Keynote: Joining the Movement: the heart of Allyship
Wonderful to be standing here today in my hometown, talking about the work of SNAICC, the National Voice for our Children
We work with all levels of government advocating for what we know keeps our children and families safe, strong, and connected to culture.
SNAICC has spent 42 years working to support our families and organisations and pushing for their voices and experiences to be heard.
Our work is grounded in our communities and in our sector. I’d like to take this opportunity to play you a short video that shows some of what we do.
PLAY SNAICC 40 YEARS VIDEO (Above 3 minutes)
That video was produced to celebrate our 40th anniversary and as I said, we’re now in our 42nd year.
That makes us one of the oldest peaks in the country
The centre of all our work is the right of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to grow up healthy and strong connected to culture, Country, and community.
No other culture can say that they have 60,000 years of successfully raising children behind them.
Our little ones are the only children in the world who can stand on a legacy as strong, as resilient and as proud as this
What we inherently understand is the strength of our communities – grounded in the care and nurture of our families
Before colonisation we had no child protection systems and no prisons. What we had was a sophisticated society that centred our children in all that we did.
There are two sides to lore. One belongs to women and one belongs to men.
The women’s side is called grandmothers’ lore and this side prioritises the needs and dreaming of children.
Like some of you in this room, I have had the privilege to grow up under this lore.
Grandmother’s Lore means that all children know where to go to be fed, to have shelter, and be cared for and be loved.
Unlike Western systems our children don’t belong to just their parents, they belong to their families and their communities.
And what are we and what are our grandmothers? We are the storytellers, and it is how we pass on the lessons about how we interact, how we behave and how we fit in our world.
I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with the ICTV series Bedtime Stories, but it has some wonderful examples of this storytelling.
I thought it might be nice at this point to have one of our Arrernte elders, Nana MK Turner, telling us her bedtime story and how it passes on lessons to children.
(PLAY ICTV BEDTIME STORY – 6:50)
https://ictv.com.au/playlists/list/47
I love that story from Nana MK. It shows how we raise children, as a family group.
And the leaf puppets were often used by my nana to tell stories. Sometimes those kid leaf puppets might have copped a bit of a telling off too, if they did something naughty.
The strength we know that is in our families, the resilience and courage of our elders who have showed us the way, that’s why we continue to do the work we do at SNAICC. Often in the face of some fierce, and ill informed, resistance. But more on that later
Part of our job is to work with governments to help them understand the impact and value of the Aboriginal community-controlled sector and the resilience and strengths of Aboriginal families and make sure that our voices are front and centre in decisions that impact us.
Because we know that when our families are not at the centre and Aboriginal people are not at the decision-making table, that’s when things go wrong.
In the past, systems have been built without any involvement from Aboriginal people but now, driven by the National Agreement on Closing the Gap we have an historic opportunity to influence how policy and implementation can look different and work better for our families.
It’s a strong agreement because it focuses first on priority reforms – which are the structural things that have to change in order to change outcomes. Things like shared decision-making between governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and investing more in our community-controlled organisations
We are starting to see the first fruits of some government agencies working more with us, but there is a very long way to go to change outcomes on the ground.
A sad example of this, and it’s no surprise to anyone in this room, is that our children continue to be overrepresented in the child protection system.
I don’t like talking about statistics because each number is a family, but the numbers tell an important national story of government and policy failure in child and family welfare.
In June of 2021, there were 22,297 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care or on third party orders.
And 79% of these children are permanently living away from their birth parents.
Only 40.7% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care were placed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers – the lowest proportion in at least 20 years.
The SNAICC Family Matters Report released late last year reported that the NT had the sharpest increase over the past reporting year in rates of over-representation in out-of-home care. The rate ratio increased from 11.2 to 13.8.
Our families are not failing their children. The system is failing our families.
Our children are over 10 times more likely to enter out-of-home care compared to non-Indigenous children.
When our children enter the system, they are often let down again when their cultural rights are not upheld and their connections to their family community and country are not supported.
Of those children in out-of-home care only 41% are placed with Aboriginal carers. This percentage is dropping every year, and in many states and territories we are seeing a growing trend towards permanency of children placed in out-of-home care and with non-Indigenous carers.
In the Northern Territory, only about 27 percent of children are placed with relatives or kin.
