For the Children - Ngatuitya Family Group Conferencing.
Ngartuitya Family Group Conferencing (NFGC) is a new service in South Australia for families where there are child protection concerns, overseen by Relationships Australia South Australia (RASA). NFGC aims to improve outcomes for and reduce the numbers of children and young people in Out-of-Home Care, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. The process of NFGC ensures that parents and children, as well as their extended families, are at the centre of the decision-making process for children. NFGC allows families to come together to make significant decisions to address the child protection concerns for their own family members, allowing and giving families the rights and responsibility to be the child protection for the children in their families.
In this presentation, Sareena will explore and explain how First Nations’ wisdom, knowledge and practice underpins NFGC, and how this ancient knowledge benefits not only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families but all families. Sareena will describe how she brings Aboriginal wisdoms into her work. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families know what family group conferencing looks like and how it works, its Old Way. Often there are so many family and kinship members that a true ‘Aboriginal Family Group Conference’ is beyond the expertise and comfort zone of mainstream child protection services. NFGC achieves a depth of cultural practice for families where there are concerns about an infant that goes beyond standard mainstream service provision. During preparation for and delivery of NFGC, cultural values, beliefs, spirituality and traditions are prioritised, which empowers family and community through re-traditionalisation of culture and helps healing occur. Sareena will describe how NFGC with family-led decision-making practices increases self-determination and a reconnection with old ways for both families and children, increasing Aboriginal families’ experience of citizenship.