On National Sorry Day, we honour the Stolen Generations and acknowledge the pain still carried by First Nations families and communities.
First Nations children are still being removed from their families at rates that are persistently and staggeringly disproportionate.
In 2023-24 across Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were 9.6 times more likely to be in out-of-home care and on third-party parental responsibility orders, a 0.5% increase from 2022-23, according to the Australian Insititute of Health and Welfare.
Government neglect and discriminatory intervention are driving this reality.
Under the guise of care, governments are not providing families with the support they need to thrive, then punishing them for the structural disadvantages the State itself created.
We cannot support a system that does not provide safe housing, income stability, health services, culturally safe maternal care, disability supports, and therapeutic assistance to the families and children in the first place. These are the very things that allow families to stay together and thrive.
In addition, there is increased surveillance of First Nations families across Australia. More surveillance means more scrutiny, not more support.
Rather than being used as a last resort, government intervention into First Nations families is routine, invasive, and racially biased, causing irreparable damage. The trauma inflicted by removal is profound and long-lasting – not only for the children taken, but for parents, extended families, and entire communities.
We acknowledge the ongoing resistance of First Nations people to policies that have tried to erase their cultures and communities.
The system must change to prevent the trauma of the Stolen Generations continuing into the future. Our call for action and systemic reform is set out in our ‘Systemic Neglect and Child Removals Position Paper’.
We are committed to continuing our work alongside community to create change and address the injustice First Nations people face in contact with these systems.
Read more: Stand alongside First Nations people this National Reconciliation Week and all year round