It’s ironic that a national media debate focused on Central Australia, that seems determined to paint the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle and kinship care as failing our children by putting them in harms way, conveniently ignores the fact that the number of children going into kinship care arrangements in the Territory is very low.
But of course the stories are only being presented from a particular view point.
And it’s certainly not the Aboriginal viewpoint. We are only sought for comment on the negative, to disprove a fallacy, or to prove that we are worthy to raise our children, that our homes and communities are safe, loving and nurturing environments for children.
Often the only people missing from the rooms that make decisions about our children, are their families.
There is so much more we can do to support and strengthen families before they interact with the tertiary end of child protection systems.
The work being done under the National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap, and specifically the priority reforms, underpins much of our current focus at SNAICC
We are determined to seize the opportunities presented by the decades of work from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that have resulted in the new National Agreement.
We want to see our families’ strengths and resilience celebrated and the expertise and capabilities of our organisations recognised through government investing in Aboriginal-led initiatives and the transfer of decision-making power back to our communities where it belongs.
We know this approach works. The evidence supports this.
The SNAICC Family Matters Report 2022, takes a close look at
what is working to turn the tide of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child protection system.
It shows that where ACCOs are given authority in child protection, where families have a voice in decision-making, and where there are accessible, culturally safe child and family services and supports, there are better outcomes for children and families.
Closing the Gap requires transformative action from all levels of government AND from partners and allies
It requires genuine efforts to empower communities and transfer authority to Aboriginal community-control
But as I said we are getting traction in some quarters
Queensland has legislated requirements for active efforts to implement the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle’s five elements
The South Australian Government will introduce a Bill this year to amend the Children and Young People Safety legislation.
This Bill will transfer legislative authority to ACCOs, fully embed the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, and enshrine the self-determination of South Australian Aboriginal people in relation to decisions made about their children.
Queensland has legislated requirements for active efforts to implement the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle’s five elements
While here in the Northern Territory, some new ACCO-run family support services have been funded and the 10-year Generational Strategy to improve services for children and families has been signed off.
Though I note there is as yet no funding attached to this.
But as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people we know that we can’t take reform for granted – governments change, policies change, and it’s hard work to maintain momentum over the long-term.
We are at the decision-making table, but in many ways our work there has only just begun.
What we have found is that we need to be as staunch as ever with holding governments to account, and to setting a standard with government for how they implement reform.
The type of transformational change we need to see in child protection systems, and in the other systems that affect our children and families, demands of us constant attention and care.
We have to make sure that self-determination for our communities is at the heart of that change, and we have to make sure that the needs of our children and families are met.
Last month’s report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare again demonstrates that children who have had interaction with the child protection system are at greater risk of engaging in criminal activity and of entering the youth justice system.
Almost 2 in 3 of the 4055 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people under youth justice supervision in 2020-2021 had an interaction with the child protection system
It clearly demonstrates what we know – that our current child protection systems aren’t a funnel into the youth justice system.
We continue to hear media revelations about how our children are being harmed by the child protection and justice systems, or even just walking home from school
These stories carry with them horrors and tragedies that are not new to us – we are saddened but not surprised.
When our children continue to be harmed by these systems, we can’t sit comfortably believing that they are doing the right thing for our babies
To be safe, our children must be connected to the networks of love, care and culture that they are born into – it is their birthright.
They must have the opportunity to not just know, but live within their culture, with their communities that love them and surrounded by people who understand the importance of their role as our future Elders.
In their current form, child protection systems aren’t equipped to provide this to our children.
How can they when they were designed to remove children and separate them from their culture
We know and the evidence shows, that where there is a genuine effort to empower communities and to transfer authority to Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, we see results.
We know that when our families enjoy equitable access to high quality, culturally safe supports – and when our communities have control over the decisions that affect us – our children will thrive.
PAUSE
Building strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through enabling self-determination is the critical underlying factor in achieving holistic, wrap-around reform for our children and families.
We have demonstrated that the Community Controlled sector and our strengths are key to addressing the alarming trends.
But we can’t be expected to shoulder all of the responsibility.
SNAICC has long said we need to see collective and collaborative effort across areas like health, mental health, education, disability, justice and housing in order to truly see change.
Our approach has always been based on holistic concepts of wellbeing that take in the whole family and community that a child is part of.
Our main focus is our children and young people – not the processes of government or its siloes.
But the siloing of responsibilities is limiting the potential of transformational strategies.
What we’re hearing across the country is an urgent need for every government agency to come to the party and share responsibility for creating system wide change.
The transformational change that needs to happen must transfer decision-making to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
To make this happen, governments need to transform the ways they work .Under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, governments have committed to sharing decision-making at all levels with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through our community-controlled organisations.
Crucially, the National Agreement recognises that enabling self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is critical to designing and implementing effective policies.
Collectively held self-determination is the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, as sovereign First Nations, to exercise authority in the design and governance of law and policy systems.
Self-determination inherently requires that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples lead the development of legislation, policy and programs, and their implementation.
By upholding self-determination, governments can foster community-driven reform in policy and legislation, predicated upon the culturally informed re-design of systems that have long operated to the detriment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
To achieve this goal, it is critical to ensure that we walk together in partnership.
True partnership and shared decision making presents a pathway towards realizing our self-determination in the modern context.
Acknowledging this, partnership between Aboriginal people and governments is an essential element of the reformed Closing the Gap agreement between all Australian governments and the Coalition of Peaks.
The need for partnership was reinforced in the development of the newly released National Framework for Protecting Australia’s children, also known as Safe and Supported.
These transformative national agreements reflect what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders have been saying for years.
The transformational change that needs to happen will need to transfer decision-making to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
To make this happen, governments need to transform the ways they work. And they need to get serious about it.
Safe and Supported: The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children is now the first national policy framework to be developed in accordance with the Closing the Gap Agreement.
In Safe and Supported, all jurisdictions have further committed to work to reduce the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in out of home care, and outlined specific actions aimed towards achieving this target.
The Children and Families Secretaries from all jurisdictions came together alongside an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership group, to co-design the national framework and subsequent action plans.
These plans set out actions for ensuring that all children in Australia enjoy the right to grow up safe and connected to their family, community and culture.
What sets the Safe and Supported Framework apart from previous reforms is that it is the first to be governed by a shared decision-making process where the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership group is at the tablein an equal capacity to governments.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership group is comprised of eminent leaders from across the country, with vast experience in working with Aboriginal children and families. Their expertise was instrumental in designing Safe and Supported, and they will play a key role in the ongoing monitoring of its implementation.
This process is essentially the Closing the Gap priority reforms in action. Being the first cab off the rank, it has been a rough road at times.
But alongside our government colleagues we have negotiated new ways of working.
As a result, Safe and Supported represents the best opportunity that we have had to turn the tide on the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in out of home care.
Under Safe and Supported, there is now a dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander action plan, aimed towards achieving target 12 of Closing the Gap.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander action plan commits jurisdictions to 8 broad actions, designed toward achieving system transformation in line with the Closing the Gap priority reforms.
These actions reinforce the actions contained in Closing the gap, and include commitments to delegate decision making authority to Aboriginal people, and invest in the community controlled sector.
Alongside these commitments, the action plan commits jurisdictions to support data sovereignty, and build the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family workforce.
The action plans commit jurisdictions to active efforts to implement the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle and improve the legal supports available to Aboriginal children and families.
Further, jurisdictions have also committed to advocating for Aboriginal children’s commissioners, and to work holistically across sectors to address the social determinants of child safety and wellbeing.
And for the first time, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership Group appointed through a transparent process, and independent of government, is sitting at the table with Ministers and Department Secretaries to oversee a national plan for our children and make shared decisions about its implementation.
These actions are transformative, and demonstrate the impact of the partnership with the Aboriginal Leadership group in ensuring that the actions represent the needs of Aboriginal communities.
Because we are at the table, the language is changing. What is different is that we can see ourselves and hear our voices in the language that is being included in these policies.
But, while language is powerful, it can also be misinterpreted. It’s not just about getting the right language, we need to have the mechanisms for ongoing accountability.
And actions have to be resourced if they are to be effectively implemented.
Governments say all these things and it sounds nice, it sounds easy – but, the language of self-determination is hollow if we don’t genuinely have the mandate, the enablers and the will of government. We are talking about the transformation of systems.
And there is a lot of, what shall I call it, robust conversations, still to be had.
I’m sure the NT Attorney-General will attest to that.
He has called for organisations to be fierce, to be changemakers and I fully support that.
