Australia’s national children’s commissioner has acknowledged that racism is an undeniable factor in removal of Indigenous children from their families. Megan Mitchell said she believes racism plays a part in the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care. "We know that there's a level of racism in our community," Ms Mitchell said. "You've got a really high level of surveillance of Aboriginal communities.”
An alarming number of Indigenous children are being taken from their parents, causing Aboriginal people to call it a new stolen generation.
Paddy Gibson, a senior researcher at Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), says the child protection system is, in effect, punishing Indigenous parents and families for their disadvantage.
"The government response to the very real social issues and social trauma that [are] out there in Aboriginal communities is a punitive one," he says. "Child removal is being funded as a solution to the social problems."
The Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) is calling for participation from 15 to 17 September in its 6th national conference, “For Our Children - Community Voices: Sharing Knowledge & Practice”.
The conference has become the largest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family issues conference in the southern hemisphere. It will feature local and international keynote speakers and more than 70 concurrent sessions, yarning circles and workshops.
Delegates
and speakers will gather from around the country and some from overseas “to
discuss our challenges and share our knowledge and experiences in raising
happy, healthy and confident children in our communities. As well as providing
a powerful and inspiring learning experience for all attendees it will also
provide opportunities to meet and experience some the richness and culture of
our Aboriginal communities in the west."
Early Bird registration will open on 4 May. Click here to register and for
all the latest updates.
In YouTube videos, activist Vanessa
Culbong Olivia Nigro argues how the forced closure of Aboriginal
communities across Western Australia will inevitably escalate “the number of
children being stolen from Aboriginal families".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxaxvbXta58
https://www.facebook.com/stopstolengenerations
Vanessa Culbong, Perth reveals the pain of forced child removals (kidnapping)
Photos: Grandmothers Against Removals rally
Facebook: Stop Stolen Generations
Extended Background Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH_uFLIw8L4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1sxS-ET6mI
Background:
Removal
of Aboriginal children and the continuing Stolen Generation (last
updated: 16 April 2015)
WGAR:
Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
About WGAR
News - subscription is free.
See also
Aborigines stirring for national
recognition of their frontier wars dead
Aborigines appeal to UN indigenous
forum over homelands closure plans
Aboriginal Australian communities
call for global action
For the record: First People's
sovereignty never ceded
South Australian Aboriginal
communities hold emergency summit to fight 'cultural genocide'
Aboriginal communities
send a powerful message to government
Aboriginal protesters come
face-to-face with politicians during Canberra 'sit-in'
In defence of our land and our
freedoms
Maori solidarity with the Nyoongar
people at Matargarup, Perth
Maori politicians support Aboriginal protest over proposed closure of indigenous communities