CHILD PROTECTION
Reforms to improve outcomes for Aboriginal youth need to be driven by self-determination APRIL LAWRIE, COMMISSIONER FOR ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
“Our children are alienated from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future. These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness” - Uluru Statement from the Heart
A
s the inaugural Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People in South Australia and as a proud Mirning and Kokatha woman I have reflected many times on this powerful statement about the position that we, as Aboriginal people, find ourselves in. I have been privileged over the past two and half years to hear the voices of Aboriginal children. When I hear the voices of these children and young people, some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged children in our State, I am continually reminded of the importance of family and community to them. I see the support that endures for them in their families and community despite all deprivations and I feel the strength of Aboriginal ways of knowing and being. This strength bears a simple truth; Aboriginal people know how to overcome the problems that face them and their children. Ownership of decision making is a true act of self-determination, of pride, of collective self -esteem and without it the struggle to overcome disadvantage is
26 THE BULLETIN July 2021
destined to be mired in systemic racism (both conscious and unconscious). My very reaI fear is that without giving Aboriginal people a voice, as a Nation we will be destined to repeat the past, shamefully and continually. There is no question that one of the most egregious acts of our past was decades of forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families; the assimilationist policy that created the blight of the Stolen Generations. The effect of this cruel policy is still being acutely felt by Aboriginal people and has been transmitted as intergenerational trauma to the children of today - and the removals continue. What I know from my own experience and have heard from children and their families is starkly revealed in the data. In South Australia, one in every 11 Aboriginal children will be removed and placed in out of home care. Tragically, these children comprise only 5% of the population but make up 36.7% of children in care.1 In the recent National Closing the Gap Agreement (2020) it was agreed to reduce
the over-representation of Aboriginal children in care by 45% by 20312 including by the using the priority reforms of formal partnerships and shared decision making.3 Despite this laudable aim, I believe that unless radical approaches are taken to achieve this target the removal rate for Aboriginal children will continue tracking as it is and will double by 2031.4 The Closing the Gap Agreement (CTGA) in conjunction with reforms to the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2019 ( the Child Safety Act) provide an opportunity for a radical response that can enable Aboriginal children, their families and communities to lead decision making. But these measures alone will not work without a serious investment in early intervention programmes led by Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs). To achieve the CGTA partnership aims requires a strong strategic implementation plan developed with the lead of Aboriginal people. In child protection the principle central to the establishment of all partnerships and shared decision making and the driver to investment in early intervention is the implementation of the full Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (the ATSICPP) and its application at the earliest possible stage. The ATSICPP as currently enacted 5 simply provides for a limited placement hierarchy considered by the Chief Executive, after a guardianship order
