Understanding the Experience and Outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children in Out-Of-Home Care During the Twentieth Century Culture
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Understanding the experience and outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care during the Twentieth Century culture 2018 Elizabeth Fernandez, Jung-Sook Lee and Patricia McNamara For further information: Professor Elizabeth Fernandez School of Social Sciences Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences UNSW Sydney, Sydney 2052 Australia [email protected] http://www.forgottenaustralians.unsw.edu.au/ © UNSW Sydney 2018 ISBN-13: 978-0-7334-3851-6 Suggested Citation: Fernandez, E., Lee, J. S., and McNamara, P. (2018). Understanding the experience and outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care during the Twentieth Century. Kensington: University of New South Wales. This study was funded by the Australian Research Council. The project administering organisation was The University of New South Wales. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The UNSW led project No child should grow up like Welfare Agencies; Alliance for Forgotten Australians; this focused on 20th century out-of-home care leavers Berry Street; Relationships Australia; Catholic Care and their long-term life experiences. Within the study, Broken Bay and Micah Projects. We are indebted to a cohort of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people our partners for their extraordinary leadership and were interviewed individually; some Aboriginal and unwavering commitment in supporting this research. Torres Strait Islander survivors of care participated in We would like to acknowledge research partners and all focus groups and many completed surveys. A number members of the CRG for extending their expertise and of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants providing critical commentary through all phases of the generously engaged in more than one form of data larger project. collection. The research team is indebted to these The research presented in this report was made participants. Their courage and generosity of spirit is possible by funding from the Australian Research manifest throughout this report, both in the re-visiting Council Linkage Grant. This support is gratefully of painful and traumatic childhood experiences and acknowledged. in the sharing of current life challenges arising from a childhood spent in out-of-home care. Their depth of Find and Connect services nationally, as well as Tuart knowledge and their perseverance in bringing their Place in Western Australia, efficiently facilitated the issues of concern into the public arena have enriched fieldwork by assisting in co-ordinating the researchers’ this research. We express our thanks and hope this visits, providing meeting spaces. I thank them for their research and its recommendations play some small part involvement and support. in their continuing efforts to achieve justice and redress. I would like to acknowledge Dr Jung-Sook Lee for her Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are collaboration on this research and for her expertise in advised that this report contains references to people the analysis and presentation of the quantitative data. who are no longer living. The report also presents direct narratives of trauma, neglect and abuse which will Thanks are due to the researchers Dr Hazel Blunden, almost certainly prove distressing to many readers. Dr Patricia McNamara who conducted interviews and focus groups across the country, and to Dr McNamara Approximately 25% of Critical Reference Group (CRG) who analysed the rich qualitative data to extract key membership comprised Aboriginal and Torres Strait themes and capture the voices of research participants, Islander representatives of key Aboriginal Community and to Szilvia Kovacs for formatting the manuscript with Controlled organisations and Aboriginal scholars. exceptional care. Aboriginal representatives were brought into the CRG by invitation. A designated Aboriginal subgroup of We express thanks to Melinda Jenner for the cover the CRG made significant contributions in developing design and layout. some of the research instruments and reviewing the draft research report, including development of Professor Elizabeth Fernandez recommendations from the findings. We are immensely School of Social Sciences grateful for their active and invaluable contribution. The University of New South Wales As members of the subcommittee of the Critical Reference Group Dr Tiffany McComsey (Kinchela Boys Home Corporation) and Dr Paul Gray (AbSec) provided advisory input at strategic points in the research. We are especially grateful to them for their valuable time, feedback and expertise at all stages of the preparation of this report. The wider research study ‘No Child Should Grow up Like This’ was accomplished in close collaboration