According to this segment, "there has been a steady increase in the numbers of Aboriginal children removed from their families and placed in out-of-home care over the past decade" and there is an overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in the child protection system in Australia. One Aboriginal mother, Wyonna Palmer, believes this is partly due to discrimination against Aboriginal families and the assumption of child protection workers and others that Aboriginal families are not capable of raising their own children.
"The issue made national headlines earlier this year when an Indigenous toddler was raped in a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, and the alleged perpetrator was a member of the family," says the article. "A nasty public debate ensued in which op-ed writers and talking heads on TV began suggesting that Indigenous Australians couldn’t be trusted to raise their own children."
Others believe more community-based and community-led support services are needed for Aboriginal families and Aboriginal survivors of violence and abuse. Without these, some believe, there is a risk of another "Stolen Generation" of Aboriginal children, and the trauma that families experienced.