Beck & Anor & Whitby & Anor

In the Family Court of Australia, Watts J considered an application by the applicants seeking orders for parental responsibility and the child's residence, which aimed to partially recognise the traditional Torres Strait Islander child-rearing practice of Kupai Omasker. The dispute centred on how such an application should be managed within the existing legislative framework of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth), particularly in circumstances where correcting a birth certificate was not feasible, but the court found the orders sought to be in the best interests of the child.

The primary legal issues before the court were whether it could make orders that recognised and gave effect to the Kupai Omasker practice within the *Family Law Act*, and if so, whether making such orders was in the best interests of the child. The court was required to navigate the tension between established legal principles governing parental responsibility and child residence, and the cultural significance of the requested arrangements for the child.

Watts J reasoned that while the *Family Law Act* does not explicitly codify traditional Indigenous child-rearing practices, the court's overarching duty is to consider the best interests of the child. The judge determined that the proposed arrangements, which involved the applicants having equal shared parental responsibility and the child living with them, with limited contact with the respondents, were indeed in the child's best interests. The court noted the intention for the child to refer to the respondents as uncle and aunty and a biological sibling as cousin, and to see them at family or social functions, but without any expectation of spending time with them or the sibling.

Consequently, the court made orders granting the applicants equal shared parental responsibility for the child and ordering that the child live with the applicants. Further orders stipulated that there be no contact between the child and the respondents except as permitted by the applicants. The court also made notations reflecting the intended familial relationships and social interactions.