Supporting the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: A guide for non-Indigenous leaders and organisations

This guide has been created to support organisations and leaders in their ongoing journey of walking respectfully alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It offers practical ideas, reflective questions and evidence‑informed guidance to help organisations create environments where self‑determination, cultural safety and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healing approaches are integrated.

Supporting the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children requires more than good intentions. It calls for a willingness to listen deeply, build genuine partnerships and actively challenge systems and practices that undermine cultural ways of knowing, being and doing. This toolkit invites organisations to approach this work with humility, respect and a commitment to meaningful, sustained change.

Findings from the Emerging Minds’ National Workforce Survey for Child, Parent and Family Mental Health highlight why this work is urgently needed. The biennial survey provides a snapshot of the knowledge and practices of professionals across the health, social, and community services sectors. In 2023, the survey was expanded to include a dedicated focus on working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

The survey findings revealed significant gaps in workforce confidence and understanding of SEWB and culturally responsive practice. But they also showed the strengths and deep expertise of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners and Community‑led organisations.

This guide builds on these insights, offering organisations a pathway to strengthen their practice, challenge systemic barriers and walk alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in ways that honour culture, relationships and healing.

To support the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, it is essential to strengthen and invest in the wellbeing of their families.

Children need to develop and grow within the context of family, culture and Community. Effective outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families therefore require an approach that ensures they are respected, empowered with resources and culturally safe when accessing the services they need to stay together and flourish.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples face disproportionately high rates of social-emotional and mental health challenges compared to non-Indigenous Australians. Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA; 2023) reveals:

• Suicide rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are almost twice as high as those of non-Indigenous Australians.
• Hospitalisation due to intentional self-harm occurs at three times the rate.
• Psychological distress is reported at 2.4 times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians.

These figures underscore the urgent need for culturally safe, Community-led mental health services and policies that address systemic inequities and promote SEWB for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities.

Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are struggling and continue to face significant social, historical and economic disadvantage. Current mental health services predominantly focus on treating conditions after they emerge, rather than addressing the underlying causes of distress. This reactive, clinical approach often overlooks the broader determinants of health that impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

Services and programs that strengthen connection, support belonging and respond to the SEWB needs of families in culturally safe ways lead to improved outcomes for families (Murrup-Stewart et al., 2025). To achieve this, organisations and services must shift toward preventative, culturally safe and Community‑led models of care that support the whole family.

Ensuring early access to effective and culturally responsive services can significantly reduce the long‑term impacts of mental health challenges and enhance SEWB outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families (AIHW & NIAA, 2023).

Social determinants of health and their impact on social and emotional wellbeing

The social determinants of health, such as the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, are key drivers of health inequality. Unequal access to health care, education, employment and housing, and lowered opportunities for healthy living, all contribute to poorer health outcomes.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities, these disparities are established in structural disadvantage caused by historical and ongoing social policies and economic systems, as well as the unequal distribution of power and resources. These factors not only increase the likelihood of experiencing mental health challenges but also reduce access to appropriate support services.

While primary health care can help children and families manage mental health challenges, clinical care contributes just 10–20% to mental health outcomes in prevention and treatment.  On the other hand, social, economic, cultural and behavioural factors – such as education, family income, housing and discrimination – determine more than half of the contribution (Lopez-Carmen et al., 2019).

To improve SEWB outcomes and ensure culturally safe and equitable access to care, it is essential to address the social determinants of health and the systemic barriers experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families (AIHW & NIAA, 2023).

Consider and reflect

• Does your organisation have clear processes to understand the social determinants of health for families? For example, do you consider information about housing, domestic and family violence, finances and employment at the time of referral?
• Does your organisation have formal partnerships with local Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) to support referrals?

Recommended resources

• Watch the WA Health video Journey of health and wellbeing with your team. Explore the social determinants of health you see within the video and discuss how you might respond to these.
• Read Lowitja Institute’s Cultural and social determinants of health, which emphasises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing are shaped by interlinked cultural, social, emotional and structural determinants. This webpage also talks about the strengths based, culturally led frameworks required to support families, communities and systems.
• Watch the webinar Why identity matters: Skills to challenge unhelpful systems in practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. Co-presented by Emerging Minds and Mental Health Professionals Network (MHPN), this webinar gives practitioners the opportunity to learn more about recognising diverse identities, navigating unhelpful systems and promoting SEWB through culturally affirming strategies.

