In brief
- Racism is consistently experienced in children’s protective systems, an advocate says.
- First Nations children represent an outsized percentage of all children in care in SA.
Systems designed to safeguard children ought to undergo thorough examination; otherwise, efforts to combat racism will remain superficial, warns a dedicated advocate.
Shona Reid, South Australia’s guardian for children and young people, has submitted her insights to a federal inquiry investigating racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. She emphasizes that for children, racism isn’t just an isolated incident but a persistent experience.
“Racism is encountered throughout their lives, shaping how they interact with various systems, navigate through them, and where they ultimately find themselves,” Reid notes. “The oversight reveals not a series of isolated occurrences, but a pattern of ongoing harm.”
The inquiry is focused on understanding the prevalence, effects, and underlying causes of racism, hatred, and violence while evaluating current responses and seeking opportunities for reform.
Reid stresses that to effectively tackle racism, the inquiry must scrutinize the systems wielding significant influence over the lives of First Nations children and youth.
Reid writes that if it was to meaningfully address racism, it must look closely at the systems that exercise the greatest power over First Nations children and young people’s lives.
Government data from 2025 shows that despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children accounting for only 5.5 per cent of young people in SA, they represented 37.9 per cent of all children in care, and 39.8 per cent of all children in out-of-home care.
“It is within these systems that racism is most consistently experienced and where reform has the greatest potential to change the trajectory of a child’s life,” she said.
Recognising this is a call to examine the architecture of the system itself, Reid writes.
“Without this, efforts to address racism will remain focused on surface-level change, while the underlying structures that produce inequity remain intact.”
The parliamentary inquiry into racism directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will take evidence at a hearing in Adelaide on Friday.
Witnesses will include Reid, SA commissioner for Aboriginal children and young people Dale Agius, and representatives from the SA Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation Network, NPY Women’s Council, and the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement.
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