Aboriginal Cultural Safety in Early Childhood Care Programs Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural safety within the context of early childhood care. It defines key concepts such as culture, cultural safety, cultural awareness, and cultural competence, highlighting their interrelationships and importance in service delivery. The report emphasizes the unique aspects of Aboriginal culture and the need for culturally safe environments that respect and protect the identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. It also outlines relevant legislation aimed at safeguarding Aboriginal cultural heritage and preventing discrimination. Furthermore, the report details strategies for supporting the delivery of culturally safe programs and services, including creches, flexible learning sessions, and mobile services. It stresses the importance of effective communication strategies, such as building rapport, using clear language, and respecting body language. In conclusion, the report advocates for increased resources and tailored education systems to promote child care and cultural preservation among Aboriginal communities. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study tools and solved assignments for students.

CULTURAL SAFETY AMONG THE
ABORIGINES IN CHILDHOOD CARE

CONCEPT OF CULTURE
• The term “culture” is derived from the French word
“colore” which means to earth of grow or nurture.
• It is the social behaviour and norms that are found in
human societies (Pieterse, 2015).
• It encircles on the phenomena that are transmitted by
learning.
• The various aspects are expressed by means of art,
dance music, literature and technologies such as the
tools used, cooking, clothing and the like (Sanders,
2017).

WHO IS AN ABORIGINAL OR TORRES
STRAIT ISLANDER PERSON
An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is a
person who
• Belongs to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
descent.
• He or she identifies self as an Aboriginal or
Torres Strait Islander.
• The person is accepted by his or her
community as its member.

ABORIGINAL CULTURE: AN OVERVIEW
• The culture came to exist around 40000 years ago
when the aborigine populated Australia.
• The aborigines were semi-nomadic hunters and
gatherers having a strong connection with their
homeland.
• The culture is mostly found among the natives
living in Australia.
• The ceremonies and the practices are based on the
dreamtime, a religio-cultural worldview (Fryberg et
al., 2013).

CULTURAL SAFETY: CONCEPT
• It is an environment for the people, where there is no
kind of assault, challenge or denial of their identity.
• It involves the aspects of shared respect, knowledge,
meaning and experience of learning, living and
working together along with dignity and honesty
(Burack, 2013).
• Mainly used in the practice of nursing among the
Maoris of New Zealand.

CULTURAL AWARENESS: CONCEPT
• It is the way of communication by standing
aside and examining one’s own cultural values,
beliefs and practices.
• It is the main focus while communicating with
people belonging to other cultural practices
(Pauly et al., 2015)

HOW IS CULTURAL SAFETY AND CULTURAL
AWARENESS RELATED TO EACH OTHER
• Identifying and respecting towards the cultural
diversity.
• Collecting of appropriate information prior to
judgement.
• Practice of empathy in order to understand and act
accordingly.
• Systematic analysis of assumptions.

CULTURAL COMPETENCE: CONCEPT
• It is a set of behaviours, policies and attitudes
that bind together to form an agency allowing
the cross-cultural groups to work effectively.
• It includes human behaviours, verbal and
non-verbal communications, religious beliefs
and practices, ethics, social groups and the like
(Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013).

HOW IS CULTURAL SAFETY AND CULTURAL
COMPETENCE RELATED TO EACH OTHER
• Behave according to the culture of the others.
• Understanding and communicating properly
with the people.
• Understanding and respecting the religious
beliefs and practices of the cross-cultural
people.
• Understanding and maintaining the ethics of
other cultures.

CULTURAL SAFETY FOR THE
ABORIGINALS
• It includes environment with flexibility in
culture within the Aboriginal and Torres
Islander communities.
• It also means that the people who are
interacting with the people belonging to the
community should be proficient to interact
with other cultures (Newman et al., 2013).

IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL SAFETY FOR
THE ABORIGINES
• The aborigines of Australia face a disproportionate of
illnesses and social disadvantages compared to the non-
indigenous Australians.
• Higher levels of racism and discrimination are also common
among them.
• The health service providers need to respond to the diversity
in culture and the impact of racism on the aborigines.

