The number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care in Western Australia has skyrocketed over the past two decades. In 2003, there were 570 Aboriginal children in out-of-home care, comprising about 35 percent of the total children in care. By 2023, this number had risen to 3,068 Aboriginal children, constituting 59 percent of all children in out-of-home care. Despite Aboriginal children making up only about 7 percent of Western Australia’s total child population, they now represent a majority in the state’s care system. Western Australia has the highest rate of overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care of any state or territory in Australia.

This report examines the circumstances of Aboriginal children removed from their parents by the Department of Communities in Western Australia to be placed in out-of-home care. Human Rights Watch, working with the local organization National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, interviewed 33 Aboriginal parents from whom the department had removed more than 100 children (the average parent interviewed had three children removed); four Aboriginal children who had been removed from their parents; three Aboriginal young adults who were removed from their parents as children; and 13 grandparents whose grandchildren had been removed from their adult children’s care. Some of the grandparents, children, and young people interviewed were from the same families as the parents interviewed. Human Rights Watch also interviewed two Aboriginal mothers whom the Department of Communities investigated but whose children they did not remove. (From the summary). Record #9203