Child attachment within the Aboriginal community high on agenda in discussions with Minister
Murdoch University’s new Ngangk Yira Institute for Change is raising awareness of the health gap that exists between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the rest of the Australian population, with a focus on important long-term issues that need addressing.
Yesterday, the Institute hosted a Roundtable discussion with key stakeholders, the University's Vice Chancellor Andrew Deeks and Minister for Child Protection and Community Services Simone McGurk to highlight how attachment in child protection and custody decision making needs to be given the highest consideration and understanding when appointing a caregiver through the court system.
There is considerable growing international concern on how misinformation and misunderstandings of attachment is having an adverse impact in decision making – particularly within the court system.
“It is evident the courts believe infants and children only form a single attachment to a caregiver rather than multiple attachments, for example, in shared parenting and kinship groups,” Professor Marriott said. “International, national data and published case studies show this not to be true.”
In Western Australia, such misapplication perpetuates grave consequences for Aboriginal children. Concerns have been expressed by local practitioners about the impact of this misapplication.
The Ngangk Yira Institute for Change is appealing to members of the Roundtable to address and implement practices of what constitutes safe attachment to a caregiver, to address this when appointing a child to a suitable caregiver through the court system and understanding the importance of a child's right to stay connected with their culture.
The Institute is focused on conducting culturally safe, co-designed, translational research across three core pillars of research: Maternal and Child Health; Family Empowerment and Resilience; and Healthy Families and Communities.
The Ngangk Yira research priorities are determined through a partnership between Elders, community stakeholders, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal researchers, with a focus on complex issues in Aboriginal health and the achievement of social equity.