Through this essay, the account of historical, cultural and social perspectives in support of wellbeing of children and families in Australia is taken into consideration. Lincoln and his family’s circumstances are used as reference to understand more about these contexts in relation to Indigenous people of Australia.
In the past, kids from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities were removed from their families on the name of civilisation that afterward led to “Stolen Generation”. The disastrous impact on emotional and mental conditions of kids from Stolen Generation has been conferred by Briskman (2015) who elucidate that the rights erosion of kids resulted in attrition of their self identification, spirituality and relational connection. “Bringing them Home” report by Wilkie (1997) discusses the national inquiry on aftermath experiences of Stolen Generation. Few erroneous acts were applied in the past by British colonizers in regard to forceful elimination of Indigenous people from their families. Throughout the second half of the last century, due to inadequacy of parenting skills, placing the influenced children into another care services was seen as the top key to deal with concerns like physical neglect, supervisory neglect, emotional neglect, educational neglect etc. Newton (2019). Nevertheless, a lot of evidence indicates about abuse and neglect among children in these institutional settings. Such form of practice led to significant rise of foster care as another option, Fernandez (2014) focuses. During 1960-1970, an increase in the requirement of reinstitution of such care emerged that led to constructive impact on foster care and policy makers started looking at different approach. Fernandez (2014) pointed out that Australian Government has taken diverse steps towards children’s wellbeing which include establishment of children courts and jurisdiction since last two decades. Literature provides information regarding consequences of past suffering among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families (Raphael, Swan & Martinek, 1998; Herring et al., 2013). Atkinson (2002) revealed that the loss and grief caused by colonisation created “intergenerational trauma”. As this is now recognized that child neglect and abuse is a crime, a special attention is given at all levels (primary, secondary and tertiary) of intervention.
Tilbury et al. (2017) conclude that a culturally competent performance is necessary within child welfare systems which comprise respectful engagement with Indigenous communities. Child protection organizations try to approach towards security of children and identify the damage which occurred in the past and can impact their present and future. In terms of cultural context, Aboriginal and Torrs Strait Islander families are more susceptible to abuse, mistreatment and harm. There are several factors which should be kept in mind when dealing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families due to past trauma and present impacts. Such people are suffering from large number of issue like poverty, unemployment, housing insecurity, neighbourhood disadvantage and inequity (Bynner, 2001). Such issues led to decline in cultural and neighbourhood support. These changes have led to elevated demand for family support and child protection services (Tilbury et al., 2007).
A huge number of factors play a part behind child abuse or neglect, predominantly amongst Indigenous group. These factors include domestic violence; prejudice about gender, marital status, age, race; accommodative unsteadiness; deprived neighbourhood; emotional imbalance; poverty; unemployment; marital relationship; lack of education; substance use and mental issues. Such factors favour ‘ecological theory’. According to Tilbury et al. (2007), this theory challenges the concept that a single factor is coupled with maltreatment and acknowledges other factors correlated with child abuse or neglect. In particular, the social life in remote regions is generally very restricted as people living there have a limited infrastructure. Such isolation is due to lack of opportunities, education and leisure activities that enhance the pace of violence in families. Moreover due to consistence collapse of projects designed for concentrating on incongruities among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, a gap is still present between remote areas and main stream services (Herring et al., 2012). In Neoliberal vision, the government has failed on the platform to tackle such issues. In this light, the government is encouraging the people to work hard in poverty and acquire something sufficient for individual demands (Harris, 2017) considering that there is growing demand for child protection and family support system
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