Blake lost touch with his culture in high school. Then in year 12, something clicked
As a kid growing up in central Queensland, Blake Iles remembers feeling very connected to his Yiman and Darumbal culture.
At 12, though, he was removed from his home and sent to live with his non-Indigenous family. His younger brothers, aged two and four, were put into foster care.
After being removed from his home at 12, it took years for Blake to reconnect with his Indigenous culture again.Credit: QFCC Youth Summit
“I lost a lot of touch with my culture, and my brothers did as well,” he says.
Iles, now 19, travelled from Rockhampton to speak at the Queensland Family and Child Commission’s Youth Summit in Brisbane last month, where young people shared experiences and ideas on the issues that affect them.
He was the first to step up to the podium, and spoke about the years he spent in out-of-home care, and his feeling of losing his Indigenous culture and identity during his formative school years.
Blake Iles was the first young person to speak at the inaugural QFCC Youth Summit last month.Credit: Courtney Kruk
“I was known as the kid who wasn’t black enough because I came from a white household,” he told this masthead after the summit.
“There were times I felt a lot of shame and that’s why I didn’t try to get involved in my culture until I was older.
“Through high school, I didn’t feel like a proud Indigenous man.”
Things changed when Iles was invited to do a Welcome to Country at his school in grade 12. He says something in him just clicked.
Iles has become an advocate for children in out-of-home care to discover and celebrate their identity.Credit: Blake Iles
“I looked for more ways to explore my culture. When I moved schools, I joined a dance group and it just went from there.”
Iles now works with Groove Co., a company that delivers programs in schools teaching cultural safety, advocacy, knowledge and connection.
“In this general area in Rockhampton, not enough has been done to involve Indigenous kids with their culture, heritage and traditions,” Iles says.
“Some people are never going to figure out who they truly are, and they’re never going to learn about their culture because they haven’t been given any opportunity.”
SNAICC’s 2023 Family Matters Report found there were 22,328 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in out-of-home care. The report also found that fewer than half of Indigenous children in care are living with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers.
QFCC Commissioner Natalie Lewis says there’s a gross over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in statutory systems like child protection and youth justice – and they have intertwined effects.
“The need for children to maintain that connection with kin, Country and culture is absolutely fundamental for their development of a sense of identity,” Lewis says.
“It’s a human longing that we all have for belonging and connection to something.”
Without this, Lewis says young people, particularly those in early adolescence, are prone to finding connection elsewhere.
“We see that loss of cultural identity and that positive connection to culture can be displaced or replaced by becoming involved in other types of things,” she says.
Natalie Lewis, a descendant of the Gamilaraay Nation, was appointed QFCC Commissioner in May 2020.Credit: QFCC
“One of the things we grossly underestimate is the significant strength of culture as a protective factor for children becoming involved in youth offending.”
It’s not an optional extra – it’s a proven long-term necessity for children in care.
“If we make decisions to sever the connection that that child has to their family, to their community, to their language, their country, that is going to have lifelong ramifications for that child,” Lewis says.
“It has to be a consideration in every decision we make about a child because the moment we compromise their connection to culture and to their family, then we put them on a trajectory for a life course where that identity will be formed by things that might not be as positive.”
Iles is aware his life could have taken a different turn, had he not reconnected with his culture. It’s one of the reasons he’s determined to continue advocating in the space.
“I really do love helping people get to experience something like I did. I think giving kids an opportunity to express their culture and be a part of it is a blessing.”