Trauma of removal haunts SA kids in care
Early intervention may be the key to addressing an alarming spike in the number of indigenous children taken from their families in South Australia.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children represent 30 per cent of all children in out-of-home care in SA, according to the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC).
That's despite the fact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make up just 3.5 per cent of the state's children, meaning they are 11.5 times more likely to be in care than non-indigenous children.
The number of indigenous children in care in SA more than tripled over the past decade.
Indigenous community members, service providers and researchers addressed the statistics at a forum in Adelaide on Wednesday, under the theme "Kids safe in culture, not in care".
SNAICC chairwoman Sharron Williams says the importance of culture for indigenous people means family disruption can have long-lasting traumatic effects.
"You can never take back the trauma of a removal, (just) as you can't take back the belief by parents that they're rubbish parents because they couldn't keep their children safe," she told AAP.
"We then go through the process, in many cases, of reunifying children, so we then have to go back and put back together a broken jigsaw puzzle."
Indigenous children were mainly removed because of emotional abuse and neglect, which Ms Williams said was strongly linked with the social and economic disadvantage commonly seen in those communities.
But the emotional damage experienced by children who were removed from their families fuelled a cycle of disadvantage and a disproportionate rate of child removal.
Recognising when a family was in crisis and implementing support mechanisms would help to ensure children remained safe at home, Ms Williams said.
"If we can do that, we will slow down children coming into the out-of-home care system," she said.
Ms Williams praised the prominent role for Aboriginal organisations in the NSW child protection system, saying the model should be expanded elsewhere.
"Self-determination means that Aboriginal organisations and Aboriginal people are part of their own destiny and I think that needs to happen," she said.