But we must also be able to hold governments to account for their actions, to ensure they follow through and deliver on the transformative commitments in Closing the Gap and Safe and Supported.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations have always been accountable to governments – but this needs to go both ways.
Inherent in the principles of partnership and self-determination is shared transparency – with all parties being open to developing new ways of working together.
We need to redevelop the relationship between governments and ACCOs, based on recognition of the role ACCOs play in their communities and the right to self-determination.
In many ways we’re only at the beginning of this process
And we know that, working with governments, we often end up starting from the beginning many times over before we see change occur.
It is our hope that the development of the National plan to end violence against women and children will also reinforce this changing landscape in Australian law and policy, where shared decision-making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is entrenched at every level.
We’re trying to make changes to the ways governments work, because we know that decisions and implementation at a local and regional level needs to shift, for system transformation to really be embedded.
We will need Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership at every level – and for this to be valued, recognised and supported for the work this requires.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing are our strength. We need to truly take action together, to keep our children safe and supported.
And we need to do that now more than ever
Because there is a great big elephant in this room, in this town right now
I have to look it in the eye and name it
Right now, here in Alice Springs, Aboriginal children are not safe
And I’m not just talking about those children who are out on the street late at night, some of them committing crimes
Those young people are definitely not safe, and we all, governments and community organisations must work together to make sure our community, here in town and out bush, are safe places for all
But what is really putting our children and families at heightened risk right now is the orchestrated political campaign that is shamelessly weaponizing our children for political ends
Alice Springs is my home, my family are traditional owners. It breaks my heart when I see what is happening, not just there, but in many remote towns around Australia
What is happening is disturbing and confronting. But also sadly not surprising. What is happening in Alice is an escalation but its not new, and should not be a surprise
Let me be clear – what we are seeing in Alice, in surrounding communities and other regional towns is the culmination of years of failed policy
I’m talking about the NT Intervention, the defunding of youth programs, the erosion of service delivery in remote communities
In 2014 the Federal Govt cut more than $500 million from Indigenous programs. Aboriginal child and family centres were de-funded. The Commonwealth has never reinstated this funding
All these decisions that are made about Aboriginal people, that impact us and our families, that have been and are made without us, or with token input
We cannot continue rolling out the same knee jerk, populist responses to the deep-seated issues we are facing in the NT.
Our community, our towns, our families and our children deserve better and we are ready to be part of the solutions
And we have been ready for a very long time
In 2007, Little Children are Sacred, the Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse was handed down.
The findings of that report were weaponised by the then Federal Howard Government into the NT Emergency Response – the Intervention.
The same language, the same weaponizing of our children, is being played out today by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and others.
And lets not fool ourselves its because they suddenly care about Aboriginal children and families
Our children are being used, our families are being branded as hopeless and helpless again, to serve the campaign in opposition to the Voice.
Myself and my family lived through the Intervention, experienced firsthand the demonising of our men, the stripping away of autonomy over our lives.
And we cannot and will not stand by and see our children, our families and our communities used as political fodder by anyone, ever again.
One of our leaders who attended one of the many meetings that have been called to discuss our town’s issues named it well
When asked about children, they said “They’ve seen their parents being rejected everywhere in Mparntwe, so this is the effect.”
This is not excusing unacceptable behavior, or saying its not happening, but it is pointing out an uncomfortable fact
We have to have an honest discussion about racism and how the politics of racism is driving a lot of this debate.
Which is not to deny there are real issues about crime and disfunction – there are. And racism plays a role in that too
Let me just read you some of the social media commentary that is going on here, about Aboriginal children, Aboriginal people. People like me.
“Set bear traps next time” and “a bulbar would fix that” “I would be leaving some alcohol on my front porch but with added extras” “put a bounty on their heads and turn them into wetsuits”
This is sickening. This is what we should be looking at. This is what we should be calling out.
This is what we should be saying NO to.
And this is also why we need a Voice
A Voice will be able to call this out on a national level, to shine a light into those dark places that exist in communities
It will amplify the work we are doing under the policies such as Closing the Gap and Safe and Supported
And under a Voice we will never, ever again have to face the threat of another Intervention
Together with having more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the decision-making tables, we can look forward to a future where our children grow up safe, strong, and connected to their families, communities, cultures and Country.
And where the story of our children and families is told by us, the greatest story tellers on the planet.