Honouring Families, Honouring Culture: Practising Cultural Humility in Foster Care

This blog is part of our family involved series, which explores how recognising and including the important people in a child’s life strengthens their sense of identity, belonging, and healing. Through practical strategies and reflective insights, we demonstrate how carers and professionals can bring the family involved principle of the CARE Framework to life, even in complex relationships.

In foster care, relationships are everything, especially the relationships that children and young people have with their families and the communities they are part of. The family involved principle from the CARE Framework reminds us that children thrive when the important people in their lives remain part of their world. But to truly honour family connections, especially in a multicultural society like ours, we must also honour culture – and that means practising cultural humility.

What is cultural humility?

Cultural humility is more than just being ‘aware’ of different cultures. It’s an ongoing process of learning, unlearning, self-reflection, and growth. It requires us to recognise the power dynamics that often exist between systems and families, to approach cultural differences with openness and curiosity, and to acknowledge that the people we support are the experts in their own lives and cultural identity.

As carers, caseworkers, and practitioners, we don’t have to be experts in every culture –  but we do need to be willing to listen, learn, and adapt our practice in culturally respectful ways.

Why culture matters in family involvement

Culture is not just food, music, or language; it’s how families make meaning, show love, celebrate, grieve, teach values, and navigate the world. For many children, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, culture is also deeply tied to identity, spirituality, and healing.

When we support children in care to stay connected to their families, we’re also supporting their right to cultural belonging. Disconnection from culture and kinship systems can have long-lasting impacts on a child’s wellbeing and sense of self. Being family involved means acknowledging that culture is family, and family is culture.

Practising cultural curiosity — with care

Cultural curiosity invites us to lean in with respectful questions, not assumptions. It asks us to move beyond stereotypes or “one-size-fits-all” approaches, and to recognise the unique experiences of each family.

We might ask ourselves:

• What does family look like in this child’s culture?
• Who are the key cultural and kinship figures in their life?
• What values, stories, or practices are important to this family?
• How can we honour those values, even if they are different from our own?

When we don’t know, we ask. When we get it wrong, we apologise and try again. That’s cultural humility in action.

Culturally responsive family involvement in practice

Here are a few ways carers and practitioners can practice culturally responsive care while remaining family involved:

• Seek to understand, not judge: If a family’s way of parenting, grieving, or celebrating is different to yours, pause before labelling it as “wrong.” Ask questions. Stay open.
• Respect the role of extended family and community: Many cultures rely on collective child-rearing practices. Who are the aunties, uncles, Elders or community leaders who may play a key role in the child’s life?
• Honour cultural practices in the home: Learn about key cultural holidays, foods, or rituals that can be integrated into the child’s everyday experience.
• Use culturally appropriate language and communication styles: Work with interpreters when needed, and check your own tone, body language, and assumptions.
• Support identity-building: Help children explore their language, name meanings, ancestry, art, music, and stories. These are powerful anchors of identity and pride.

Practising cultural humility as a carer: real-life examples

Here’s what cultural humility can look like in everyday care:

1. Be curious, not assumptive

• Ask: “Can you tell me about any important family or cultural traditions that help your child feel safe or loved?”
• Example: A carer learns that a child’s family observes Ramadan. They support the child in learning about it and provide space to talk about how they might observe it when older.

2. Include extended family and kin

• Understand that in many cultures, aunties, uncles, and grandparents play vital caregiving roles.
• Example: A carer keeps in contact with the child’s uncle and sends updates through the caseworker, even when the child isn’t yet ready for face-to-face visits.

3. Honour cultural practices in daily life

• Invite opportunities to maintain traditions at home.
• Example: A carer supports a Pacific Islander child in wearing traditional dress for a cultural celebration at school and displays cultural art in their bedroom.

4. Use inclusive, respectful language

• Avoid language that makes assumptions about “normal” family structures or parenting.
• Instead of: “We do things this way in Australia,” try: “How is this usually done in your family or culture?”

5. Learn together

• Involve the child in exploring books, music, art, or cooking from their cultural background.
• Example: A carer and child watch Dreamtime stories together on YouTube and talk about the importance of country and connection.

A System that walks with, not over

For agencies and systems, culturally responsive family involvement means more than celebrating Harmony Day. It means:

• embedding cultural safety into practice frameworks and policies
• partnering with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and CALD communities
• providing staff with ongoing cultural competence training
• valuing lived experience and community leadership in care planning

Above all, it means walking with families, not making decisions for them, but alongside them.

Final thoughts

Being family involved is not always neat or easy, especially when trauma, systemic barriers, or safety concerns are present. But when we bring cultural humility and curiosity to the work, we deepen our connection to the children we support and the communities they belong to.

In doing so, we give children the gift of being seen, valued, and grounded in who they are, not just as individuals, but as members of a vibrant cultural and familial story.

Let’s not just care for children. Let’s care with their families. Let’s care with culture.

Together in care, we can ensure every child has a great day, every day.