The Department for Child Protection Senior Youth Worker has been a vital cog in the wheel when it comes to helping Aboriginal children in care learn more about their mobs, languages and family connections.

“I’ve explained (to the children) the story of my Nanna, when she was in care as part of the Stolen Generations,” Teya says.

“It’s about teaching our kids that there’s a community around them and there’s other people in their area that can support them.”

Teya was a finalist in the 2023 SA Child Protection Awards in the Active Efforts category, which recognises people and organisations doing outstanding work to implement the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle.

The principle acknowledges the importance of family, cultural and community connections to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s identity and wellbeing.

Teya, whose heritage includes the Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri and Narungga nations, has spent about a decade working in child protection, and has a clear passion for helping Aboriginal children connect with culture.

She introduced “Nunga Time” – an after school cultural youth program for children in residential care in Adelaide’s south, including art projects, cultural cooking sessions and the use of bush tucker.

“So many young people in residential care didn’t understand where they were from,” she says.

“It was really powerful having non-Aboriginal young people come and learn with the Aboriginal young people and it broke down some of the divide.”

Residential care staff also attended the sessions, leaving them better equipped to have ongoing conversations about culture with children and young people.

Nunga Time recently gave rise to another project – the creation of the Nunga Time Resource Centre in Adelaide's south, which features a bush tucker garden, rooms for sibling contact, sessions on bush medicine, weaving and language and countless books and other resources for children to borrow.

“It’s about having a culturally safe place where they can come and talk,” Teya says.

She says previous roles working in Aboriginal health, and in the records department at Families SA (now the Department for Child Protection) opened her eyes to the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in the care system ­­– and the need to work towards better outcomes.

Close to 300 nominations were received across 12 categories in the Child Protection Awards, which recognise those who go above and beyond to enrich the lives of children and young people.

The Department for Child Protection hosted the initiative, in partnership with the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN).