‘That's the bloodline’: Does Kinship and care translate to Kinship care?

Abstract

Kinship for First Nations people is a fundamental, yet complex, element of one's culture, enabling both belonging and relationality, and extending beyond blood family and relations. Kinship is also recognized as important within out‐of‐home care (OOHC) systems, with kinship care being the predominant OOHC placement type in Australia (AIHW, 2021). However, when First Nations children and young people are removed by the state, and placed into OOHC, it is important to interrogate whether kinship placements enable cultural connection and continuity with First Nations ways of understanding Kinship. This article begins by contextualising current OOHC policy and practice in Australia where a westernised and homogenised concept of kinship care is touted as similar to First Nations notions of Kinship. Here, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP) has become oversimplified by equating kinship care with relative care, thus creating ambiguity in care and placements in OOHC, voiding First Nations traditions and ways of understanding Kinship while a young person is in care. This article then reports the findings of qualitative interviews with 37 First Nations and non‐Indigenous people concerning the use of the term ‘Kinship’ in OOHC in New South Wales (NSW), how it is operationalised and how it is understood. Wide‐ranging experiences by participants concerning Kinship within OOHC were evident, thus demonstrating the imperative for a broader understanding of Kinship. This understanding needs to be applied within OOHC in ways that are consistent with First Nations notions of Kinship, as kinship care placements on their own are not enough to keep children connected in culture. The findings from this study show that the term Kinship is applied problematically within OOHC in NSW by equating legal and policy definitions of kinship care with Aboriginal ways of understanding Kinship. Ensuring First Nations traditions, practices and notions of Kinship are applied for First Nations children and young people in OOHC contexts is paramount.

Journeys of culturally connecting: Aboriginal young people's experiences of cultural connection in and beyond out‐of‐home care

“…The increasing overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in OOHC, where placement may be away from their Indigenous families (AIHW, 2022; Liddle et al, 2022), poses a threat to cultural connection. Although kinship care is the most common form of OOHC placement, kinship care includes placement with non‐Indigenous family members (AIHW, 2021; Beaufils, 2022). In this research, all young people interviewed who lived in kinship care were placed with non‐Indigenous kinship carers.…”

“…'Deep culture' is learned via immersion in a particular cultural milieu, where children learn complex aspects of culture, such as Aboriginal relationality (see Graham, 2014) (AIHW, 2021;Beaufils, 2022). In this research, all young people interviewed who lived in kinship care were placed with non-Indigenous kinship carers.…”

“It's Self‐Determination. Blackfullas Making Right Decisions for Blackfullas”: Why Indigenous‐owned businesses create better Indigenous employment outcomes

“…This approach does not suit some research contexts, as it infers that an objective reality can be drawn from qualitative data, ignoring the historical, social and situational conditions in which the research is located in (such as may be identified within a literature review), and similarly ignoring the role of the researcher/researchers and their influence on the research (Charmaz, 2017). CGT (and grounded theory more broadly) has been utilised within several Indigenous research contexts and in conjunction with Indigenous research methodologies (Bainbridge et al, 2013;Beaufils, 2022;Quinn, 2022;Wilson et al, 2022). CGT is utilised to coconstruct a theory with participants through their data, whilst still acknowledging that the development of the research and the undertaking of the analysis is still carried out by the researcher (who is informed by their own perspectives and biases; Charmaz, 2006;Chun Tie et al, 2019;Metelski et al, 2021).…”

In Loco Parentis: Informal Kinship Care in Australia—Social Benefit and Material Poverty

“…Indigenous children are 12 times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children [3]. A key concern for Aboriginal communities is the frequency with which Aboriginal children are placed in non-Aboriginal protective care arrangements designated as kinship care that are not consistent with Aboriginal understandings of kin, and the attendant risk of children's alienation from family and culture [4].…”