This paper will address the overall approach of the present government to the provision of Aboriginal children's services in the context of the social indicators about Aboriginal children within Aboriginal society and non-Aboriginal society. It will then outline the proper and appropriate frameworks for the development of services for Aboriginal children.

Where Rights Are Wronged: A critique of Australia's compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was published in March of this year. It is a report of the National Children's Bureau of Australia for the Children's Rights Coalition by consultants Graeme Brewer and Phillip Swain.

The first section of the paper makes some observations about young people, crime and the police, and the particular vulnerability of Aboriginal youth coming to the attention of the police. Two issues, the maintenance of public order and juvenile offending, provide the framework for the discussion here. The second section looks at the nexus between the pre-trial conference - a recent innovation in the Children's Court in Perth - police prosecutors, and Aboriginal youth.

This article is written by a non indigenous person who has spent a number of years working with Torres Strait Islanders and is currently working in Victoria on a project that has its origins in Maori child care practice. The author has found that his work as a white social worker has been markedly influenced by contact with both Torres Strait Islander and Maori culture, and considers that this effect has been both positive and beneficial. White social workers for a number of years have been guilty of implementing an assimilationist policy where Governments treat indigenous people as though they are the same as white Australians. While this can be considered an equal treatment model, this policy and practice has been detrimental to the unique contribution indigenous people can provide to social work knowledge and understanding of child care practices. This article intends to share some insight into both these cultures and to hopefully influence readers to be more open when considering their dealings with indigenous people. Particular attention will be given to Torres Strait Islanders as they are indigenous Australians, with additional reference made to the influence of the Maoris in New Zealand.

The Aboriginal family unit has seen many changes since European invasion. Like families all over the world, the Aboriginal family is the place where social behaviour is constructed, interpreted and transmitted from one generation to another. This is a process which has continued since the invasion of white man. Aboriginal people see the family as a place of nurturing, with the ability to provide and teach. When one or both of these factors is not functioning adequately, a family breakdown can occur.

“I mean we're sitting back waiting for our younger people to take over. When I'm talking about younger people I'm talking about teenagers and ah our people in their early twenties. They are the ones that have the new ideas, some of us now I think our ideas are a bit stale, a bit old, we try and keep abreast of what's happening with issues that are affecting people but ah, the same way as we can't, ah don't want white people telling Aboriginal people what should happen, you can't have older people telling younger people what should happen either. But I think we should work together and map out a future and the younger people should come in and take it…seize the time”.

Today if someone mentions the word ‘treaty’ in the Aboriginal context, the usual next question is ‘Why a treaty?’ The educated English reader of the 19th Century press would have been more likely to ask the opposite question ‘Why not a treaty?’ Treaties with the indigenous people were a normal part of the colonising process. Treaties were concluded by the British in New Zealand, and with many Indian tribes in Canada and the United States.