This paper discusses the experiences of parents receiving family reunification services because their children have been placed in child and youth care centres. The sample was purposively selected according to inclusion criteria. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and guided by participatory learning action techniques. The findings were valuable as existing challenges were mentioned, like the unavailability of designated social workers and lack of communication, which in the end affected family reunification. The value of support became evident as the parents expressed how support assisted them while their children were in care.

This article focuses on social work research with displaced families in the Western Cape, South Africa, who have experienced both the historical trauma of their slave past and the trauma of displacement during apartheid. In a similar context, aboriginal academic writers have found that initial studies of intergenerational trauma did not take into account the historical ordeal of colonialism which they believe has left its mark on aboriginal communities today. Intergenerational trauma has also been based on research with holocaust survivors. For this research paper, a postcolonial indigenous research paradigm was implemented owing to the colonial history of Cape Town. Collective narrative practice and participatory learning action techniques were used to decolonise the theoretical and methodological approach. Foucault’s counter-memories and counter-histories were applied to critically engage with the research findings to include the “unofficial” stories of slave descendants in social work discourse where these stories have largely been ignored.

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