ABORIGINAL grandmothers will meet with NSW Family and Community Services Minister Brad Hazzard and senior FACS personnel this week to push for changes to help stop the removal of children from Aboriginal families.
Grandmothers Against Removals members led a protest at Redfern on National Sorry Day today as part of two years of campaigning to bring attention to the issue.
Today marks 19 years since the tabling of the Bringing Them Home report, which exposed the horrific impact of the forced removal of Aboriginal children in the 20th Century.
GMAR is now calling for the statewide roll-out of new guiding principles the department committed to in November including a move to replace forced removals with family conferencing as an initial response to child protection concerns.
The principles also allow for Aboriginal community involvement in decision-making.
There are almost 16,000 Aboriginal children in out of home care around Australia, up from 2785 in 1997.
The majority have not been placed with Aboriginal families, despite every state having a mandatory Aboriginal placement principle, and GMAR members say relatives are routinely denied kinship carer status.
Children are being taken from parents who are homeless or women who are experiencing domestic violence, while shelters are being closed.
Gunnedah grandmother Hazel Collins said implementation of the guiding principles in that area had already led to positive changes that needed to go statewide.
"This proves family group conferencing and community consultation can stop the forced removals," she said.
"There's no more time for excuses - open the books on all of our kids that FACS are still holding and bring them back to their families."
Coonabarabran member Suellyn Tighe said children should not be reduced to statistics.
"All of the 16,000 Aboriginal children in care across Australia have names, families and a culture rich in its diversity and complexity," she said.
"All have stories to learn from and to tell.
"History will judge this government on whether it stayed the course of taking unprecedented numbers of children from their families, or whether we all worked together and took the opportunity to make fundamental and positive changes."
Details at www.stopstolengenerations.com.au