QATSICPP have been supported by the Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership to consider the systems approach that underpins improved wellbeing for First Nations children and young people in Queensland.

This work includes the publication of the Learning from the Thriving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Initiative Knowledge Circle Report.

This rich report is based on 10 Knowledge Circles held in 2024 and offers wisdom and insight into how we can work together to make change for children and families across Queensland.

The report’s findings include:

  • Raising children in culture from conception is fundamental to feeling safe, loved and proud in their identity. It supports the child to have a firm and deeply embedded understanding of who they are and where they are from. By enjoying the ancient and spiritual child rearing practices that have been handed down from generation to generation, children and their family’s bond and form connection to each other, their culture and their ancestors.
  • This is not an individual or private family experience; it something that is supported and experienced by the community as a whole, and that children are raised by the collective where they can feel safe and valued.
  • Sharing of stories through the Knowledge Circles uncovered not only the joy in raising children this way, but the pain and suffering that still occurs due to the hurtful impacts of colonisation, including the impacts of the forced removal of children through Stolen Generation and intergenerational trauma.
  • The communities said that a key solution is culturally safe and supportive services are delivered flexibly and respond to the community and the family’s needs. These services are First Nations led, culturally informed and ‘walk beside families’. This requires a strong cross sectoral commitment that does not offer bursts of support from one government department. It requires collaboration and belief that the communities their children and families know best, and if adequately supported will ensure they thrive.

 

Quotes from Knowledge Circle participants:

  • “Our way is the strong way”
  • “We’re always trying to have to fit into the system – but why can’t the system fit our needs? “
  • “Traditional child rearing practices is different for each family but equally important“
  • “Our job is to ‘cut through the vines’ that are barriers for families, what is holding them down – we help them shake those off”

The report also provides direction for the next steps for the formation of the strategy, which is currently being developed.

Enjoy the full report here:

QATSICPP Thriving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Initiative_Knowledge Circle Report

More information about the Thriving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Initiative including the Thriving bubs, Thriving families, Thriving communities – Understanding the levers of change report (QATSICPP 2024).