Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

22 AdoptionThere can be little argument that the ‘welfare principle’ should apply in cases of custody ofAboriginal children. The problem, however, is who decides what is in the best interests of anAboriginal child and what standards are used in reaching this decision (Australian Law ReformCommission 1982 page 17).OverviewAdoption is the transfer, generally by order of a court, of all parental rights andobligations from the natural parent(s) to the adoptive parent(s). In Australia, legaladoption is relatively recent. It was first introduced in 1928 in Victoria, for example.Until very recently adoption involved near-total secrecy, partly in deference to the desireof adoptive parents to present the child as their own and partly because of the stigma ofillegitimacy which typically attached to adopted children. The birth parents were notentitled to information about the adoptive parents, including the child’s new family name,and there were safeguards to ensure that the birth parents would never interfere in thechild’s upbringing. The child was not entitled to information about the birth parents.Non-relative adoption is a much rarer phenomenon today than it was even 25 yearsago. Total adoptions in Australia halved from 6,773 in 1969 to 3,337 in 1980 (Healey1993 page 30). By 1994-95 the figure had fallen to 535, 42% (224 children) of whomwere adopted from overseas (Angus and Golley 1995 page 1). In Victoria in 1971-72,1,488 children were placed for adoption. Ten years later the number was 287 (Lancaster1983 page 27). In NSW in 1971-72 the welfare department arranged 3,882 adoptions. By1991 the number had dropped to 154 (Healey 1993 page 30).The reasons are clear and relate primarily to the significant reduction in the stigmaand legal liabilities of illegitimacy, increased availability of contraception and abortion tocontrol fertility and the availability of social security support for sole supporting parents.There has been a corresponding decline in the placement of Indigenous children foradoption. Moreover, because of the intensive work of Aboriginal and Islander child careagencies and the recognition of the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, the majority ofIndigenous children who are placed for adoption are placed with other Indigenousfamilies.As the following discussion indicates, however, the best results for Indigenouschildren – namely, security within their own families and communities or with significantcontinuing contact – are achieved in those jurisdictions where the ACCP is givenlegislative status and Indigenous child care agencies are most closely involved inplacement decisions.Adoption and Aboriginal valuesAboriginal people’s attitude to adoption differs significantly from that of TorresStrait Islanders. Aboriginal traditional values and Law oppose adoption. It is ‘alien toAboriginal philosophies’ (Randall 1982 page 346) and ‘incompatible with the basic