with research partners: Association of Children’s PB i RESEARCH COLLABORATION Research Team Professor Elizabeth Fernandez Principal Researcher UNSW Sydney Dr Jung-Sook Lee Chief Investigator UNSW Sydney Professor Mark Courtney Chief Investigator University of Chicago Professor Mike Stein Chief Investigator University of York Dr Hazel Blunden Research Associate UNSW Sydney Dr Patricia McNamara Research Associate UNSW Sydney Szilvia Kovacs Research Assistant UNSW Sydney Paul-Auguste Cornefert Research Assistant UNSW Sydney Research Partners Association of Children’s Welfare Dr Wendy Foote Deputy Chief Executive Officer Agencies Inc. Dr Rebecca Gray Senior Manager, Research and Evaluation Relationships Australia Julian Pocock Director Public Policy and Advocacy Berry Street Victoria Team Leader, Find and Connect| Open Caroline Carroll Place, Support Service for Forgotten Alliance for Forgotten Australians Australians Stella Conroy Deputy Chief Executive Officer Families Australia Karyn Walsh Chief Executive Officer Micah Projects Inc. Dr Stephen Mondy Chief Operating Officer CatholicCare Broken Bay Indigenous Critical Reference Group Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Dr Tiffany McComsey Strategic Development Manager Corporation Julie Welsh Policy Officer, El and OOHC AbSec Executive Leader, Strategy, Policy and Dr Paul Gray AbSec Engagement Uncle Steve Williams NSW Aboriginal Delegate National Stolen Generation Alliance Terry Chenery Chief Executive Officer Link-Up NSW Lily Arthur Chair Origins NSW Clare Tilbury Professor Griffith University Debra Anne Hocking Lecturer University of Wollongong Nicola Atwool Associate Professor University of Otago Non-Indigenous Critical Reference Group NSW Department of Family and Maree Walk Deputy Secretary Community Services Deirdre Cheers Chief Executive Officer Barnardos Australia Former Child Migrant Patron of the David Hill CREATE Foundation CREATE Foundation Dr Margaret Humphries Director Child Migrants Trust Derek Moriarty President Old Fairbridgians Association, Molong Dr Joseph J. McDowall Executive Director (Research) CREATE Foundation Dr Daryl Higgins Deputy Director (Research) Australian Institute of Family Studies Dr Ilan Katz Professor Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Dr Judy Cashmore Professor University of Sydney Dr Paul Delfabbro Professor University of Adelaide ii iii FOREWORD It is hard to believe that it has been more than 20 years since the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, as we were then, delivered the foremost work to document the experiences of Australia’s Stolen Generations, the Bringing them Home Report. For the first time in the history of this nation, the voices and human rights abuses of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were laid bare for all to see. In a moment of national truth-telling, our country was forced to turn a mirror upon itself, to glean the horror of our forebears. Whilst we know that First Peoples were not alone in the experience of historical removals, unique to the Stolen Generations, is the extent to which their experience represented part of a broader policy agenda that sought to expunge us from history. This is the ugly truth. The testimony of members of the Stolen Generations as heard through the pages of Bringing them Home and now this report, are yet further evidence of survival in the face of enormous adversity. Every entry represents the experience of a parent or grandparent, a sibling and a child, whose innocence was lost to the annals of time but whose experiences live on in the lives of current and future generations of Australians. I wish to sincerely thank UNSW for their efforts in putting together this report, which offers an important addendum to the existing catalogue of voices presented through Bringing them Home, The Healing Foundation and the work of Stolen Generations organisations across the country. It is vital that our country continue to hear these stories and to grow our awareness of the life trajectories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as a result of historical policies of removal. We know all too well that these policies have had an enduring effect on the lives of our people. Whilst it is encouraging that our nation has seen fit to deliver a series of compensation schemes and a National Apology, we must continue to rise to meet the needs of an ageing and diverse Stolen Generations population. I pay tribute to those members of the Stolen Generations who contributed to this report and who continue to advocate for a better future for themselves and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across the country. It is through this truth telling that our people and our nation might begin to heal. June Oscar, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner ii iii CONTENTS SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Outcomes ...............................................................