👋🏻 Werte, Every child deserves to grow up with safety and love, strong and proud in their culture. That truth sits at the centre of all the work that’s done in our sector. We know that when families are supported by culturally strong services, we see the best outcomes for our children. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been raising children for millennia, creating safe, loving environments where children feel strong and proud. With that in mind, we are thrilled to welcome Marlee Silva, proud Gamilaroi and Dunghutti woman, writer and television presenter, as the 2026 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day Ambassador. Marlee lives this year’s theme, Living Our Truth, every day in her work sharing the strength and success of our communities, families and children. That celebration continues with All In Starts Early, recognising the ACCO early childhood education and care services, many that you work in and alongside, bringing culture, language, Country and community to children every single day. This month we have also stood alongside ACCOs and communities pushing back against attempts to weaken the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle. The Principle exists to keep our children connected to family, kin and culture, so that what happened to the Stolen Generations can never happen again. Children’s Day was born of that same history. Children’s Day falls on 4 August for a reason. It was the date given as a birthday to children of the Stolen Generations who had their real birthdays taken from them. Our children belong with family, with kin, with culture. Going all in means we will always advance the self-determination of communities to ensure children’s identity, wellbeing, safety, development and connection to culture are protected and strengthened. The stories in this edition reflect that investment. In children, in culture, in community. So, grab a cuppa, sit back and see what’s been happening. |
2026 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day Ambassador announced
We are honoured to welcome acclaimed writer and television presenter, Marlee Silva as the 2026 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day Ambassador. This year’s theme is Living Our Truth, and honours the power of truth-telling, and the importance of sharing our stories.
Marlee’s lived experience reflects truth-telling through her work, sharing the strength and success of our communities, families and children through her documentaries, books, podcasts, and in the media.
Marlee is a proud Gamilaroi and Dungutti woman who grew up on Dharrawal Country in NSW. She wrote and directed the powerful documentary Skin in the Game and is the author of the best-selling book My Tidda, My Sister: Stories of Strength and Resilience from Australia’s First Women and the children’s book Stand Proud.
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Children’s Day is held on 4 August every year. It is our national day to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and the culture, family and community that shapes who they are and who they will become. This year’s theme, Living Our Truth, celebrates our children as the next generation of leaders, confident and proud in their identity.
The 2026 Children’s Day poster is available now. Download it here and share it with your community, your service and your mob.
Find out more about Children’s Day
Culture Keeps Children Safe
For ACCOs and practitioners working in child and family services, you know what the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle means in practice. You know what it means for children to stay connected to family, kin, community and culture. And you know what happens when that connection is broken.
The Northern Territory Government has introduced legislation that would weaken those protections. The Bill would weaken the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, the framework that exists to ensure Aboriginal children’s connections to family, community and culture are protected in child protection decisions. It would also introduce an arbitrary two-year limit on short-term care orders, a measure that practitioners and advocates have warned will drive more removals, not fewer.
A deadline with no basis in evidence that would leave an already understaffed system just 24 months to reunite families before permanently separating children from the people they know and love.
SNAICC has stood alongside communities, our sector and more than 330 organisations to push back.
Recently the NT Children’s Commissioner released a report that shows what is at stake. Nearly one in three children in out-of-home care in the NT were subject to at least one alleged harm notification in 2024-25. In more than one in four cases, the child’s own carer was responsible. At least 80 per cent of those children were Aboriginal. The NT Government continues to refuse to release its own data on this. That is not transparency. That is not accountability.
Removing a child from their family is one of the most significant decisions the state can make. SNAICC has made a formal submission to the NT Legislative Scrutiny Committee calling for the Bill not to proceed and for a genuine, independent, Aboriginal-informed and Aboriginal-led inquiry. We will keep standing for the principle that culture keeps children safe.
A new resource that keeps culture at the centre of early learning
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, the animals of Country carry language, story and connection. SNAICC’s new Bushland Animal Yoga Cards put that connection at the heart of the early learning room.
