Torres Strait Islander Children Research Articles

POSTCOLONIAL TRAUMA: THE CONTEMPORARY REMOVAL OF INDIGENOUS CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE FROM THEIR FAMILIES IN AUSTRALIA

The removal of Indigenous children from their families within contemporary Australia is considered by way of both child protection and juvenile justice interventions and within the context of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families. In particular, the article considers the findings and recommendations of the Inquiry in relation to contemporary removals and Government responses to those recommendations.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle is about self determination

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle has been the policy guiding the placement of indigenous children in most Australian child protection jurisdictions for around fifteen years. The Principle requires the involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community representatives in decision making concerning indigenous children, and ensuring that alternative care placements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander careproviders.Most Jurisdictions still have a significant number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children placed with non-indigenous careproviders, and community based Aboriginal and Islander child care agencies continue to express dissatisfaction about the nature and level of consultation which occurs when welfare departments are taking action to protect indigenous children.This paper, which was presented at the IFCO conference in Melbourne in July 1999, examines why there has been such limited improvement in Child Placement Principle outcomes. Work undertaken in Queensland to address the over representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child protection system will be outlined from both a departmental and community perspective. The paper argues that if strategies for addressing these issues are not located within a framework of self determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, then they will not work.

Ways of Seeing: Changing Directions in the Health of Indigenous Populations

Nearly a decade ago (1988) Australians celebrated the bicentennial of British settlement in New South Wales. Indigenous Australians, despite their small numbers, were prominent at that time - not, however, in celebration, but protest. Rather than joining the self-congratulatory activities of the mainstream, they drew attention to the continuing disadvantage of indigenous populations, bleakly emphasized at that time by the emerging findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1991). That report documented profound social disadvantage and its physical and emotional consequences. Few of those findings were new then and, sadly, little has changed since. Australians are now trying to digest the findings of another major investigation, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families (1997). Perhaps the cumulative weight of reports and recommendations will ultimately tell. In this article changing non-indigenous constructions of Aboriginal Australians over the last half-century and the volatile contemporary political arena are explored. Using the concept of social capital, the consequences of colonization for indigenous societies is explored. The implications of this analysis for a public health approach to addressing problems of indigenous social and emotional well-being in Australia are presented, with reflection on the roles of mental health clinicians.

Child protection policy and practice in relation to aboriginal and torres strait Islander children in Queensland in the 1990s

The National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families has again focused attention on the effectiveness and appropriateness of child protection responses for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. The over representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children on child protection orders, and high rates of out-of-home placements with non-indigenous care providers, are features of all Australian child welfare jurisdictions. Despite attention to these issues since the early 1980s when the Child Placement Principle was introduced real change has been difficult to achieve. This paper overviews developments in child protection policy and practice in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Queensland in the 1990s.

Aboriginal reconciliation: a role for psychiatrists?

Australian Aboriginal people are marginalised, severely disadvantaged and subject to discrimination. The Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families has focused international attention on their plight. However, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and the High Court Mabo decision provide avenues for change. This paper asks: is there a role for psychiatrists in the reconciliation process?

Commentary: Empirically Validated Treatments and Child Clinical Interventions

This commentary argues that empirically validated treatments for child and youth behaviour and emotional difficulties are available, but they are relatively inaccessible to the vast majority of Australian children and their families. Although effective interventions have been developed, few children receive these services. There are many children who have identifiable problems or who are at increased risk for psychosocial problems whose needs have not been adequately addressed by either the research or the professional community. These include children in rural and remote areas, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children of migrants, and children with chronic physical illnesses. A comprehensive, preventively focused clinical science of prevention is needed to improve the reach and impact of psychological services for children.

Hearing screening for school children with otitis media using otoacoustic emission measures

This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using a technique other than pure-tone screening audiometry for the identification of slight or greater hearing loss in an urban population of indigenous Australian primary school children. Indigenous children have a higher prevalence of conductive hearing loss, associated with otitis media, than non-indigenous children in the same schools. Transient otoacoustic emission procedures were used as an alternative identification technique to pure tone screening audiometry. The otoacoustic emission results were compared with pure tone audiometry findings for the 150 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children involved in the study. Comparison was made with pure tone audiometry for otoacoustic emission screening accuracy (in determining hearing loss >15 dB HL average) and also test practicality in urban school environments. Transient otoacoustic emission recording was found to show potential as a means of identifying slight or greater levels of hearing loss in a school environment. Test time was typically brief (less than 2 minutes per ear) and child acceptance of the otoacoustic emission procedure was good. Screening accuracy varied greatly with pass/fail criterion used, ranging from 16.2% to 83.8% sensitivity and from 20.7% to 93.1% specificity. With further development, transient otoacoustic emission screening techniques may reach a level of accuracy where such a procedure could be used as an alternative to traditional pure tone audiometric screening.

Providing An Ideal Environment For Our Children: A Personal View.

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Tarumbal Kindergarten/Preschool in Rockhampton. It is a kindergarten that enrols young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. A few of the children that attend the centre are related and this makes it feel like a big family. I observed and interacted with the children once a week for four weeks. In that short time the children grew to like me and accept me into their group. I felt that I was treated as a part of their extended family.

Torres Strait Islander Students in Queensland Mainland Schools

This article is the second of a two-part series on Torres Strait Islander children whose families have settled on the Queensland mainland. Here I discuss some of the language difficulties of these children. The first part, dealing with their language backgrounds, appeared in Vol.12 No.3, June/July 1984.

Torres Strait Islander Students in Queensland Mainland Schools – Part 1 – Language Background

(This is the first of two articles, based on a paper delivered at the 1982 conference of the Applied Linguistic Association of Australia, entitled: “Language maintenance among Torres Strait Islanders living on the Australian mainland.” It deals with the language backgrounds of most Torres Strait Islander children attending mainstream Queensland schools. The second part, which will appear in the next issue, discusses some of the language difficulties experienced in the classroom by many of these children).