Interrogating social work: Australian Social Work and the Stolen Generations

Abstract

Summary

In the context of Australian social work’s “past complicity” in the disadvantaging of Indigenous Australians, this study examined what was said in the journal of the Australian Association of Social Workers about the taking of Indigenous children and the challenges confronting Indigenous Australians during the last two decades of the policies and practices that created what has since been known as the Stolen Generations. A content analysis was undertaken of 23 years of articles in the journal Australian Social Work between 1948 and 1970, the period roughly representing the first two decades of the journal’s publication and the last two decades of what was by then a time-honored practice that shaped the lives of thousands of Indigenous children and their families.

Findings

The study found that very little was said in the journal about the practice in question. Of the 331 articles in the journal within the period, only one article expressly touched on the care of Indigenous children beyond their biological family and community and only one article advanced a critique of the taking of Indigenous children. A landmark change in the constitution affecting all Indigenous Australians came and went without mention. Thus, some of the most important issues affecting the welfare and rights of Indigenous Australians were largely ignored in the professional journal.

Applications

It is argued that the findings in this study can inform a critical understanding of contemporary social work in different parts of the world.