In child adoption, care must come before race
The consequences of bad policy, often unintended, can linger for generations after it is reversed. The cruel forced removal of Indigenous children from their families until the 1970s is a prime example. A half-century on, the traumas and alienation suffered by the Stolen Generations and their kin continue to resonate.
In some cases, unfortunately, it has left authorities and policymakers reluctant to remove children from dire circumstances, especially where the alternative is fostering by non-Indigenous families, sometimes with tragic results.
Laws governing adoption in Australia require, as first preference, an Aboriginal child to be adopted by someone in the Aboriginal community to which their birth parent belongs, legal affairs correspondent Ellie Dudley wrote on Thursday. If not practical, the child can be placed with an adoptive parent from another Aboriginal community. Only if that is not feasible may the child be adopted by non-Aboriginal parents.
Richard, 18, is an Aboriginal teenager whose white foster parents have cared for him since he was two. They learned of his Aboriginal ancestry when he was seven. Now he is no longer under the guardianship of the state, Richard wants to be adopted by the foster parents he calls Mum and Dad.
His reasons are his business – he can legally change his name to theirs if he wants. He knows his own mind, which is clear from his letter to NSW Supreme Court judge James Stevenson, arguing that his Indigenous heritage is standing in the way of his adoption and that he is “getting to the point where I feel like no one is listening to me. I understand that I have Aboriginal heritage in my blood and I will identify with my culture as I please, this shouldn’t be something that should hold up my adoption.”
His situation is not unique. Last month we reported that two young siblings, Mary and Michael, might be barred from adoption by their long-term foster family. Five years after first being placed in the family’s care, it was discovered they were Aboriginal. The abject failure of child protection in several states, for Indigenous and non-Indigenous children, has been well reported in recent years.
Irrespective of racial and cultural backgrounds, foster and adoptive parents willing and able to give vulnerable children loving homes are shining lights in systems that too often fail young people they are supposed to help. Law and conventions need to be applied with flexibility and common sense, including by judges, in the best interests of young people such as Richard.