Stolen Generations still happening today, SA Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People April Lawrie says
More than a decade after then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered an apology to the Stolen Generations, Aboriginal children are still being removed from their families.
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Aboriginal children are still being “stolen’’ from their families because of a “systemically racist’’ system that discriminates against poor Indigenous families, according to April Lawrie, the state’s first commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People.
More than a decade after former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered an apology to the Stolen Generations for historical abuse, Ms Lawrie said increasing numbers of babies and children were being taken from their families in South Australia.
“There is a big assumption that our Aboriginal families can’t care for our kids,’’ Ms Lawrie says in SA Weekend magazine . “We have to challenge those racist views.’’
Ms Lawrie was appointed to the role in 2018 and said she had “heard ghastly stories of late’’. She said babies were being taken from birthing units by the Department for Child Protection without warning and children were increasingly being placed in care homes or with non-Aboriginal foster carers in contravention of the legislated Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.
“When our mob say the stolen generations in the past is in the present and we don’t want it for the future, that’s what they are talking about,’’ Ms Lawrie says.
A report released in May by the Office of the Guardian for Children and Young People says 34 per cent of all young people in care are Aboriginal. The rate of Aboriginal 0-17 year olds in care is 76.7 per 1000 children.
For non-Aboriginal kids, that number is 7.4. In addition, Aboriginal children make up around 60 per cent of children in detention.
The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle mandates that if a child is removed from a parent, it must be placed within its family, cultural and community context.
The Guardian for Children and Young People’s report says the number of children placed in accordance with the principle had fallen from 76.4 per cent to 62.7 per cent in the decade to 2019. The state government said that had risen to 64.4 per cent at June 30 and was aiming to increase that to 70 per cent.
Ms Lawrie said, “we know from the child protection data and reports that once the state intervenes, the life-course outcomes for that Aboriginal child isn’t good’.’
She said Department for Child Protection workers were too quick to judge and didn’t understand Indigenous culture.
“It’s heartless, it’s merciless and it’s cruel and it doesn’t even give our mothers a chance. I tell you, the department, their workers are looking, are looking for a reason to remove our children. It makes me sick to the core,’’ she said.
Fiona Ward, Department for Child Protection acting chief executive officer, said the government was trying to “reduce the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children and young people in the child protection system’’.
“DCP also accepts that this can be particularly distressing for Aboriginal families due to the historical and intergenerational impacts of the Stolen Generations,’’ she said. “The decision to remove a child or young person from the care of their parent(s) is a decision of last resort.’’
Originally published as Stolen Generations still happening today, SA Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People April Lawrie says