The National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Mental Health and Social and Emotional Wellbeing 2017–2023 (National SEWB Framework) is referenced as a key document across health policy settings at state and federal levels.

With a dedicated focus on the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the National SEWB Framework outlines a comprehensive, culturally appropriate stepped-care model that can be applied across both Indigenous-specific and mainstream health services.

The National SEWB Framework is an important guiding document for supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. However, it is often overlooked in service delivery and is not always given the same value and recognition as Western models, despite its holistic approach and cultural relevance for families.

If we are to consider the ‘whole child’, which includes their connections to family and community, the National SEWB Framework provides valuable guidance. It details a system of care that has a profound understanding of a child’s ecology, the importance of connections and the need for a comprehensive early intervention mental care health system.

Understanding the National SEWB Framework can benefit your provision for not only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families but all families across the service system.

Building on the National SEWB Framework: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership and mental health outcomes

Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit Australia), a national leader in SEWB, reinforces and builds on the National SEWB Framework through:

• the Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Declaration, which was developed by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership in Mental Health in 2015 (Gayaa Dhuwi [Proud Spirit] Australia, n.d.-a)
• the Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Declaration Framework and Implementation Plan 2025–2035 (Gayaa Dhuwi [Proud Spirit] Australia, 2025).

The Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Declaration focuses on the need for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership across all parts of the Australian mental health system to achieve positive mental health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Dudgeon et al., 2016; Gayaa Dhuwi [Proud Spirit] Australia, n.d.-a). It covers five key themes:

Designed to translate these themes into practical actions, the Declaration Framework and Implementation Plan promotes culturally appropriate, Community-led approaches to SEWB and mental health support (Gayaa Dhuwi [Proud Spirit] Australia, 2025).

The role of organisations

Improving the mental health system to support the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children requires a best of both worlds approach – one that integrates clinical expertise with culturally informed practices. This includes recognising Indigenous knowledge systems, healing traditions and Community-led models of care (Dudgeon et al., 2016; Lindeman et al., 2014).

Organisations carry a collective responsibility to:

• provide a culturally responsive service
• improve how they uphold and embed SEWB principles in practice and across their service systems, including through the creation of collaboration points across sectors (Lopez-Carmen et al., 2019)
• integrate the SEWB Framework across organisational systems and into service provision and practice.

Consider and reflect

• What would it look like if you incorporated the SEWB Framework into your organisation and/or service provision?
• What do you currently do that supports SEWB in your organisation and service? What might you be able build on?

Recommended resources

• Read the Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Declaration Framework and Implementation Plan to learn how to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing by embedding culturally led governance, accountable leadership, workforce capability and system wide action across mental health services.
• Watch Clinical application of social and emotional wellbeing to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, a webinar co-presented by Emerging Minds and the Mental Health Professionals Network (MHPN). The webinar’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander panellists explore clinical application of the SEWB framework, guiding practitioners to balance clinical and cultural knowledge, address common implementation challenges and embed culturally informed approaches in practice.

Colonisation and its legacy continue to live both politically and through service provision in Australia today. This can be seen in the unequal power structures and Western frameworks that continue to shape our societies and service systems.

Non-Indigenous people working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families often feel an inability to change organisational or social systems – but everyone has a part to play. Non-Indigenous practitioners and leaders can explore this by taking a broader view of the social service systems they work in.

Although leaders are individuals, they are often part of a team, an organisation and/or a larger social service system. Each team, organisation and service has its own way of working, as well as its own values, policies, approaches, goals and pressures – all of which can directly impact the scope of individual practice. But personal practice can influence how organisations and services work too.

Individuals, teams, organisations and services are all interrelated – they’re part of a system. Like living organisms, systems have multiple parts that each play a role and create something that is greater than any single part (Meadows, 2009).

Considering systems thinking

A system is a collection of interconnected elements that are organised in a coherent manner to accomplish a specific goal. To be considered a system, it must include three types of components: elements, interconnections and a function or purpose (Meadows, 2009; Reos Partners, 2023). Systems thinking is a holistic way to explore how these components interact and influence one another (Morganelli, 2024).

Whilst systems thinking has been discussed and documented through Western institutions, these concepts are embedded within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and ways of living, being and doing.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives emphasise that systems thinking not only shapes our perception of the world but also influences how we interact with one another and the environment. An example is in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership, which demonstrates this thinking through their focus on sustainability, knowledge-sharing, community wellbeing, land management and social change (Glynn-McDonald, 2022).

