Overview

Globally, Indigenous peoples have suffered the effects of the invasion and colonization by foreign countries that has detrimentally affected the long-term health and well-being of peoples and communities. In Australia, there are high numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families who have been deeply affected by the historical circumstances surrounding the British invasion and subsequent colonization, the harms of which continue to reverberate across communities (Dale et al, 2023). There is a need to pay attention to recovery for Indigenous children involved with state care systems, namely, child protection and youth justice. The removal of children to the child protection system, and repeated incarceration, now span multiple generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and the intersection between the two systems for Indigenous children is a significant problem (Bala et al, 2015; Malvaso et al, 2019; Keddell et al, 2022).

As discussed elsewhere in this book, and by Hamilton et al (2020b), the concept of ‘recovery capital’ was initially developed as a strengths-based model, in the context of recovery from substance use (Granfield and Cloud, 2001). Hamilton et al (2020b) extended this model by introducing the concept of ‘justice capital’, as a way to explore recovery capital in the justice context, specifically, the positive and negative assets of children and young people living in state care, to ensure equitable access to care and support, that sustains recovery and enhances well-being and positive life outcomes.