“We all grow up with our mob because it takes all of us”: First Nations collective kinship in Australia

Being raised by and within ones’ First Nations community, among one’s mob and fully immersed in culture, is a fundamental part of First Nations being. This is an aspect of First Nations being that has been disrupted through colonial practices targeting First Nations families, such as the Stolen Generations where 10–30% of all First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families in the twentieth century. It also continues in the contemporary through statutory child removals in Australia, where the continued overrepresentation of First Nations children in Australian child protection and OOHC systems has resulted in community concerns of another Stolen Generations. Shifting towards systemic transformation through increased First Nations self-determination and control of OOHC systems, this article describes an innovative model of kinship care, the ‘Minintitja Care Model’, that one First Nations community designed and delivered in rural New South Wales, Australia. The Minintitja Care Model is an example of the power and promise that First Nations self-determination holds to deliver improved outcomes for First Nations children in OOHC in Australia. We argue that it evidences the importance of fundamentally redesigning how OOHC services are delivered to First Nations children in Australia by drawing on First Nations knowledge, tradition and value. Yet redesigning a system that was not built for the benefit of First Nations children and families requires more than reform: it requires the bravery to envision new possibilities by drawing on ancient wisdom. This, we contend, is aligned with the tenets of abolition, as applied from a First Nations standpoint.