3. Questions about data from an Indigenous viewpoint
3.1 What do they want to know about?
In the last section, I discussed issues of concern to Indigenous people about the best ways of participating in a research study like Footprints in Time. Here I want to discuss what the communities had to say about the nature of the data collected in such research, especially in terms of its practical use. Although, in doing so, it is important to recognise that the type of data gathered is a function of the method of inquiry used to gather the data and, as such, some of the issues raised in Section 2 overlap with those discussed in Section 3. There is particular overlap to do with use and control of data and with certain methods of participation.
In the community meetings, the Indigenous participants raised a number of issues that concerned them about their children and the care giving environment of the children. A detailed breakdown of these concerns is given in Penman (2006). What we know about these concerns from the literature is also described in that report.
Here I wish to highlight some specific and oft repeated concerns, and some that may reflect the impact of different geographic locations. The major import of doing this is to show all too clearly that Indigenous people are fully aware of the bleak and often appalling circumstances of the lives of far too many of their children, as well as the myriad of factors that can contribute to those circumstances.
The care giving environment
The need to understand what services are available in any particular community, and the extent of their usefulness, was mentioned by urban and regional/remote communities.
'What is the effectiveness/harmfulness of existing services?'
'Identify barriers encountered when accessing services.'
But housing was a special feature of the remote communities' concerns:
'Will LSIC [Footprints in Time] be looking at the housing issues, such as overcrowding, style and ownership?'
'Housing is probably the biggest issue here… what is the relationship of these issues to how kids grow up and develop?'
The breakdown in family structure, dysfunctional dynamics and other issues arising from a history of colonisation, deprivation and trauma was also a frequently mentioned concern.
'What is the impact on children who have family members being processed through the justice system?'
'Study the father—does the father have involvement in the child? How would this affect the development of the child?'
'The amounts of domestic violence that occurs in this community and how this affects the child and their capacity to learn.'
'What is the impact of being looked after by the grandparents?'
'What are the parenting skills, especially of young teenage mothers?'
On the other hand, these genuine and broad ranging concerns about family and community breakdown need to be tempered with the recognition that the family/community breakdown is not universal.
'It's important to recognise or acknowledge what many families believe to be valuable family values and the effect that this has on the children versus the families who don't have strong family values.'
Culture and history
The different groups raised a series of questions regarding the impact, and loss, of Indigenous culture on Indigenous children.
'Questions needed about culture and loss of it.'
'[Look at] the impact of western society on Torres Strait Islander culture.'
'Remember the need to evaluate strong culture and spirituality.'
For regional and remote peoples there was also a particular concern about the impact of a return to culture, in the form of returning to traditional lands.
'Will FaCS look at the impact of families returning back to their traditional land after years of separation?'
'Will FaCS be studying children/families that are currently living on stations that are back in homelands after being sent away from there many years ago?'
And for urban communities there were other specific concerns to do with culture.
'[What are the] issues of cultural identity, especially urban?'
'What are the problems associated with having a high Indigenous population area [in the city]?'
In contrast, all communities were concerned about the impact of racism on the children.
'Is there racism in the town that can affect the child going off track?'
'There should be questions included in the survey on racism issues and sexism within communities, schools, towns, regional areas and major cities.'
Both urban and regional communities expressed concern about the impact on children of having multicultural parents.
'Be sure to include Aboriginal kids who have a non-Indigenous parent. This is particularly important for children whose parents have split up and may have limited access to their culture and are using mainstream services.'
But I think the most significant observation made at more than one community meeting was the importance of knowing the local history and accounting for its impact on the children and their families.
'A historical picture of the family and community needs to be taken. What is the family history and the context of which the child is born into? It is very important to take this into consideration.'
It is important to take the history into account because it helps significantly in understanding the poor and often problem-laden living conditions of the children and their families.
'Linking historical impact on community to the results of the study [is important] because without it people can make bad judgments. There has got to be a historical component.'
About the children
All communities were concerned in various ways about the services available for Indigenous children and the effect of these services, or lack of them, on the children's growing up.
'What children are suffering from a lack of services in their communities?'
'What role does government play in terms of child outcomes?'
'What are the types of early childhood services used and the varying differences and if the child benefits?'
All communities were particularly concerned about the education of Indigenous children. They asked a number of questions about the schooling provided and the appropriateness of it for Indigenous children. These are important issues and they are discussed at length in Penman (2006).
'Will FaCS look at the school environment? Are the children being educated in an appropriate environment and is there a good support system in place at these institutions?'
'What is the influence of Aboriginal Studies on children and their attitudes?'
'Is our own culture and language being taught at schools?'
'Education here is very poor. The levels of education are minimised and there are low expectations of capabilities/capacity… teachers ignore children/students.'
'What are the incentives for children to attend schools?'
They also asked questions about the role of the family and how the family can provide support for education.
'What is the importance placed on education by parents, grandparents?'
'What support is given to encourage [the child] to go further?'
'How do parents react to what the child is doing at school?'
'It's not only about education it's about personal development. Some kids are getting that support at home and how do we support those families?'
Urban, regional and remote communities raised questions about various issues to do with children and their relationships with kin and culture.
'How do the kids see culture—relevance and importance?'
'Why aren't the youth of Indigenous communities engaging with the older members/elders?'
'What do children learn from the variety of their family members?'
Both urban and regional communities raised questions about care and foster placements for Indigenous children.
'[What are the] outcomes of Indigenous care placements versus non-Indigenous?'
Regional and remote communities expressed concern about a number of health/nutrition issues.
'[Need to know about] knowledge about healthy food and accessing healthy food.'
'Understanding getting good food and growth—there is misinformation about when to introduce food.'
Other questions were raised about the need to look at the impact of troubled families/communities.
'Information is needed on the effects of sexual abuse towards children, to find ways of overcoming such trauma, to help eradicate this "spite" in communities, to raise this as an awareness issue.'
'What is the relationship between child protection orders and criminal trajectory?'
Interestingly, both regional and remote communities raised the issue of technology.
'FaCS should be looking at how much access Indigenous children have to technology.'
'[FaCS should] study the effects of TV games, videos 'cause these are bad influences on kids.
And, finally, a number of different meetings asked questions of a more general, but still very important, nature:
'What are the warning signs/signals of poor outcomes and what are the preventive measures?'
'Do any interventions/services make a difference?'
3.2 Nature of the data
The issues and questions described above indicate the range of concerns Indigenous communities have about their children and the families and communities in which the children grow up. They are some of the things that Indigenous people think should be studied to help improve the growing up of Indigenous children.
But even though there is information available on many of the concerns raised above, many participants at the meetings commented that the type of information that is available is either not all that useful or simply has not been used at all. They called for different ways of gathering the data so that information obtained could be far more useful to them.
Need for the positives
The communities called for good questions of a positive, helpful and productive nature when asked how the Footprints in Time study could help them:
'We need to move forward.'
'We need to know how good work (as defined by the communities) can be sustained.'
'Need a positive focus on what is working well.'
'This study should highlight the positives and the strengths as well as the problems.'
'Look at questions that promote the positives.'
'Need to look for best practice—concern that the study may be too much like a deficit model.'
'Questions should be more positive—it should be healthier, more positive and stronger.'
Penman (2006) shows it is clear that not enough of these positive questions have been asked in the literature on Indigenous children and their families. So much of the work is problem focused and simply documents the negatives. Too little of the research data looks at what works well and how it could work better in the future. The people consulted in the meetings wanted to know far more of what works well.
In the community consultations, many different types of positive questions were suggested. Here I have taken key community questions, presented below in italics, and then built on them further to show how this form of positive exploration can work. I am particularly drawing on a research approach called Appreciative Inquiry (for example, Hammond & Royal 1998) that emphasises the importance of appreciating the positive in participants' contributions and exploring ways in which they can do more of the positive things to go on to better futures.
Within the survey would like recognition of Indigenous survival, resilience, strength and potential.
- What are important sources of strength that help being resilient?
- How have they managed so well?
- What might help them manage even better?
How can we make the children feel valued and dare to dream?
- What would being valued look like or how would it be expressed?
- What would help to show how the children are valued?
- How could we support their daring?
What can we do to give the children the best start in life?
- What would count as a best start?
- What would help in bringing this about?
- What might help even further?
How can we make a real growing between the peoples themselves and say that we can be responsible for the future of our children ourselves?
- What can we do now that shows responsibility for the children's futures?
- How can we do more of it?
The issue of how good work, as defined by the community, can be sustained needs to be the core part of the research.
- What is working well now?
- What makes it good for the community?
- How could it be made even better?
- What might be needed to help make it better?
We need… any information we can get for making our life better in the future
- What would a better life look like?
- What could help you get there?
Need for a practical focus
The above questions focus on the positive and the appreciative in order to generate practical information for improving participants' lives. In the later community consultations, participants were directly asked about other practical information that would be useful for them. They had a lot to say about the type of practical information they needed and why.
Policy development
The communities identified a role for the information at a general policy level.
'As a service provider, get access to the information to lobby for further policy development program outcomes.'
'Highlight the complexities of working with Indigenous communities and their links to tradition/culture… the significance of recognising individual Indigenous groups and tribes.'
'To help government agencies understand the issues Indigenous children face and help develop culturally appropriate policies for Indigenous people.'
'We believe the study can help decision-makers provide policy for alcohol restrictions.'
Services
Urban, regional and remote communities all saw the value of information to support various types of service provision and to bring about improvements.
'Study needs to identify service and resource needs and assist service providers to understand Indigenous priorities.'
'Argument base for change… an ability to use the data to provide an evidence base… to improve services.'
'Ability to map trends of funding and de-funding of services to Indigenous communities and the impact of this on families and communities.'
'We need to know how to provide/make accessible services to the broader Aboriginal community and change/alter/extend services to families who require child care services.'
'We need information that will help redirect health services in the future and information that would get services more money.'
'Ability to inform teachers and affect their ability to work with Indigenous children.'
Community programs
The communities also identified information needs to help with community programs.
'Ability to utilise results in developing business plans and promoting developments and successes within the communities.'
