What is the issue?

When the ground-breaking Bringing Them Home report into the Stolen Generations was released in 1997, Australia was shocked to learn that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children represented one in every five children living in out-of-home care.

Today, over 25 years later, that figure has worsened to one in every three.

The causes of over-representation are complex, rooted in past policies of forced removal, intergenerational effects of separation from family and culture, poor socio-economic conditions and misunderstandings arising from cultural differences in child-rearing practices. The consequences are profound; children are separated from their families, cultural bonds are often severed, trauma deepens, and poor life outcomes follow, eroding culture and community.

Even though prevention and early intervention are core principles in Australian policy frameworks, over 80% of funding still flows into out-of-home care instead of solutions.

Urgent change is needed.

The evidence

The evidence is clear that the strengths to address child wellbeing and safety concerns lie within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Research highlights the unique value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child-rearing practices, the benefits of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led solutions and the importance of cultural identity continuity for children’s wellbeing. Yet, these strengths continue to be undermined by an ever-deepening crisis of child removal that breaks families apart and disrupts the social fabric of communities.

There is overwhelming evidence of a series of government policy failures in response to the escalating crisis of child removal, including:

• failure to redress high levels of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander poverty
• failure to intervene early to support, strengthen and heal families and communities from intergenerational effects of colonisation, and separation from family and culture through the Stolen Generations
• failure to enable genuine self-determination—a platform in policy, legislation and resourcing that provides communities with opportunities for empowerment, to draw on their strengths and lead responses to the issues facing their children and families
• failure to redress discrimination and perceptions arising from cultural differences in child-rearing practices.

Urgent reform is necessary to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and to prevent the perpetuation of intergenerational harm.