Another example is through the Ngarrindjeri Nation’s lakun (weaving) of reeds:

The different components of a system – the elements, interconnections and function or purpose (Reos Partners, 2023) – also relate to Ngarrindjeri lakun and ways of considering family and Community:

• Elements (the individual parts that make up a system): The reeds, the needle and the process of weaving.
• Interconnections (the relationships between elements): The rows are layered one after the other; the connection of each row creates the object being woven. These are the Ngarrindjeri individual and Community.
• Function or purpose (the system’s behaviour, achievement or outcome): The close-knit connection of each row gives the woven object its strength; the connection that family members have for each other is as strong as the woven object.

In a social service context, the system could be made up of the teams, organisations and broader service systems, as well as their relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, communities and organisations.

Taking systems thinking concepts – and learning from Ngarrindjeri lakun in the way we apply these concepts – can be a means to explore organisational and systemic allyship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

As a leader, knowing the systems that impact wellbeing is crucial to understanding how your organisation can:

• transform the systems it is part of or works within
• overcome hurdles, barriers and blockages
• create change in the organisation and/or system (Knight & Baldwin, 2022).

Leaders play an important role in understanding and changing organisations and systems to work with, support and learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Consider and reflect

• Who and what is your system? What are its elements, interconnections and function or purpose?
• In relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, how has your organisation or system behaved in the past? What is it doing now? What does it want to do in the future?
• Is there a process of truth-telling that needs to occur for your organisation to move forward?
• In relation to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and acting in allyship:
  • What role/s do you currently play?
  • What role/s do other people in your organisation or system play in this work? How does their role or work complement or connect with your own?
  • How might you enhance your role by sharing your learning with others? How might this strengthen your allyship as an individual or organisation? How might it support other allies?

To improve social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) outcomes for children and their families, organisations need to consider and reflect on their commitment for change.

Organisations and leaders play a key role in supporting the SEWB of children and families, but without a strong commitment across all levels of the organisation, change will be limited.
As a leader, it is important that you consider what are your organisation is already doing and what is you are hoping to achieve.

In the following video (3 minutes, 56 seconds), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents talk about what helps them in their parenting journey.

Consider and reflect

• Does your organisation make space for some of the healing practices that parents spoke about in this video?
• Do your organisation’s strategies and processes consider the SEWB of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families? If so, how can this be built on or strengthened? If not, what could you or your organisation do to support this?
• Does your organisation have strong reciprocal partnerships within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to support cultural integrity and accountability?
• Does your organisation have a Reconciliation Action Plan?
• Does your organisation support a cultural learning journey? Do practitioners have access to Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing and best practice standards? How do you know if this is effective?
• What can you or your organisation do to improve cultural accountability? How could you do this? Who can support those goals? And what resources do you need?

Recommended resources

• Engage with local Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) to build relationships, learn about local priorities, explore cultural learning packages and find consultants. You can find your local ACCHO on the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) website: NACCHO locations.
• Plan by working on your organisation’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). RAPs have enabled organisations to sustainably and strategically take meaningful action to advance reconciliation. Find out more on the Reconciliation Australia website.
• Read this chapter from Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice: Cultural competence – transforming policy, services, programs and practice.
• Use the Emerging Minds Learning Workplace Dashboard to encourage staff learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and SEWB. The Workplace Dashboard invites you to build a learning pathway by choosing from a range of free online courses; assign the pathway to staff; and track their progress. You might like to embed the pathway in the induction and orientation package for all new non-Indigenous staff joining your organisation.
• Read these short articles from Emerging Minds:
  • Positive partnerships: Working alongside ACCHOs to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander SEWB
  • From co-design to co-creation – Building responsive relationships and delivering outcomes with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations

Building a workforce that is both culturally responsive and trauma-informed is an important strategy for organisations – and strongly recommended in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2021–2031 (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, 2021).

By embedding cultural safety and trauma awareness into every layer of service delivery, organisations can create environments where families feel respected, understood and supported. This means moving beyond compliance to genuine commitment by investing in training, mentoring and reflective practice that empowers staff to respond with care and cultural integrity (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, 2021).

Culturally responsive care actively promotes cultural safety by centring culture as integral to identity and partnering with individuals to define what safe care means for them (Turner, 2019).

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, cultural connection is vital to social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) and is linked to better family outcomes. An understanding of the trauma and loss experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities is an important part of this work.

