In and Against the State : Collaborative Social Work Research with Aboriginal Communities in Austral

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In and Against the State Collaborative Social
Work Research with Aboriginal Communities in
Australia
Presentation to JSWEC 2008, Homerton College,
Cambridge UK July 2008 by Liz Orr and Jim Walker
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• Introduction of presenters and session outline
• Acknowledgement and paying to respects to
  project participants their elders and ancestors
  past and present- the Palawa people of Tasmania.
  Also Marlene Burchill a Yorta Yorta woman and
  social worker and Wendy Warner an Aboriginal
  Family and Well Being teacher.
• Jim Walker is an Aboriginal man, descendent of
  the Yiman and Goreng Goreng peoples of Central
  Queensland. He has extensive experience in
  Indigenous Affairs as a senior manager within the
  Australian government.
• Liz Orr is a Social Worker from Melbourne
  Australia. She has 25 years experience working as
  a community activist researcher and educator.
• This is a story of social research advocacy
  practice by researchers and public servants

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Gday from Jim
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• Our strategy should not only be to confront
  Empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of
  oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art,
  our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our
  joy, our brilliance, our sheer restlessness- and
  our ability to tell our own stories. Stories
  that are different from the ones were being
  brainwashed to believe. Arundhati Roy The
  Ordinary Persons Guide to Empire 20047

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• Telling our own practice stories a small tale
  of collaboration to
• undertake community based consultation with
  Aboriginal
• communities
• Family Violence Action Plan and COAG trial in
  Tasmania
• Government agenda to abolish elected Aboriginal
  Councils
• The story to continue and complete participatory
  community action research consultation
• Collaboration between critical insider and
  community researcher- to engage community
• members/users as decision makers not merely
  informants.

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In and Against the State- working for change in
Indigenous Contexts within Australia?

• A Brief Overview of this presentation
• Diversity and Disadvantage of Aboriginal and
  Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) Australia.
  History of special treatment by all governments
  and institutions in Australia.
• 2. The project- a practice story of
  collaboration to engage Aboriginal community
  providers and members as decision makers not
  merely informants in the development of a
  Tasmanian Aboriginal Family Violence Action Plan
• 3. In and Against the State- relevance of the
  London-Edinburgh Weekend Return Group to
  anti-oppressive and radical social work research
  practice in Australia

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Map of Aboriginal Australia
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Snapshot Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Health Disadvantage

• Close the Gap Campaign instigated by Oxfam
  Australia provides some concise information about
  the disparity in health and life expectancy
  between Indigenous Australia and other
  Australians.
• Aboriginal Infants (0-2) die at 3 times the rate
  of other Australian infants
• Aboriginal people are hospitalised at twice the
  rate of others
• Compared with an average life expectance of 82
  years for the general Australian popuation of
  women, Aboriginal women life expectancy is 64.8
  years and aboriginal men is 59.4 years
• Family violence- everybodys business somebodys
  life-domestic murder statistics/national ratios
  indicate that Aboriginal women are ten times more
  likely to be victims of domestic homicide

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
Disadvantage cont.

• The rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
  children in out-of-home care is over seven times
  the rate of other children (2007) Australian
  Institute of Heath and Welfare Child Protection
  Australia 2005-2006 AIHW Canberra
• 70 of all female Aboriginal and Torres Strait
  Islander prisoners in New South Wales jails have
  suffered from sexual abuse as children(NSW Child
  Sexual Assault Taskforce 2006, in Through Young
  Black Eyes 2007).
• Most Aboriginal families have been affected by
  the removal of one or more children in one or
  more generations. A recent Western Australian
  Aboriginal Child Health Survey has provided some
  useful analysis of the inter-generation impact of
  child removals.
• Aboriginal children cared for by primary carers
  who were forcibly separated from their families
  are 2.34 times more likely to be at risk of
  clinically significant emotional or behavioural
  difficulties and had levels of alcohol and drug
  use twice of that children whose carers were not
  forcibly separated. (Silburn 2006)

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CHILD PROTECTION STATISTICS 2005-2006
From Developing a just and sustainable child
protection system in the Northern Territory
Presentation by Julian Pocok at SNAICC
Conference Ngadluko Ngartunnaitya - For Our
Children Adelaide 2007
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Aboriginal Stories of Tasmanian History

• The coming of the English, French and the Dutch
• George Augustus Robinson- the black wars
• Fanny Cochrane-Smith- first recorded Austalian
  opera singer
• The legacy of the failed genocide - intention
  vs reality

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The Project

• External researchers engaged to consult with key
  Aboriginal services receiving ATSIC funding about
  Tasmanian Aboriginal FV strategy
• Context COAG (Council of Australian
  Governments) trial site for Family Violence North
  West Tasmania and ATSIC Family Violence Strategy.
  
