Dunstan, Laura, Hewitt, Belinda, and Nakata, Sana (2020) Indigenous family life in Australia: A history of difference and deficit. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 55 (3). pp. 323-338.

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Abstract

Indigenous family life has been a key target of family and child policies in Australia since colonisation. In this paper, we identify four main policy eras that have shaped the national and state policy frameworks that have impacted Indigenous families: the protectionism, assimilation, self-determination and neoliberalism eras. Our analysis of these national and state policy frameworks reveals an enduring and negative conceptualisation of Indigenous family life. This conceptualisation continues to position Indigenous families as deficient and dysfunctional compared with a white, Anglo-Australian family ideal. This contributes to the reproduction of paternalistic policy settings and the racialised hierarchies within them that entrench Indigenous disempowerment and reproduce Indigenous disadvantage. Further, it maintains a deficit paradigm that continues to obfuscate the positive aspects of Indigenous family life that are protective of Indigenous well-being.

Item ID:	79318
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1839-4655
Copyright Information:	© 2019 Australian Social Policy Association
Funders:	Australian Research Council (ARC)
Projects and Grants:	ARC Linkage Project LP160100111
Date Deposited:	11 Jul 2023 22:17
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4410 Sociology > 441009 Sociology of family and relationships @ 50% 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4505 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, society and community > 450525 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sociology @ 50%
SEO Codes:	21 INDIGENOUS > 2199 Other Indigenous > 219999 Other Indigenous not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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