Building your Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce is pivotal to culturally responsive care for children and families. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners understand their communities best. Their skills and knowledge – about things like kinship structures, local protocols and cultural obligations – are essential to supporting the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families (Dawson et al., 2025).

Consider and reflect

• What are your strategies for supporting staff in your organisation to understand the impact of trauma and loss for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples?
• How do you provide the relevant knowledge and develop the practice skills to appropriately assess and work within a trauma-informed approach?
• How do you recruit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners or staff? Do you have identified positions? Do you provide leadership pathways and/or mentoring?
• Non-clinical staff are just as important in making families engaging with your organisation or service feel respected and heard, and they are often the first point of contact (e.g. receptionists). How do you support training and development for staff working in non-clinical roles?
• Do you provide culturally safe environments that recognise the cultural, Community and family obligations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff? How do you help them feel supported?
• Are you committed to ongoing cultural training and development for all staff?

Recommended resources

• Read the Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project’s Workforce capabilities framework.
• Complete Emerging Minds’ free online course Healing the past by nurturing the future. This course supports practitioners to work in strengths based ways with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families by understanding healing, connection and intergenerational wellbeing.
• Watch the Emerging Minds webinar Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and the effects of intergenerational trauma. This webinar talks about how you can acknowledge and support intergenerational trauma to strengthen Aboriginal children’s safety, identity and wellbeing through culturally responsive, strengths based support.

To improve social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, it is essential to give status and preference in service design to the diverse voices, knowledge, experiences, skills and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations, communities, families and individuals. This needs to happen across all levels of the organisation or service system – from representation on the board to program design, as well as through lived experience and care governance feedback mechanisms.

Watch the following video (7 minutes, 8 seconds) to learn about Emerging Minds’ National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Consultancy Group and ways that organisations can be better allies.

Consider and reflect

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples know Community best. Do you have recruitment strategies and targets to increase your Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce?
• Do you have mechanisms or structures in place to hear the experiences of your Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce?
• Does your organisation have advisory groups and partnerships with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs)?
• How does your organisation involve Community members in all stages of service design?
• Does your organisation review and revise policies to support self-determination and cultural frameworks? How?
• What feedback mechanisms have you or your organisation established to ensure lived experience voices are heard and acted upon?

Recommended resources

• Read:
  • Co-design findings and next steps: Child and family support system from the SA Department of Human Services
  • SNAICC’s Partnership training manual: Creating change through partnerships.
• Listen to Emerging Minds’ podcast episode: Listen to our voices and our stories: Including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in decisions that impact them.
• Explore Emerging Minds’ fact sheet: Key considerations when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lived experience advocates.

Allyship is where non-Indigenous people genuinely walk alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They challenge the narratives, structures and systems that work against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ hopes and dreams, doing so in ways that are self-reflective, respectful and thoughtful.

Being a good ally means being guided by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in your allyship. This could look different depending on where you live and work, so be guided by your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

What is organisational allyship?

Organisational allyship recognises that allyship needs to happen at multiple levels in different ways to change narratives, structures and systems. This allyship needs to occur:

• on an individual level
• within teams
• within organisations
• across organisations within social service systems.

Through building allyship across these different levels, your organisation has a greater opportunity to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing and doing.

Consider and reflect

• What will your organisation stand for and why? What will it not stand for and why?
• How do these decisions support or work against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander strength and self-determination?
• Has your organisation left anyone behind? How will you bring all people along to work towards these goals? What do you think will really be needed? How will you implement this?

Recommended resources

• Listen to Emerging Minds’ podcast episodes Organisational allyship: An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander view and Organisational allyship: A non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander view.
• Engage with community on significant dates and events (e.g. Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC events), walking alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. You can find some of these dates and events on the Deadly Story website: Annual days of significance.
• Read this article from Narrative and Conflict: Explorations of Theory and Practice: ‘Leaning in’ as imperfect allies in community work.

Creating opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous practitioners to work together creates a powerful two-way learning process. By blending cultural knowledge with clinical expertise, practitioners can build a complete picture of a child and family’s world. This partnership values everyone’s strengths and helps shift systems away from deficit thinking toward approaches that truly support children and families (Gayaa Dhuwi [Proud Spirit] Australia, n.d.-b; Safer Family Services, 2022).