LEGISLATION THAT PROTECT THE
ABORIGINAL CULTURAL SAFETY
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Communities (Justice, Land and Other
Matters) Act, 1984
• Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, 2003
• Aboriginal Land Act, 1991
• Land Act, 1994
• Family Responsibilities Commission Act,
2008 (Parker & Milroy, 2014).

SERVICE DELIVERY TO THE ABORIGINALS
WITH REGARD TO CHILD CARE
The Crime and Misconduct Commission implementation plan
proposed that about 23 Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agency to
be funded in Queensland so that they provide at least the five distinct
and integrated programs which included:
• Family restoration and support, primary prevention, parenting
support and early intervention
• Intensive family support
• Placement services
• Career support
• Child advocacy and statutory advice (Salveron et al., 2015).

STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT DELIVERY
PROGRAM
• Creches provide child care and early learning
sessions that include occasional care and other
services.
• Flexible and innovative services providing child
care and early learning sessions.
• Care of children post and prior to their school
attendance.
• Caring for the children during the vacation period
of the school.

STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT DELIVERY
PROGRAM (continued)
• Teaching the children certain activities related to
the culture, sporting activities can be provided.
• Providing long day care of the children who are
not being able to attend formal system of
education (Finch et al., 2014).
• Mobile services are where child care and early
learning sessions and support.
• Mobile services providing occasional or regular
long day care sessions.

UTILISATION OF RESOURCES TO BUILD
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
• Building of rapport in order to communicate in an
effective and efficient way.
• Avoidance of use of complex words and phrases so that
the aborigines are able to understand.
• Giving ample time to the people to make them
understand and not rush with the words.
• Understanding the use of body language of the
aboriginals and acting accordingly.
• Giving them some space. With an unfamiliar person
distance should be maintained.

CONCLUSION
• There should be more facilities like the day
care centres to promote child care among the
aboriginals.
• The crèches should include the indigenous
children as a part of it.
• There should be separate formal education
system for the indigenous people of Australia.

REFERENCES
• Burack, J. A. (2013). Cultural mismatch and the education of
Aboriginal youths: The interplay of cultural identities and teacher
ratings. Developmental psychology, 49(1), 72.
• Finch, M., Wolfenden, L., Morgan, P. J., Freund, M., Jones, J., &
Wiggers, J. (2014). A cluster randomized trial of a multi-level
intervention, delivered by service staff, to increase physical activity of
children attending center-based childcare. Preventive medicine, 58, 9-
16.
• Fryberg, S. A., Troop-Gordon, W., D'arrisso, A., Flores, H., Ponizovskiy,
V., Ranney, J. D., ... & Burack, J. A. (2013). Cultural mismatch and the
education of Aboriginal youths: The interplay of cultural identities
and teacher ratings. Developmental psychology, 49(1), 72.

REFERENCES (continued)
• Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2013). Assessing cross-cultural
competence: A review of available tests. Journal of cross-cultural
psychology, 44(6), 849-873.
• Newman, C. E., Gray, R., Brener, L., Jackson, L. C., Johnson, P.,
Saunders, V., ... & Treloar, C. (2013). One size fits all? The discursive
framing of cultural difference in health professional accounts of
providing cancer care to Aboriginal people. Ethnicity & health, 18(4),
433-447.
• Parker, R., & Milroy, H. (2014). Mental illness in Aboriginal and
Torres strait Islander peoples. Working Together, 65.
• Pauly, B. B., McCall, J., Browne, A. J., Parker, J., & Mollison, A.
(2015). Toward cultural safety: nurse and patient perceptions of illicit
substance use in a hospitalized setting. Advances in nursing
science, 38(2), 121-135.

REFERENCES (continued)
• Pieterse, J. N. (2015). Globalization and culture: Global
mélange. Rowman & Littlefield.
• Salveron, M., Bromfield, L., Kirika, C., Simmons, J.,
Murphy, T., & Turnell, A. (2015). ‘Changing the way
we do child protection’: The implementation of Signs of
Safety® within the Western Australia Department for
Child Protection and Family Support. Children and
youth services review, 48, 126-139.
• Sanders, W. (2017). Gangbangs and drive-bys: Grounded
culture and juvenile gang violence. Routledge.