The emotional and psychological effects of forcible removal are documented in Part 3 of this report.
Removal affects the individual, the family, the culture from which they were removed and the broader society. From Relationships Australia's experience these outcomes and consequences of forced removal of children are consistent with grief and loss on a large scale, which when unresolved, affect the quality of people's relationships (Relationships Australia submission 685 page 6).
Some church and other non-government agencies have turned their attention to survivors' needs for counselling and related support. The National Standing Committee of the Uniting Church in Australia has resolved to request,
... synods to invite organisations such as Burnside in New South Wales, Copelen Family Services in Victoria and Adelaide Central Mission in South Australia to seek discussions with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress with a view to entering into arrangements under which facilities, resources and expertise of the Uniting Church's family counselling services may be made available to the Aboriginal community for child care or adult counselling in an arrangement in which responsibility and authority would be negotiated (submission 457).
Most churches provide services for individuals and families experiencing financial, emotional or spiritual distress. The range of services is usually related to the size of the organisation and the resources available to the church. Few services are specifically provided for Indigenous people, although they are available to Indigenous people seeking to use them. In practice, utilisation by Indigenous people depends on whether the service is culturally sensitive and appropriate.
A number of churches identified services specifically directed towards the needs of Indigenous people and relevant to the survivors of forcible removal. The Catholic Church, for example, offers Centacare programs including the Aboriginal Family Worker in Brisbane, the Financial Counsellor in Wilcannia-Forbes, Family Care Teams and Family Support Programmes generally and a number of other Catholic marriage and family mediation services across a number of regions which may be relevant to those affected by forcible removal (Centacare Catholic Community Service evidence 478, Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission submission 479).
The Uniting Church's Burnside agency in New South Wales also identifies family support services, including family counselling specifically related to child behaviour problems within families as being relevant, along with parenting education programs, one of which has been developed in consultation with a rural Aboriginal community to ensure cultural relevance (Uniting Church in Australia submission 457).
Relationships Australia described a collaborative arrangement in the Hunter Valley with the Awabakal Aboriginal community in which training is provided to Aboriginal women to enable them to lead groups and develop counselling skills. Importantly, the collaboration results from the initiative of the Awabakal community which also determines training arrangements.
Relationships Australia and the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide both expressed reservations about their capacity to provide the counselling and related services needed to address some of the effects of forcible removal. The Anglican Diocese of Adelaide identified the absence of Indigenous staff in its own Family Connections Programme as a barrier to effective service delivery.
[It] has been operating for approximately six years and has, until recently, worked with few Aboriginal families. Currently, out of a caseload of 32 families there are five Aboriginal families working with the Family Connections Programme and one Aboriginal family on the waiting list. All referrals come from Family and Community Services. For a programme with only non-Aboriginal workers this work presents a number of dilemmas and a great challenge and we question whether it is helpful to these families having non-Aboriginal workers working with them for reunification. It is an intensive programme and workers from the programme may spend up to 10 hours a week in a families home (Anglican Diocese of Adelaide evidence 259).
Relationships Australia, formerly the Marriage Guidance Council, identified `obvious problems of accessibility and cultural appropriateness' and a lack of resources (submission 685 page 4).
A further problem is that we already have waiting lists of 6-8 weeks in all areas. If we were to advertise specifically to provide a new counselling service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people we could not guarantee how soon there is a risk of violence or severe conflict in the family or relationship. Therefore while there is a need for access issues to be addressed the resource problem is the major hurdle and we believe that to address this, funding would need to be provided.
Non-government agencies with responsibility for counselling and support services for survivors of forcible removal must ensure the cultural suitability of their services, including through strategies to employ Indigenous staff, so that effective services are provided. Relationships Australia submitted that Indigenous organisations may be best placed to provide the services needed.
There is also the important consideration of ownership of services for Aboriginal people. We do not believe that funding organisations such as ourselves is necessarily the way to go ... funding to Aboriginal organisations to manage such programs in which expertise could be purchased from Relationships Australia and others, or joint projects may be a better solution (Relationships Australia submission 685 page 4).
The Inquiry endorses the view that services are best provided by Indigenous agencies. The existence of specialist agencies, however, does not relieve agencies funded and intended for all Australians from their obligation to ensure their services are accessible and appropriate for all, including Indigenous clients. This obligation is even more binding when there are no Indigenous agencies or when those which exist are poorly resourced and unable to deal with every need in the Indigenous community.
Counselling services
| Recommendation 40a: That churches and other non-government
welfare agencies that provide counselling and support services to those affected
by forcible removal review those services, in consultation with Indigenous
communities and organisations, to ensure they are culturally appropriate.
Recommendation 40b: That churches and other non-government agencies which played a role in the placement and care of Indigenous children forcibly removed from their families provide all possible support to Indigenous organisations delivering counselling and support services to those affected by forcible removal. |