'Increasing accountability of delivery of programs and strategies to Indigenous communities.'
'To "tailor make" programs/projects specific to Indigenous children and communities.'
Children and families
More specifically still, the communities wanted to know what would help make their children's lives better.
'What are the things that are in place that make a difference in the quality of children lives?'
'What support is needed for mothers to raise their children?'
'What does the data say for early intervention?'
Need for local, qualitative data
Some of the participants felt that questions asked for statistical purposes could never accurately reflect the lived experience or the diversity of communities and their needs:
'It's just another statistical exercise.'
Many of those consulted would much prefer to participate in studies that generated qualitative data, not quantitative. As one participant at a meeting put it:
'Public servants always want surveys when qualitative research is the best data for understanding the social and cultural aspects of kids' lives.'
In order to find the positives, to find what works in different communities, some participants suggested the need to focus on the specifics, on the practical experience of life within families and communities. This is where things matter to them.
'Need local data, not just national data, if wanting to develop baseline indicators for health and wellbeing.'
Even though many participants called for local, qualitative data, Indigenous communities generally recognise the need to satisfy 'white'/bureaucratic requirements as well as their own and have taken on board the idea of 'both ways learning'. This is an expression, and an approach, used in the Warrki Jarrinjaku project (2002) documenting Aboriginal child rearing practices. But the major point of it is that they believe the cultures and modes of understanding of Indigenous peoples need to be respected along with non-Indigenous ways.
'Need to have research from true Blackfella's [perspective] and not "tick-a-boxes".'
Need to consider interventions
In undertaking inquiries of the nature proposed in the Footprints in Time study, and given the troubles in many Indigenous communities, it is inevitable that problems will be raised and help requested. In the community meetings, three different types of potential problems were raised.
'At present child sexual abuse is a huge problem. What happens if this abuse is identified within the house? How will this be handled? How much authority do you [FaCS] have?'
'The study may trigger emotionally charged reactions. Therefore there needs to be support available to assist participants.'
'Will the children have check-ups every year? If there are any problems, who will intervene?'
These questions directly raise the need to consider whether, and on what grounds, a research team will intervene. They also point to the need to consider how the intervention will be undertaken and how it will be documented.
3.3 Use and control of the data
Use of the data
It is all well and good gathering information along the lines suggested above, but, as many participants went on to query, how is the data going to be used? There were a number of different concerns expressed about the use of the data from the study. Some of these concerns were general.
'Who's going to see/have this information?'
'Who has access to the information and at what time frame will it be available?'
'Suspicious of motives for how the information collected will be used.'
Other questions were asked about whether the data were actually going to be used to help communities or not.
'How will the use of the data make a difference?'
'How will the findings be used? Will anything be done about the findings either positive or negative?'
'Who is accountable for the outcomes? We need to know now what will be the physical outcomes for our children and community.'
Yet other concerns reflect bad experiences in the past with use of research data either by media, government departments or others.
'Concern about what the media would do with the data. The media have a way of changing and manipulating data for their own benefit. What protection is there against this?'
'There has been frequent abuse and misuse of data collated on Indigenous communities.'
'[Need to] link historical impacts on community to results of study, because without it people can make bad judgements.'
'Some people thought that by participating they would be judged and feel intimidated as if they were being watched.'
'There is fear and suspicion of the study. Who will be doing it and why and will they be judged or will it be biased?'
The last part of the comment above is interesting. There was frequent mention of bias in many other comments. In some instances, it seemed as if they may have been referring to scientific bias. However, in most instances it was more likely the Indigenous people were referring to 'whitefella' bias or prejudice.
Unfortunately, not only were there concerns about the non-Indigenous response to the data, but also about how Indigenous communities themselves would respond and how the people in them would be seen.
'With the information collected and produced, in many cases the women are blamed for the issues and problems surrounding children.'
'Once this information is published it could damage a lot of communities.'
'Results can go against parents and communities.'
'Who will stand up for the outcome and us?'
Community involvement
In Section 2, it was noted that Indigenous people would be more accepting of research if they had a sense of ownership of the data or some control over it.
'These families need to feel that they have a sense of ownership to the information and their participation in the survey.'
Having control, at least over parts of the research method and data collected, is seen as an important element in the success of the research project. When the community is involved and has a say in the research done about them and for them, then the mistrust arising from inappropriate data use of the past is mitigated. And, in turn, this community involvement also ensures that the communities benefit directly:
'More chance of success if community takes control (ownership).'
'The important factor is that when the decision-making is left up to someone else and they have not been involved in playing a part in the decision-making process and stuff… and when the decision-making does come from the community itself they're making the decisions and that makes a difference.'
'Should be done by Indigenous people and monitored by Indigenous people.'
In essence, what many of the comments called for, or implied, was an action, or participatory, research approach to the study of Indigenous concerns:
'We need on the ground research that feeds back into communities and actions.'
'Will there be an action research component?'
'We need action outcomes that will provide services to meet deficiencies [in the community].'
The Footprints in Time team have addressed this call for continuing participation and involvement in the project by working in partnerships with communities.