• Main Outcome- ongoing engagement with communities
  and follow through on consultation regarding
  specific Tasmanian Aboriginal education and
  training about Family Well-being-it was
  eventually funded and delivered in 2007!!!

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Participants and Facilitators
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Collaboration to enable project
continuation-Research Advocacy or Advocacy for
Community Research

• Public Servants values ethics
• Australian Public Service Values- section 10(g)
  the APS delivers services fairly, effectively,
  impartially and courteously..and is sensitive to
  the diversity of the Australian public.
• APS Discretionary Power-used to disperse funds to
  complete project
• Social Work -values and ethics
• AASW Code of Ethics -section 4 Ethical Practice
• Towards an ethical and culturally accountable
  social work research practice-standing under,
  giving up the power of dominance and having a
  preparedness to relinquish ones own cultural
  ways of making meaning and to learn new ones
  (Quinn in Briskman 200718)

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Project Strengths and Weaknesses, lessons in
this story?

• Mixed attendance-age and gender- at consultation
  meetings- process as important as the
  recommendations
• Working partnership between TRAC and AIFS and
  building bridges between COAG and local TRAC
  agencies
• Limited voice regarding impact of abolishing
  elected indigenous representation
• Proposal to build Sustainable Aboriginal Family
  Well Being Training in Tasmania-
  accredited/meaningful course built with respect
  for cultural practices e.g. mutton birding
  season.
• Ongoing Challenges- Time-Frame and ethical
  practice how do we get Government to understand
  community processes and timeframes?
• Any relevance to UK?

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Issues and New Developments to Tackle Aboriginal
Family Violence

• NT Intervention-womens rights as human rights
  outcomes not just process
• Aboriginal Representation on newly appointed
  -National Council on Violence Against Women and
  Children
• SNAICC -Through Young Black Eyes local community
  workshops and training

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Some Relevant Comments

• If you have come to work beside me because your
  liberation is tied up with my liberation then we
  can work alongside each otherLila Watson (QLD
  Aboriginal Social Worker)
• It is important to stand under more than to
  understand. This is a stance which involves
  giving up power of dominance, together with a
  preparedness to relinquish ones own cultural
  ways of making meaning, and to learn and value
  new ones. It involves acceptance of, and
  engaging with, uncertainty and discomfort(Quinn
  200389). in Linda Briskman 2007

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References

• Briskman, L. (2007) Social Work with Indigenous
  Communities, Federation Press, Sydney.
• Altman, J. and Hinkson, M (eds) (2007)Coercive
  Reconciliation, Stabalise, Normalise, Exit
  Aboriginal Australia, Arena, Melbourne.
• Fook, J. and Gardiner, F (2007) Practising
  Critical Reflection A resource handbook, Open
  University Press, Maidenhead.
• London-Edinburgh Weekend Return Group (1980) In
  and Against the State Pluto, London.
• Orr, L. and Turner, C.(2004) Tasmanian Aboriginal
  Family Violence Action Plan Tasmanian Regional
  Aboriginal Council, Hobart (unpublished report).
• Orr, L. (1990) Explanations of Family Violence,
  CH 4 in Family Violence Everybodys Business,
  Somebodys Life Federation Press, Melbourne.
• Pocock, J (2007) Developing a just and
  sustainable child protection system in the
  Northern Territory SNAICC ConferenceNgadluko
  Ngartunnaitya -For Our Children. Adelaide.
• Silburn, S. (2006). The inter-generational
  effects of forced separation on the social and
  emotional well being of Aboriginal children and
  young people. AIFS Seminar Presentation.
  Melbourne, Australian Institute of Family
  Studies.

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Websites

• www.snaicc.asn.au
• www.atsisw.org
• www.oxfam.org.au/campaigs/indigenous-health/