Each card turns a native animal into a yoga pose. Goanna, wombat, kookaburra, echidna, emu, kangaroo. Children move their bodies while learning about the animals around them and the words that name them.
The cards came straight from the sector. Services asked for resources that reflected the lives of our children. Educators already using them reach for them when the room needs to settle. Children remember the moves. You see them out in the yard pulling the poses on their own.
The Bushland Animal Yoga Cards are available now, the first in a new series of Early Years Support classroom resources coming this year.
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Order now or you’re go-anna miss out!
SNAICC mourns the passing of Professor Peter Buckskin
SNAICC mourns the passing of Professor Peter Buckskin, a Narungga man from South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula and a lifelong educator, leader and advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and communities.
Across more than four decades, Professor Buckskin worked as a classroom teacher, ministerial adviser, superintendent of schools and Dean of Indigenous Scholarship, Engagement and Research at the University of South Australia. He served as inaugural chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation, helping lay strong foundations for First Nations leadership in education.
He believed that education should be shaped by community, grounded in culture, and accountable to the children and families it serves. He called for systems where First Nations learners and communities were not only included, but able to lead.
His leadership and vision will continue through the many educators, leaders and young people he inspired. Our deepest condolences are with his family, community and all who had the privilege of walking alongside him.
A Place for Culture launches in Victoria
A Place for Culture has officially launched, with early years educators and leaders coming together in Naarm/Melbourne and Djilang/Geelong for the first workshops.
After completing six online modules, participants gathered to reflect, yarn and explore what cultural responsiveness can look and feel like in early years settings.
Throughout the day, educators and leaders considered ways to strengthen culturally responsive practice across their services, teams and relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities.
There was space for creativity, storytelling, listening and thoughtful discussion about the next steps for carrying this work into everyday practice. Participants engaged openly with the content and with each other, bringing care, curiosity and reflection to conversations about culture, safety and connection in early years settings.
Limited places are still available for upcoming workshops in Adelaide on 30 June and 1 July 2026.
Register for Adelaide workshop
Register for Port Adelaide workshop
A Place for Culture will then head to Whadjuk Country in Western Australia, with workshops in Armadale on Tuesday 25 August and Mt Flora on Wednesday 26 August 2026.
Register for Western Australia workshops
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SNAICC Board meets on beautiful Bwgcolman/Palm Island
The May SNAICC Board meeting was hosted on the beautiful Palm Island in Queensland by the Palm Island Community Company (PICC). The Board aims to meet on Country twice a year, giving members an opportunity to see firsthand the work our member organisations are delivering in community.
The Board meeting started with a beautiful and moving Welcome to Country led by Uncle Allan Palm Island, conducted at a culturally significant site, grounding us in Country and story. After the formal Board business, Directors were invited to join in Palm Island’s annual march against family, domestic and sexual violence and SNAICC Chair Muriel Bamblett and CEO Catherine Liddle were invited to speak at the event.
The Board then visited the Children and Family Centre to hear about their programs and aspirations to have a long daycare centre re-established on the Island. SNAICC is working with PICC to support this. Before leaving, we were lucky to have a quick and informative tour of the Island and learn more about the services delivered by PICC.
The Board extends its thanks to PICC and the Palm Island community for their welcome and sharing the stories of what they do and their vision for the future of the children and young people living in such a beautiful and strong country.
All In Starts Early: Celebrating our deadly ACCO ECEC services
Reconciliation starts with our children. When we wrap our arms around the younger generation, we change the story for generations to come.
As part of our National Reconciliation Week series, SNAICC’s socials have been shining a light on the Deadly services from across the country.
We know the ACCO ECEC services provide the best foundation for our children. Across the country the dedication of our ACCO ECEC services, their staff and the community know and see every day just how culture, language, Country and community shape our little ones from the very beginning.
All In Starts Early is a celebration of these services.
