Kym
Kilroy is an Aboriginal woman of the Badtjala Clan from the Fraser
Island area of Queensland. As a young child Kym was a State Ward
and grew up in St Vincent’s Orphanage at Nudgee. Kym has
worked in Aboriginal community service areas for many years and
recently was employed as the Indigenous Cadetship Coordinator for
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations at the Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of
Queensland.
In
2003 Kym graduated from the Centre for Indigenous Health at the
University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Applied Health Science
Degree, majoring in Indigenous Primary Healthcare. As part of her
studies Kym completed a research project that described the
compliance rates for Indigenous Australian children accessing
service providers for immunisation. This study identified that
Indigenous mothers' fears of having their children removed by
government agencies was a significant factor in their refusal to
access immunisation service providers in the Brisbane
area.
This project was very successful and produced information that
was valuable for Indigenous health service providers in the
Brisbane area. Kym is committed to working in the Indigenous health
area and believes that there is a great need for research that
identifies and addresses the deep personal and social impact that
the removal of Indigenous children has had on their families and
communities.
Abstract
The Bringing Them Home Report found that most
families had been affected, in one or more generations, by
government policies and laws requiring the separation of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander children from their
families.
Families and
sometimes whole communities would be relocated to isolated reserves
and would not be allowed to leave without permission.
Children would be taught basic literacy, gardening and farming, and
would become part of a domestic and manual labour force, before
returning to the mission or reserve to marry.
The bonds of family were broken
early. On the government run reserves and church run
missions, children were removed from their parents’ care at a
young age and placed in segregated dormitory accommodation.
Brothers and sisters were not only separated from their parents,
but also from each other. The care of Aboriginal children in
these institutional environments did not measure up to the
standards of care in government run orphanages.
Since 1970 removals have continued at an
alarming rate. This is now referred to as
“out-of-home-care”. In Australia, child
protection is the responsibility of the community services
departments in the eight states and territories. Because of this,
there are eight separate jurisdictions, each with their own
distinct legislations, policies and practices in relation to child
protection services. While the mission of the departments are
similar, namely keeping children safe and assisting families to
function during difficult times, the way they go about it can be
quite different. These differences impact on the data and make
comparisons across the jurisdictions, and across time,
problematic.
As at 30 June 2006, 27.0 per 1,000 Indigenous children were
subject to protective orders, in comparison with 5.2 per 1,000
non-Indigenous children.
The rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
entering the child protection system are higher than the rates for
other children. In Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
children and young people (aged 0 -17 Years) make up 6.3 per cent
of Queensland's children and young people yet they account for 26
per cent of all children and young people in the care of
Queensland's Department of Child Safety.
Of particular note are the significant and growing numbers of
Indigenous children who are subject to guardianship and custody
orders. The key question this raises is how many of these children
have been removed and placed in “out-of-home” care.
Research Aims and
Questions
Questions:
- Why are our Indigenous children still being
removed?
- What effect has this had on
Indigenous Families in Brisbane?
Aims:
THIS STUDY WILL research the social determinants of Indigenous
health and the mental health factors in personal and community
wellbeing in relation to the Removal of Indigenous Children from
the family unit. The primary focus areas for research will
be:
Objectives:
- Post – Traumatic Stress: identification
of the broader impact of child removal events and the factors that
inform the fear of removal in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
families living in urban Brisbane. The effect of this trauma
and fear on individual and family well being.
- To gain an understanding of Cross Generational
Trauma: the ways in which child removal events resonate
across generations and descriptions of the influence these events
have on the behaviour, attitudes and well being of families over
time.
- Narratives of Denial: how policy and practice
ignore, and how individuals, families and communities
cope/protect.
Methodology
In conducting my research I will utilize “Mixed
Methods” using quantitative, qualitative, narrative, and
ethnographic research methods.
My targeted population from the wider Brisbane Area this will
include any Indigenous Carers (with Indigenous Children in their
care past and present). Service Providers (current and passed) who
want to tell their stories about the removal of Indigenous children
from within the family unit. My focus group are the Stolen
Generations Healing Group and any stolen generation persons who
want to share their life history story.
I will also talk with Indigenous and non-Indigenous -key
informants from Department of Child Safety, Department of Families
and Communities let them tell their stories on Indigenous removals,
placements, reunification, intervention programs, what works, or
what’s wrong with it.
Back to
student profiles
|
