Social Cohesion and Resilience in First Australian Family and Kinship Networks

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This article addresses the means by which First Australian family and kinship systems and cultural beliefs bring about social unity in their communities. It offers an exploration of the possible ways in which transnational advocates, researchers and policy-makers might better understand, identify and develop the positive aspects of family and kinship networks. In two short but representative case studies of resistance against enforced annexure of their land for development, it demonstrates how solid adherence to cultural values results in constructive social cohesion among First Australians communities. It puts forward a working model of family and kinship to demonstrate the ways in which communities circumvent the intersecting matrices of oppression and deal with ongoing struggle against the negative outcomes of colonisation and trans generational trauma. In highlighting the strengths of First Australian communities it emphasises three key positive intersecting forces with informed collaboration as a desired key outcome. It attends to family and kinship connections with Country as an embodiment of cultural continuity; it accounts for the strengthening bonds that are formed through identifying the importance of the family kinship systems that are active in First Australian communities and it establishes an understanding of the significance of maintaining the integrity of communication processes to ensure resilience. These inherent components of First Australian existence are considered vital to secure the systematic hardiness that is necessary to overcome the ongoing injustices of colonisation and must be understood to achieve better and more positive outcomes for First Australians in policy and research.