‘Playing the Game’: How Aboriginal Families Navigate Child Protection Systems to Restore Their Children Home From Out-Of-Home Care

Abstract

Reunification, or restoration of children from Out-of-Home Care (OOHC) is very rare. Using evidence generated from the New South Wales-based Aboriginal-led research Bring them home, keep them home, this paper examines and celebrates the resistance and resourcefulness of 20 Aboriginal families who navigated a child protection system designed to separate their children from them. Aboriginal families have described the struggle to have their children restored from OOHC following removal as being treated as a game, where the child protection system holds all the power, designs the rules which often change and are unclear, and operates on an uneven playing field. The findings uncover a variety of strategies families used to keep their families together and attempt to succeed in the game. While professionals and practitioners working in the child and family sector are part of the system, families identified practical ways that practitioners can play the game to support them by adopting a justice-doing approach, moving from a punitive role to one of advocacy and activism.