit in any way. The problem of racism is also something that keeps the indigenous children living in Australia from reaching out to care givers and helpers in their time of need. Racism is quite dominant in any parts of the country and indigenous children who suffer at the hands of their parents or immediate care givers feel that they are sure to be denied by white Australian social workers should they reach out to them and make their problem known. Hence for the most part, indigenous children who are victims of emotional and physical abuse at home tend to keep the trauma bottled up within themselves and do not end up sharing it with the concerned authorities to get the help they need. This is one of the major reasons why delinquency tends to be quite high among the indigenous children and young adults in Australia. They grow up in an environment that is devoid of care and affection, feel a natural hatred towards the white Australian community whom they find to be oppressive in character and consequently end up engaging in anti social activities because of the lack of proper guidance and care.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle is one that has really been endorsed in policy and legislation in all Australian territories and states. What is stated by this principle is the preferred placement order for any aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child removed from his or her family of birth will include the extended family of the child, the indigenous community to which the child belongs, carers who are aboriginal or from the Torres Strait Island and non-indigenous carers.

An important acknowledgement is provided by this principle in the sense that it agrees that all the previous policies caused suffering for aboriginal people and people from the Torres Island. The rights of people of the indigenous communities in Australia, to raise their young ones within their community, is also something that gets reflected in the principle.

Barriers to Effective Implementation

There are a number of important barriers that keep certain children belonging to the indigenous community in Australia from being placed with care givers in accordance with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Child Placement Principle (Kildea et al, 2016). These include the shortage of indigenous kinship and foster carers, poor identification as well as assessment of the carers and increasing over representation of the aboriginal children as well as children from the Torres Strait Island in statutory child protection systems in the country. The deficiencies in cultural care provision as well as deficiencies in connection to community and culture and the systemic and practice issues that affect operation of child care agencies working towards the welfare of the indigenous children also act as barriers to children being protected by the principle. Additional restrictions in this respect include the inconsistent quantification, monitoring and measuring of this principle across a wide range of jurisdictions and inconsistent support for and involvement of indigenous organizations and people when it comes to decision making matters with regard to child care

A major factor that is responsible for the principle not being implemented adequately enough is the dearth of indigenous kinship and care workers (Humpage, 2016). The recruitment as well as the retention of care givers is something that seems to be hugely problematic in sectors of both non indigenous as well as indigenous carers. There are of course a number of other important factors that play a role in preventing the child placement principle for aboriginal children and children from the Torres Strait Island from being implemented well enough (Lonne et al., 2015). These are carer burnout, mistrust and fear of child welfare systems in some indigenous families, inadequate methods for the identification of kinship relationships as well as for the assessment of carers, eligibility criteria that excludes some carers and the imbalance in youth dependency ratio owing to the very high numbers of the indigenous children to that of indigenous adults

In spite of the willingness that has been shown by people belonging to the aboriginal community and from the Torres Strait Island to provide care for children in need there is a reduced capacity on their part to do so because of the many different forms of disadvantage that are experienced by the indigenous people overall. When children are placed with caring families or care givers in accordance with the principle, there is also the possibility of them becoming disconnected entirely from their indigenous culture. Something like this is more than likely to happen if the indigenous people are placed in the care of a family or a care giver who comes from a non indigenous or white Australian background. Such a person will not belong to the same cultural group as that of the child and will not be able to raise the child with the cultural values that are intrinsic to the indigenous group that he or she was born into (Macvean et al., 2017).

Steps to Improve Child Protection Services

3.A few of the underlying causes behind the very poor outcome that is experienced by the aboriginal people and Torres Strait Island people and their dependent children, are the intergenerational effects of forceful removals and the cultural differences that exist between the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and the child protection agencies in Australia. This affects their understanding of indigenous child rearing practices and the legacy of cultural assimilation. Additionally, the forceful child removals from their families and parents, and past policies on child protection in Australia also have a role to play in aboriginal children suffering more than non-indigenous children (McDowall, 2016).