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WA EYS Leaders Gathering
The WA EYS Leaders Gathering showcased the Deadly work of our hardworking Early Childhood Education and Care Services from Coolabaroo Neighbourhood Centre in Perth to Rose Nowers Early Learning Centre in Port Hedland and Baya Gawiy Early Learning Centre in Fitzroy Crossing and more.
The two-day conference was held on the lands of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people with a heartfelt and grounding Welcome to Country from Noongar man from Ballardong Whadjuk and Yued heartlands, Daniel Garlett.
Highlights from the event include a keynote presentation from Emma Rattenbury, an autistic educator completing a Master of Child Play Therapy. Emma brought both lived experience and evidence-informed practice to her talk to our WA educators, sharing the realities of early childhood education whilst advocating for high-quality practice.
The groups also spent time connecting with Country during a Birthing Place & Bush Tucker Experience at Kings Park in Perth guided by a Traditional Owner. The walk offered our educators a powerful introduction to Whadjuk culture featuring ancient Dreaming stories, bush medicine knowledge, and seasonal insights tied to the Noongar seasons.
Youth Voice Engagement Report captures the vision
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are the experts in their own lives. SNAICC’s Youth Voice is built on that idea with the release of the Youth Voice Engagement Report.
The report captures what young people, communities and ACCOs said through a national engagement process that reached more than 150 people and 45 organisations across 13 locations, remote, regional and urban. The message was clear. Young people want more than a seat at the table. They want real, lasting influence over the decisions that shape their lives.
But the report is not where the work starts. It is proof the work is already underway.
Take Jaharn Mundy-Drazevich, a proud Ngunawal and Yuin man and member of SNAICC’s Youth Advisory Group. Jaharn helped shape the report from the inside, guiding its design and building its recommendations. He has also carried those recommendations into the rooms where decisions get made, speaking at Parliament House in March about his experience in the child protection system and the difference an ACCO made to his connection to family, culture and community.
The Youth Voice model is now taking shape with a Youth Sub-Committee to the SNAICC Council, jurisdictional youth networks, ambassador roles and annual youth gatherings.
To read it first and to follow the work as it grows, sign up to the Youth Voice newsletter.
Sign up to the Youth Voice newsletter
Building the evidence for what communities already know
Aboriginal Family-Led Decision Making (AFLDM) puts families and communities at the centre of child safety decisions. For the organisations delivering and supporting AFLDM across the country, its value is not in question. What is needed now is the evidence to make that case at a national level.
A new community-led research project is working to do exactly that. Led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers and governed by community, the project is developing a culturally grounded Social Return on Investment framework for AFLDM. Its goal is to quantify and strengthen the economic, social, cultural and system impacts of AFLDM, using Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander governance, knowledge systems and ways of understanding outcomes.
The project is seeking perspectives from community-controlled organisations and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led services involved in AFLDM policy, practice, governance, advocacy or service delivery. A national survey is now open, exploring how AFLDM is being implemented, the outcomes it is creating for children, families and communities, and the conditions needed to sustain it. Download the participant information sheet to learn more.
The findings will inform a community-led evidence-building tool to strengthen the case for long-term investment in culturally governed approaches to child and family services.
If your organisation works in this space, your insights matter.
Support us to support our children
As a not-for-profit entity, we rely on your support to help us achieve the work we do for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
By making a donation, you are promoting the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Your contributions make a difference in people’s lives helping to build stronger, more empowered communities and brighter futures for our children and families.
Your support enables us to focus on the best and most strategic ways to make meaningful change for our communities. We achieve this by advocating for reform in policy and practice areas of child protection and early years education and championing the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
Make a tax-deductible donation today and help us build stronger, empowered communities and better futures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
SNAICC acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connections to land, waters, culture and communities.
We pay our respect to Elders both past and present.
SNAICC National Voice for our Children · Suite 1, Level 8, 36 Wellington Street · Collingwood, VIC 3066 · Australia