Indigenous children's wellbeing in the middle years: Refreshing the Nest

This paper presents findings from Refreshing The Nest, a research project that consulted Australian Indigenous children in the middle years (aged 8–14) about what constitutes a good life. Conducted more than a decade after the original development of The Nest – a wellbeing framework created by the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) – the research sought to assess the framework's contemporary relevance for Indigenous children and to explore how emerging issues such as climate change, social media, and cost of living feature in young people's lives. We draw on decolonised research methodologies, including yarning circles. The study engaged 27 children across two Queensland communities (Logan and Tara). The research was theoretically grounded in the Capability Approach (CA), foregrounding children's agency as active and present rather than merely emergent. Our findings showed strong alignment with the original Nest domains, with children consistently emphasising the centrality of relationships, family, safety, and participation to their sense of wellbeing. Importantly, we found that children articulated a desire to exercise agency within their relational contexts, to have a voice and contribute to decisions affecting their lives. Based on these findings, this paper recommends an evolution of The Nest such that the participating domain becomes the lens through which all other domains are interpreted, shifting its application from a primarily utilitarian and material framework toward one that recognises children's capabilities, agency, and the relational dimensions of wellbeing.

Keywords: Australia, capability approach, children and youth, decolonised research, Indigenous, middle years, The Nest, wellbeing, yarning circles.