• Rhys Price-Robertson, Myfanwy McDonald
• Communities and Families Clearinghouse Australia

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20 June 2011Planning and delivering services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families, and communities can be a complex task for practitioners and policy-makers. Social problems are often deeply entrenched, and need to be approached with consideration of historical, social, community, family and individual factors. Furthermore, as Australian Indigenous cultures are not homogenous, Indigenous communities can differ considerably. Indigenous communities often have characteristics specific to geographic location, with significant variation evident across urban, rural, and remote communities.

Methods that child and family services can use to support Indigenous families and communities include:

• working with (rather than working “on”) Indigenous communities;
  
  
• ensuring your service is culturally competent;

• focusing on attracting and retaining the right staff;

• cultivating networks and relationships; and

• adopting an action research approach.

Many Indigenous families and communities in contemporary Australia face immense challenges. Their strength and resilience is compromised by multiple complex problems, including historical and ongoing dispossession, marginalisation, and racism, as well as the legacy of past policies of forced removal and cultural assimilation (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 1997). These issues contribute to the high levels of poverty, unemployment, violence, and substance abuse seen in many Indigenous communities. They also impact negatively on Indigenous children, who demonstrate poor health, educational, and social outcomes when compared to non-Indigenous children (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2009).