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Session H6: The Health and Safety of Young People

1. S. Lai: Health and wellbeing of Indigenous children in urban, regional and remote areas – early findings from Wave One of the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children

Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow pdf 360KB

Abstract

The paper aims to find out whether there are any differences in the health and wellbeing of Indigenous children who live in an urban setting, regional town centres or remote or semi-remote communities. It will explore factors that might contribute to the differences and look at specific issues such as family characteristics, housing conditions and family functioning. The investigation will use data from Wave One of Footprints in Time, a Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children funded by the Commonwealth Government and managed by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Data collection for Wave One of the Study was conducted in 2008 via face-to-face interviews with some 1,850 parents or main care-givers of Indigenous children in eleven sites across Australia. The sites are spread out across Australia and located in all States and Territories, except Tasmania and the ACT. The study focuses on two groups of children: the baby cohort aged around six to eighteen months and the kids cohort aged around three-and-half to four-and- half years. The paper will cover early results from Wave One of the Study in the areas of child health, maternal health including alcohol and tobacco use in pregnancy, early diet and nutrition, major life events in the family, financial stress, housing and mobility and child care and early education of the children.

Author bio

Rose works in the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) Section of FaHCSIA (Department of Family, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs).  She has responsibility for the management of LSIC data.  Her work experience includes her time at the Homelessness Taskforce in FaHCSIA, the Compliance Group at Centrelink and the Youth and Student Branch of DETYA.  Rose has a Bachelor degree in Humanities from Griffith University (Columbo Plan Scholarship from Thailand) and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Queensland.

2. Tom Ogwang; Leonie Cox & Jude Saldanha: “My people right here…” Young Indigenous people, alienation and chroming in inner-city Brisbane

Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow pdf 894KB

Abstract

This presentation describes and explains the social worlds of a group of young Murris who are engaged in chroming (paint sniffing) and sleep rough in inner Brisbane. In particular, it considers the ways young Indigenous drug users describe their marginalisation from wider society and its structures of opportunity, but also includes some reflections from their youth worker and a young man who frequents the young peoples’ squat. The paper demonstrates the centrality of racism and material disadvantage to the experience of a group of young Indigenous paint sniffers, a perspective unreflected in volatile substance misuse literature. Further, the young peoples’ way of interacting with the broader society are described to explain the ways their rejection of mainstream norms form a significant political response to their marginality and reflect, at least in part, the wider Indigenous historical experience.

The work draws on theories of alienation, subculture and habitus to analyse the young peoples’ descriptions of their social estrangement and the formation of the ‘paint sniffer group’. The young peoples’ style -their demeanour, music and dress (including hair, clothes and accessories)- is interpreted as symbolic of their contemplated revolt against mainstream norms. It is concluded that paint sniffing amongst urban Indigenous youth is, at least in part, an obnoxious and encoded distillation of a wider Indigenous rebuttal of broader societal norms, and the dominant – normalising - modes of treatment risk further alienating an already oppositional group of young people.

Author Bio:

Tom Ogwang is of East African and Anglo-Celtic descent, was born in Kenya and came to Australia in his early years. He holds a degree in Indigenous Primary Health Care (Hons 1) from the University of Queensland. He has worked with rural and urban Indigenous communities contributing to  research and practice around injury prevention, social service provision for marginalised young people and adults, alcohol & other drug service review and inhalant misuse. Located at the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council, Tom has been awarded an NHMRC PhD scholarship to examine Indigenous health governance. His study will utilise institutional and community stakeholder perspectives to examine the research-policy-practice nexus. The work is informing evaluation of the Queensland Strategy for Chronic Disease and, more broadly, critically assessing norms surrounding best practice identification and uptake in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander governance.

3. K. Clapham, F. Khavarpour, R. Bolt, M. Stevenson: Researching the safety of Indigenous children and youth: an urban perspective

Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow pdf 2.3MB

Abstract

Injury is one of the leading causes of Indigenous mortality in Australia and safety in Indigenous communities has become increasingly prominent in commentary on Indigenous communities. However, our knowledge of urban Indigenous people and their experiences have been largely ignored in these debates; most of the discussions to date have focused on remote areas despite the fact that one-third of Indigenous Australians live in urban settings.

This presentation reports on the Safe Koori Kids study which addressed the safety of Indigenous children was carried out in Sydney’s outer metropolitan area of Campbelltown between 2006 and 2009. The study aimed to increase our understanding of the broad range of factors involved in injury in Indigenous communities and to create a culturally acceptable and effective intervention program by addressing child and youth resilience. The program delivered to Indigenous and non Indigenous primary aged children across 11 primary schools drew on local knowledge and resources to address safety issues and were underpinned by recognition that a multitude of factors affect the safety of children and families. Additionally, the program embedded positive messages to reinforce the cultural identity of Indigenous people living in urban areas.

The theme of connections and reconnections in our study emerged as children responded positively to the way an urban Indigenous identity was represented in the program. Researchers recorded an increase in self-efficacy in questionnaire responses amongst the primary aged children after the program was delivered over a school term. Qualitative data collected from teachers also revealed that Indigenous children responded to the program with an increased sense of pride and achievement.

Improving the safety of Indigenous children in urban areas is complex and currently not well understood. Intervention programs need to incorporate a much better comprehension of the factors which increase the vulnerability of urban Indigenous children. Safety programs must recognize the social and cultural context in which children live, draw on local resources and reinforce a sense of pride and positive Indigenous identity to build resilience amongst vulnerable children.

Author bios

Dr Freidoon Khavarpour, Discipline of Indigenous Health Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney

Reuben Bolt, Woolyungah Indigenous Centre, University of Wollongong

Mark Stevenson, The George Institute for International Health, The University of Sydney.