GV First Nations groups tell Yoorrook Commission cultural approach is vital for children in protection system

It will release a critical issues report on that investigation in the middle of the year.

The commission began hearing from people working in, and with personal experience of being caught up in, the justice and child protection systems late in 2022.

Among the organisations to give evidence were the Njernda Aboriginal Corporation, based in Echuca, and the Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-Operative, from Shepparton, on Wednesday, December 7.

The Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-Operative was represented by its chief executive, Felicia Dean, a Yorta Yorta Taungurung woman, born and raised in Shepparton.

Njernda was represented by its director of family services, Aunty Hazel Hudson, a Kamilaroi woman, who has lived on Yorta Yorta country for 58 years and who has Yorta Yorta children.

Aunty Hazel told the commission the fractures in today’s families could be traced back to long-standing traumas.

“If you can imagine what it would be like to have people come down and drill down on you and have your child being removed and you running after that child and you can see the child crying in the back of the ute or the car and you’re crying as you’re running down the road for that child and you have no power to prevent that from happening,” she said.

“Or even if I take you back further, having babies buried in the grounds with their head exposed so that white people could have a sport and knock that baby’s head off. So that level of trauma is infused in our very DNA and our bloodlines and our people have got to recover from that.”

Aunty Hazel emphasised the importance of traditional culture playing a part in the care of children who had come to the attention of authorities.

“We know that when a child is removed from their family, and if we can't get them family on country, and they are removed off country, they don't come back to us until they turn adults,” she said.

“That is crippling for our community, and one of the reasons why our community will remain unhealthy when we lose our children,” Aunty Hazel said.

Ms Dean highlighted the challenges faced by communities in the Goulburn Valley.

“Sadly, children on Yorta Yorta Woka, we have the highest numbers of children in out-of-home care, so there is a lot, a lot of work to be done,” she said.

“They have experienced lots and lots of trauma. You have got to be, have a lot of skills to be able to support them properly.”

Both Rumbalara and Njernda support Section 18 of the Children, Youth and Families Act, which enables a First Nations agency to assume responsibilities under a protection order for a First Nations child or young person.

Aunty Hazel said it was a vast improvement on the Stolen Generations policies of the past.

“What other definition of self-determination is more pure than the right to care for your own child or your children within your community?” she said.

Ms Dean said racial bias against First Nations children, families and carers was another challenge that hindered the healing of children and communities, with some child protection workers concentrating on matters such as whether the lawn had been mowed while the department refused to provide a cot for a baby under care.

“It’s in this background, you know, they are making this assessment: all blackfellas are dirty,” she said.

Aunty Hazel spoke of the positive impacts a cultural approach had on First Nations children, citing the example of the early childhood and childcare centre Berrimba, describing it as “the jewel in Njernda’s crown”.

“As soon as we take them out into (the) bush, something flows up, something magical happens to those kids,” she said.

“When they take their shoes off, then their bodies, the force of that land flows up through the soles of their feet into their bodies, and they can run around and be something that they can't be in community, or in townships. They can be kids.

“They don't have to worry about who’s watching them and they can run wild until their little hearts are content.”