Consider and reflect

• How does your organisation develop processes that ensures case plans includes cultural and clinical knowledges? How is each perspective honoured and visible in case management activities?
• How do you incorporate concepts of kinship and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family-led decision-making processes into case plans?
• Are the assessments you incorporate into case management developed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander concepts and healing in mind?
• Deficit framing with cultural misunderstandings and stigmatising language reinforces harmful stereotypes. How do you ensure case records are not documented through deficit framing? Do you have a cultural auditing process to ensure there are no misinterpretations?

Recommended resources

• Read Emerging Minds’ resource by Judy Atkinson, Margaret Hayes and Caroline (Carlie) Atkinson: Working and walking alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people: A practical guide for non-Indigenous workers.
• Listen to Emerging Minds’ two-episode podcast series with Professor Pat Dudgeon AM, Belle Selkirk and Dr Joanna Alexi:
  • Decolonising psychology – part one
  • Decolonising psychology – part two

Advocacy when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities takes on a different dimension: it’s not just in the workplace – it’s a belief about social justice.

This kind of advocacy work and engagement will challenge your understandings about Australia’s ‘fair go’ attitude. At times, you and your organisation will need to make a choice about what you will stand for and what you will challenge in your community. You’ll need to decide when to step forward as an organisation.

This is not easy work. The more you are involved in engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the more you will notice conflicting attitudes and views in yourself, your personal life and professional life.

There will also be times when it will be best for your organisation or staff to step back; to give space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to deal with, and lead on, various issues. This should not be done out of fear – and it’s not an opportunity to ‘turn your back’, leave the situation or neglect your responsibilities.

Advocacy work invites courageous and sensitive leadership to look at the issues, listen and reflect. It’s about walking alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with respect for their strength and self-determination.

Consider and reflect

• How does your organisation determine what funding you should not apply for? How do you support organisations that are better placed to understand the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities?
• How do you challenge unhelpful policies and practices that hinder healing for Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander families?
• How do you elevate the voices and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations in your work (as a practitioner, leader and/or organisation)?
• Has your organisation embedded accountability measures to ensure cultural integrity and check points?

Recommended resources

• Read the Australian Government’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2021–2031.
• Read Emerging Minds’ resource: Making a stand and advocating.

Leadership requires acknowledging systemic injustices and reflecting on practice behaviours rather than trying to change personal beliefs. This demands a shift in mindset and intentional engagement with different ways of thinking.

For practitioners to effectively engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, they must be given the space and time to learn and reflect on their own cultural values, beliefs and biases.

By adopting a decolonising approach, organisations and leaders will be better equipped to build trust and relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

Culturally grounded professional supervision is an essential strategy in the support of reflective practice. It is also integral to building the skills and capability of practitioners to deliver better outcomes for children and families.

Embedding cultural supervision into case and program support creates opportunities for non-Indigenous practitioners to formally engage and learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consultants who have extensive cultural knowledge and lived experience.

Consider and reflect

• Does your organisation incorporate cultural supervision into funding submissions, service models and practice?
• Does your organisation give value to cultural consultants who provide this essential check-in for practitioners?
• What are the mechanisms or processes in place in your organisation to encourage practitioners to reflect on bias and influence?
• How does your organisation challenge Western-centric models in service practice?
• Does your organisation create mentoring opportunities with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and leaders?

Recommended resources

• Read the Aboriginal cultural practice framework from Safer Family Services.
• Read Yorgum Healing Services’ Aboriginal cultural supervision framework.
• Connect with cultural consultants who provide cultural supervision in your area. You might do this by using Google or another search engine using a search term like ‘cultural supervision near me’ or ‘cultural consultants near me’.
• Explore the cultural supervision framework from Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak Limited: Supervision framework.
• Explore this leaders’ guide from Emerging Minds: Supporting culturally reflective practice.

Supporting the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families isn’t just about providing services – it’s about creating environments where families feel safe, valued and respected.

The National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Peoples’ Mental Health and SEWB 2017–2023 provides a clear roadmap for organisations and services, but it’s often overlooked.

To make real change, organisations need to go beyond words and embed cultural responsiveness in everything they do. Listening to lived experience, building genuine partnerships with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), investing in culturally responsive workforce development strategies and prioritising self-determination are key practical ways that organisations can take. These activities help to increase practitioners’ cultural responsiveness and support the SEWB of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.

This isn’t quick work. It takes commitment, reflection and courageous leadership. But when we challenge systemic barriers and work alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, we create space for children to thrive within strong families and cultures.

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