Child removal as structural conflict: Education, intergenerational trauma, and Aboriginal-led healing in Australia

Abstract

This paper examines the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia as a form of structural conflict arising from settler colonial governance, with impacts comparable to those experienced by children in contexts of war, displacement, and cultural disruption globally. It aims to explore how child removal policies undermined children’s rights to education, identity, culture, and psychosocial wellbeing, and to highlight Aboriginal-led healing responses with relevance for Educational Psychology theory and practice. A qualitative, decolonising critical review methodology was employed, drawing on Indigenous scholarship, historical and policy literature, trauma theory, and international research on education in conflict and post-conflict settings. This approach was selected to challenge Eurocentric knowledge hierarchies by privileging Aboriginal worldviews, relational understandings of wellbeing, and culturally grounded conceptions of education. The analysis is informed by trauma-informed and Indigenous pedagogical frameworks to examine how structural harms and healing responses operate within child protection and educational systems. The review indicates that child removal policies functioned as structural conflict within settler-colonial systems that disrupted kinship systems, cultural education, and connection to Country, producing intergenerational trauma that continues to shape Aboriginal children’s educational engagement and overrepresentation in child protection systems. Aboriginal-led frameworks, including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, Family Group Conferencing, and Caring for Country, emerge as culturally responsive protective practices that restore identity, relational safety, and collective decision-making. These approaches align with core Educational Psychology principles related to wellbeing, learning, and culturally responsive practice. The study is limited by its reliance on secondary literature rather than primary empirical data, and by the diversity of sources synthesised across disciplines. The findings should therefore be interpreted as conceptual and illustrative. Further community-led, empirical, and longitudinal research is required to examine outcomes for children and to guide implementation in educational and psychological practice. By framing child removal as structural conflict, this paper situates Australia’s history within global discussions of education in contexts of trauma and recovery. The findings highlight the importance of cultural safety, self-determination, and relational approaches for Educational Psychologists and allied professionals working with Indigenous children and communities. Caring for Country is highlighted as both an educational and healing practice, reinforcing the role of culture, land, and kinship in supporting wellbeing, learning, and resilience.