Contributed
Last year a young Perth boy came home from school, crying. His grandmother asked what was wrong and he said he'd been taken from class to say goodbye to his sister, who was being taken away.
As
she drove frantically to school, she saw her granddaughter's friends, all
crying carrying flowers, to comfort her. The girl was already in the air,
flying to rural Queensland. There had been no prior contact from DOCs, the Queensland
Department of Community Services.
There
are now more Aboriginal children in 'out of home care' than ever before. In
NSW, it's 10% of Aboriginal children, a five-fold increase since 1997.
Instead
of assisting families to support their children, families are found guilty of
poverty, and 'neglected' children are removed.
But
resistance is growing. Grand-mothers Against Removals was formed in Gunnedah
NSW in response to a high number of unjust removals in the region. On February
13, the anniversary of Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations, they
protested outside NSW Parliament.
On
Friday April 11, they rallied outside Tamworth DOCs office, to highlight 'The
Friday Afternoon Special', the forced child removal just before the weekend, so
families are unable to get assistance for three days.
As
Vanguard goes to press, sixteen
regional and capital city protests are taking place on National Sorry Day, May
26. Vanguard's online version will include a full report.
No comments:
Post a Comment