4.A national framework for the protection of children in Australia has been drawn up by the Australian government. The framework is to be implemented from 2009 to 2020. The aim of this framework is to bring about a reduction in the maltreatment of children belonging to all Australian communities but it specifically mentions the needs and the requirements of aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children (Tillbury, 2015). Public health initiatives form an important part of this framework and are directed towards improving the outcome for indigenous children by recognizing as well as promoting family, strengthening community and culture, and using community wide strategies for the addressing of specific risk factors like substance abuse and alcohol abuse and even domestic violence. A Third Party Action Plan has been drawn up for implementation between 2015 and 2018 for achieving the objectives of the framework with the focus area of the action plan being the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children as well as their families (Short, 2016). A sustained commitment is called upon, by the Third Party Action Plan. This commitment will ensure that all the five different domains of the child placement principle, namely, placement, prevention, participation, connection and partnership are applied when implementing actions and strategies across the other focus areas. A number of national campaigns have also been held aiming at the elimination of over-representation of indigenous children living in the out of home care facilities by the year 2040 (Raman et al., 2017).

There are many connections that exist between the literature that has been sourced and the course content on the indigenous child protection in Australia. This report has specifically focused on the types of neglect that indigenous children are subjected to, how the treatment of indigenous and non-indigenous children is seen to vary, and how the current laws on indigenous child protection in the county are inadequate for actually securing the rights, safety and wellbeing of the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The course content also highlights the vulnerability and the injustice that the indigenous people in Australia are subjected to and how efforts should be made on the part of government and civil society to help aboriginal people secure justice more easily, especially when it comes to protecting and caring for their children. The need for a national framework for protecting indigenous children is in the need of the hour and this need is highlighted well enough in both the course content and in this assignment.

Conclusion

Conclusion

While initiatives have been undertaken and are continuing to be taken in areas of legislation and policy, to improve the situation of indigenous children in Australia, more collaborative efforts are needed between the government and the civil society to achieve this end. Non-profit organizations need to come together with local government bodies and agencies to identify indigenous children in need of proper care and assistance and proceed to rehabilitate these child in the right homes and facilities where they can be raised in a caring and nurturing environment.

References

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Bailey, C., Powell, M., & Brubacher, S. P. (2017). The attrition of indigenous and non-indigenous child sexual abuse cases in two Australian jurisdictions. Psychology, public policy, and law, 23(2), 178.

Churchill, H., & Fawcett, B. (2016). Refocusing on early intervention and family support: A review of child welfare reforms in New South Wales, Australia. Social Policy and Society, 15(2), 303-316.

Dowell, C. M., Mejia, G. C., Preen, D. B., & Segal, L. (2018). Maternal incarceration, child protection, and infant mortality: A descriptive study of infant children of women prisoners in Western Australia. Health & justice, 6(1), 2.

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Humpage, L. (2016). Income management in New Zealand and Australia: Differently framed but similarly problematic for Indigenous peoples. Critical Social Policy, 36(4), 551-571

Kildea, S., Tracy, S., Sherwood, J., Magick-Dennis, F., & Barclay, L. M. (2016). Improving maternity services for Indigenous women in Australia: moving from policy to practice. Med J Aust, 205(8), 374-379.

Lonne, B., Featherstone, B., Gray, M., & Harries, M. (2015). Working ethically in child protection. Routledge.

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Raman, S., Ruston, S., Irwin, S., Tran, P., Hotton, P., & Thorne, S. (2017). Taking culture seriously: Can we improve the developmental health and well?being of Australian Aboriginal children in out?of?home care?. Child: care, health and development, 43(6), 899-905.

Short, D. (2016). Reconciliation and colonial power: Indigenous rights in Australia. Routledge.

Tillbury, C., Hughes, M., Bigby, C., & Osmond, J. (2015). Social work research in the child protection field in Australia. British journal of social work, 47(1), 256-274.