Australian advocates warn over-representation of Indigenous children in state care could create generational trauma

CANBERRA, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The number of Australian Indigenous children in care could triple in 20 years if nothing done to arrest spiralling rates, according to Indigenous advocacy group Family Matters.

The group's co-chair Natalie Lewis said the over-representation of Indigenous children in state care could create another generation of trauma, 20 years after the Bringing Them Home report drew public and political attention to the impact of the so-called Stolen Generations.

Lewis said only urgent action from all levels of government will prevent the situation deteriorating further.

"If we don't do anything, that number is going to triple within the next 20 years," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television network on Wednesday night.

"We're talking about massive numbers of Aboriginal children who are growing up disconnected from their families, from their communities and culture, and the systems that they're growing up in aren't producing better outcomes."

"While the policy setting is quite different than the time of the Stolen Generations, the impact on children and families is just as tragic," she said.

The Stolen Generations refers to the mixed-race children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by government agencies and church missions from the turn of the 20th century until about 1970.

The Family Matters report said Australia's child protection system is too reactive, with less than one Australian dollar in every five invested in support services.

Tauto Sansbury, who sits on a child protection advisory committee within South Australia's Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, said the situation amounted to "a national crime, not a national crisis."

"They've got a process of taking children away but they don't know how to return children to families," he said.

"Too many non-Aboriginal people attending Aboriginal issues. The best place for a child is with its family."

The state of Victoria is handing over case management of Indigenous young people in care to local Indigenous organizations. Enditem