Flourishing on the margins: a study of babies and belonging in an Australian Aboriginal community childcare centre

ABSTRACT

The colonisation of Australia brought significant change and interruption on the life-ways of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including forced removals onto missions and reserves. The legacy of their dispossession is ongoing socio-economic disadvantage and racial discrimination within the dominant non-Indigenous culture. Indigenous people have survived and thrived, grounded by relationship to Country, family, and culture. Valuing and promoting these relationships is an essential first step in creating responsive, culturally respectful, and effective early childhood education and care (ECEC) services for young Indigenous children. This study, conducted in a Multifunctional Aboriginal Children’s Service (MACS) in the state of Queensland, describes how relationships to family, culture and community were manifested in the day-to-day interactions of educators and children. Our reflections on babies’ experiences (and perspectives) centre on Aboriginal concepts of ‘the strong child’, multiple attachments with multiple caregivers, and children caring for each other.

KEYWORDS:

• belonging
• infant–toddler education and care
• Aboriginal childrearing and pedagogy
• Multifunctional Aboriginal Children’s Service (MACS)
• attachments to multiple caregivers

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants and their Indigenous Research Advisor.

Notes

1 NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, see http://www.naidoc.org.au/about/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage Program [Grant number LP130100067].