As a welfare administrator, the opportunities to visit child caring establishments are many. It is like visiting another world. They are a mixture of “The Sullivans”, “The Waltons”, “The Brady Bunch”, with an air of unreality because time has passed them by and the new society of the present time calls for radical service delivery style. Alternative child care is developing in kids shelters to provide some of the elements needed in a modern world. What formalised child care often supplies is an expensive, stylised anachronism which does not need committees on how to change but accountants who can manage to wind down activities and allow reinvestment in care which will meet today’s challenges.

The mother of a retarded child tells of some of the battles, frustrations and the rewards of caring for her retarded son.

It is hoped that contributions such as this one from Margaret Hydon will become a regular feature of the Journal.

My husband was elated to hear at long last that our son Andrew had arrived, but at the time little did he realize the full implications of the trauma of the birth which was then closely followed by septicaemia and bronchial pneumonia.

Marriage and marriage breakdown are the reasons we have the much discussed Family Law Act, Family Courts and the current boom in divorces. Divorce and the legal machinery which deals with it is more easily discussed in the media than is marriage and the processes by which it breaks down. This helps people to ignore marital problems until they become so painful and difficult that divorce seems the only solution. It is easier to read and write about sex, divorce and violence than about marriage, love and emotional closeness. Unless this is changed the rate of marriage breakdown and divorce in Australia is likely to remain higher than society can afford.

Whether or not A.A. Milne accurately reflected childhood experiences in 1924, this is certainly the picture of childhood experience and expectation with which many of us grew up. As an aside, I would note that another English poet, Kit Wright, writing in 1978, comes up with a vastly different picture of life through a child’s eyes:

Huntington's Disease is a hereditary disease which is passed from generation to generation through auto-somal dominant tranmission. The transmission is unrelated to the sex of the child and each child of an affected parent has a 50% chance of inheriting the disease or not inheriting the disease. This disease never skips a generation but for those who do not inherit the offending gene (S), then the disease can no longer be transmitted to future generations. The disease usually manifests itself in the late 30's and early 40's years of age, that is, towards the end of the reproductive life of the patient. The average length of time from onset to death is about 15 years and death is usually due to pneumonia or heart disease in a debilitated person.

In traditional Aboriginal communities the young were cared for by the COMBINED efforts of relatives. Traditional social/cultural values included an emphasis on the extended family as the basic unit, with responsibility for the welfare of each member of a tribe being shared by all. Methods of child-rearing emphasised undemanding security and physical demonstration of affection, rather then discipline, training and material comforts. The structure of the extended family varied from tribe to tribe with different members having primary responsibility for child care.

The disproportionate number of Aboriginal juveniles in state corrective institutions is a matter of serious concern to Aboriginals, policy-makers and administrators alike. Although it is difficult to obtain accurate statistical information in this area, and hence to fully comprehend the nature and complexity of the problem, what data we do have suggest that juvenile delinquency and ensuing institutionalisation is reaching crisis proportions. It would seem that in comparison with the non-Aboriginal population, Aboriginal juveniles are more likely to be charged with an offence, to be convicted, and to be committed to a corrective institution. Moreover, recidivism rates for Aboriginal juveniles are significantly higher than for non-Aboriginals and substantial numbers do not have homes to go to on release and are transferred to institutions or permanent foster care as wards of the State.

Before Missionaries came to Groote Eylandt in 1921, people used to stay in family groups. They followed the pattern set by our laws set for marriages, but the strong men took most wives, and others were left without a wife. There were many murders for this reason and because of raids from other mainland tribes.

There was plenty of food from the sea and the bush. When the water dried up in smaller creeks there were four rivers where people could get fresh water. They moved around in their own areas on Groote.

David Donnison’s definition is both useful, and relevant to the theme “The Process of Change from within an Established System”. The relevance, I suggest, relates to the words — theory, reality and irreverence. How many of us working within an established system have a sound theoretical base, are in touch with reality, and have an irreverent mind. Such a combination of attributes are considered unusual in bureaucrats — although they can be acquired. However the acquisition requires the bureaucrat to give up some of the conventional attributes of success, or at least, a quiescent life in the organization. People involved in change really do see the world as it is without the assistance of self-interest filters.

Alfred Adler (1954) referred to the sibling rivalry between the first and secondborn when he said,

The striving for power in the case of a secondborn child also has its especial nuance. Secondborn children are constantly under steam, striving for superiority under pressure: the race-course attitude which determines their activity in life is very evident in their actions. The fact that there is someone ahead of him who has already gained power is a strong stimulus for the secondborn. If he is enabled to develop his powers and takes up the battle with the firstborn he will usually move forward with a great deal of elan, then while the first born, possessing power, feels himself relatively secure until the second threatens to surpass him (p. 126).