Safe, protected, connected: Applying Aboriginal understandings of permanency and attachment in practice

Tuesday 25 February 12:00-1:00pm AEST, online via MS Teams

Please note this webinar will be live only and will not be recorded for public viewing. If you are keen to hear this presentation, please join us on February 25th, 2025 at 12pm

Hosted by Family and Community Services Insights, Analysis and Research (FACSIAR)

Details

In this webinar, Dr Wendy Hermeston from the University of Melbourne will share findings from her qualitative research which gathered Aboriginal community members’ conceptualisations of permanency and attachment in the context of Aboriginal child-rearing practices and family and community life. The research highlights commonalities with universal understandings around child protection and that protecting children from harm was participants’ most fundamental concern. However, the research also demonstrates how culturally grounded concepts of safety, best interests of the child, attachment and permanency differ from Western understandings. Dr Hermeston will stress the need for a deepening of practitioner knowledge about Aboriginal family life and child-rearing practices and how the long-term impacts of disconnection from siblings, extended family and Country that many Aboriginal children in care experience, must be given more weight in care decision-making.

Dr Hermeston will build on FACSIAR’s September ‘Lunch and Learn’ seminar “Missing links: Attachment theory and Aboriginal children, families and communities” and the literature about the misapplication of attachment theory in the out-of-home care system.

The seminar will also include a conversation with Aboriginal Casework Specialists from DCJ’s Office of the Senior Practitioner who will share case studies involving decision-making about permanency and attachment and consideration of the best interests of the child. The session will include discussion about moving beyond deficit-based assessments to recognising family strengths.

This webinar will be chaired by Noni Greenwood, Director Aboriginal Culture in Practice, Office of Senior Practitioner, DCJ.

Join us to learn more about:

Safe, protected, connected: Applying Aboriginal understandings of permanency and attachment in practice

Dr Wendy Hermeston, Wiradjuri woman, Senior Research Fellow, ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation, University of Melbourne.

Aboriginal Casework Specialists (TBC)

Questions or comments?
Contact: ResearchPartnerships@dcj.nsw.gov.au