Reenvisaging the Oohc System Through Voices of Aboriginal Young People
Tracks
Bilby Room: In-Person Only
| Tuesday, October 21, 2025 |
| 11:35 AM - 12:05 PM |
| Bilby Room (M1&2) |
Overview
Bradley Burns, Western Sydney University
Presenter
Mr Bradley Burns
PhD Candidate
Western Sydney University
Reenvisaging the Oohc System Through Voices of Aboriginal Young People
Presentation Overview
The voices of Aboriginal children and young people are almost entirely absent from the narratives that surround practice and policy decision-making as this relates to their care. However, when provided with opportunity, Aboriginal children and young people are highly competent in communicating their experiences and in contributing to discussions beyond their own care to issues of service provision and policy design, and there is much to be gained from their lived experience.
This presentation will discuss the findings from a PhD research project which engaged Aboriginal young people in the exploration of OOHC experiences, and supported young people to engage in challenging the system, practices and embedded assumptions that leave Aboriginal children and young people, who are already struggling to feel physically and emotionally safe, at the mercy of a system that often does not offer cultural safety.
This research project was designed to gather the perspectives of Aboriginal young people in care, and understand their ideas for change within the service system and working with them to pitch these ideas to professionals with the view to co-design at least one initiative. Simultaneously, professional participants undertook training to understand what child voice is, and how to challenge the barriers that prevent translation and implementation. This presentation will discuss the key issues raised by Aboriginal young people and what they voiced about the change that needs to be implemented, as well as share the narrative around the process and collaboration between youth participants and professional participants.
This presentation will present the overall research project and findings which builds on the presentation presented during the 2024 Indigenous Wellbeing Conference which was based on key literature reviews.
This research is being conducted as part of a Yarramundi Industry PhD in partnership with a large NGO, Key Assets Australia.
Three Key Learnings:
1. What Aboriginal young people in care told us about their experience and ideas to challenge the way the system and services operate.
2. How Aboriginal young people in care and service professionals worked together to achieve better outcomes.
3. How services and programs can go about embedding Aboriginal youth voice in their service and program offerings to ensure cultural safety and self-determination.
This presentation will discuss the findings from a PhD research project which engaged Aboriginal young people in the exploration of OOHC experiences, and supported young people to engage in challenging the system, practices and embedded assumptions that leave Aboriginal children and young people, who are already struggling to feel physically and emotionally safe, at the mercy of a system that often does not offer cultural safety.
This research project was designed to gather the perspectives of Aboriginal young people in care, and understand their ideas for change within the service system and working with them to pitch these ideas to professionals with the view to co-design at least one initiative. Simultaneously, professional participants undertook training to understand what child voice is, and how to challenge the barriers that prevent translation and implementation. This presentation will discuss the key issues raised by Aboriginal young people and what they voiced about the change that needs to be implemented, as well as share the narrative around the process and collaboration between youth participants and professional participants.
This presentation will present the overall research project and findings which builds on the presentation presented during the 2024 Indigenous Wellbeing Conference which was based on key literature reviews.
This research is being conducted as part of a Yarramundi Industry PhD in partnership with a large NGO, Key Assets Australia.
Three Key Learnings:
1. What Aboriginal young people in care told us about their experience and ideas to challenge the way the system and services operate.
2. How Aboriginal young people in care and service professionals worked together to achieve better outcomes.
3. How services and programs can go about embedding Aboriginal youth voice in their service and program offerings to ensure cultural safety and self-determination.
Biography
Bradley is an Aboriginal PhD Candidate at Western Sydney University with his research focusing on how we can better support Aboriginal children and young people in Out-of-Home Care, specifically looking into the voices of Aboriginal children and young people and the translation of voices into practice through co-design. Bradley’s background is in the out-of-home care sector where he currently works to support the ongoing connection to culture and family for Aboriginal children in care.
