What Is the Best Thing About Being an Indigenous Father in Australia?

ABSTRACT

In Australia, the ongoing structure of settler colonialism has meant understandings of Indigeneity continue to uphold deficit narratives about the lives of Indigenous peoples. The narrative that predominates for Indigenous fathers is often the labels of dysfunctionality, deviance, and disengagement from their children. Using the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children data, this article seeks to challenge these deficit narratives to shed light not only on the strengths Indigenous fathers report of their experiences of fatherhood, but also on how fatherhood could be reconceptualised under an Indigenous epistemology. We followed recent efforts and used a strengths-based approach in Indigenous fathering research to counter deficit narratives of Indigenous fatherhood and explore how an Indigenous standpoint can inform approaches to social, cultural, and health and wellbeing practices. We applied a content analysis to answers generated by the question “What is the best thing about being your child's father?” The range of responses suggested a most positive and child-centred experience of fatherhood where Indigenous fathers report the sharing of love and culture with their children as direct contributions to children growing up strong.

IMPLICATIONS

• The findings highlight the significant role of a strengths-based approach focused on relationality to challenge unfair and inaccurate deficit-based narratives of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander fathers or both.

• The article identifies the influence of deficit-based narratives of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander fathers or both as an urgent issue for social work practice to address as such narratives may be implicated in contributing to excessively high rates of child removal.

KEYWORDS:

• Aboriginal
• Torres Strait Islander
• Indigeneity
• Indigenous
• Dad
• Parental Care
• Fatherhood
• Strengths-based Parenting
• Social Work
• Relationality
• Supports
• Father–Child Relationship
• Self-Image
• Bias
• Perceptions of Indigenous Men
• Stereotypes
• Australia

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants in the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. We would also like to acknowledge the anonymous reviews. Thank you. This article uses unit record data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). LSIC was conducted by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS). The findings and views reported in this article, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Australian Government, DSS, or any of DSS's contractors or partners. DOI: 10.26193/SSWEX1.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the Australian Federal Department of Social Services. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for this study. Data are available at the Department of Social Services at https://www.dss.gov.au/about-the-department/publications-articles/research-publications/longitudinal-data-initiatives/footprints-in-time-the-longitudinal-study-of-Indigenous-children-lsic with the permission of the Department of Social Services.