The Stolen Generation

Social Studies Online

Aboriginal children in Victoria are 13 times more likely to be removed from their homes and placed in care than other children, raising the prospect of a new “stolen generation”.

A national survey by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that indigenous children continue to be over represented in the child protection system – and the worst rates are in Victoria.

Children’s Welfare Association chief executive Coleen Clare said: “The figures are shocking. We are looking at something that is tantamount to another ‘stolen generation’ in Victoria.”

Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency chief Muriel Cadd said nearly a third of the children placed by the Department of Human Services were with non-Aboriginal carers. This ranged from short to long-term care.

Ms Cadd said that more than half the children on permanent care orders in Victoria were placed with white foster families, who had no links with the Aboriginal community.

“In a few years’ time we are going to have a new stolen generation, “ she said. “We must stop the flow of removal right now.”

When the survey was taken at the end of June, 489 indigenous children in Victoria were in out-of-home placements, representing 12 per cent of all children in out-of-home care in the state.

Aboriginal children in Victoria are nearly eight times more likely to be involved in proven cases of abuse, neglect or harm than other children, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s report, Child Protection Australia 2001-2002.

Another indicator – the rate of Aboriginal children under care and protection orders – is also more than 10 times higher than that of other Victorian children.

Ms Cadd urged the State Government to give higher priority to preventive and early intervention programs for Aboriginal children at risk. Most of its effort was put in at the crisis end, she said.

“A lot of Aboriginal families have not had access to parenting programs or adequate support,” she said.

“The majority of these parents have had parents themselves who’ve been removed. The quick solution is to say ‘these families aren’t any good’.”

Ms Cadd said child sex abuse remained seriously under-reported in the indigenous community.

Dr Lynda Campbell, a social work lecturer at Melbourne University, said the removal rates were stark, but the problems were complex. “The chronic issue is recruiting enough suitable carers within the Aboriginal community.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Home Services said where possible indigenous children were placed with Aboriginal carers.

But the Aboriginal Child Care Agency intends to press new Community Services Minister Sherryl Garbutt for the Children and Young Persons Act to lay greater emphasis on keeping indigenous children in their own communities.

One woman’s tale

‘I just couldn’t cope. I didn’t know how to”

Perched in the kitchen of her Melbourne home, Karen recites the history of her Aboriginal family. The theme is removal - and the way it recurs down the generations.

Karen was three, she says, when she was taken by child protection authorities from her alcoholic parents in the country and placed with a white family in the heart of suburbia. Karen’s mother had also been taken away from her parents by the authorities. Now aged 30, Karen has seven children with her partner. The children are all under 12, but only four live with the family.

Two years ago, when she was pregnant with her youngest child, the others were taken into respite care. “I was doing a lot of screaming and yelling,” acknowledges Karen. She was also a victim of domestic abuse, she says.

The children were only meant to be away from home for a short period - “they were supposed to come home on Wednesday” – but child protection authorities determined it was in their best interests to stay away for longer.

But unlike their mother or grandmother, the children were placed with Aboriginal carers. With the involvement of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, Karen gets help with her parenting and housekeeping skills. Slowly the children are returning to the family. Their dad, who is unemployed, has had counselling for domestic abuse.

“I am not a bad mother,” Karen says. “I was struggling… I didn’t abuse my kids or hit them, but I just couldn’t cope. I didn’t know how to.”

Karen’s name has been changed to protect her family’s privacy.

VICTORIA’S INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY

Total population	25,078
Population aged 0-17	11,360
Proven cases of abuse, neglect or harm *	579
Children in out-of-home care	489

* Children aged 0-18

The Age, 9/12/02, page 4