Warning: this article discusses distressing themes, including self-harm.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died last Friday night in Perth while under the care of the Department of Communities.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney said “my heart goes out to the family and community in WA that has lost a son so young,” in a post on X.
The Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said it was “impossible not to be moved by” his death and it was a “tragic circumstance”.
“It certainly does speak to the fact that we have enormous challenges going forward in relation to closing the gap,” he told ABC TV on Thursday.
“We really need to be looking at ways in which we can do business in a different way, because the gap is stubbornly persistent.
“News of this kind only adds to redoubling our efforts to make sure we do everything we can to make inroads in respect to the gap.”
Lidia Thorpe calling for urgent government action
In a media release, Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has called for the government to urgently ‘implement the recommendations of the 1997 Bringing Them Home report’, following the news of the tragedy.
Thorpe says that the report was delivered in 1997, but to date the majority of its recommendations have not been implemented.
“Our babies are not safe in these systems of child stealing – they never have been. It’s not protection, it’s a national shame.”
“Today kids learn about the stolen generation in school, but what they’re not taught is that these policies never ended,” says the Senator.
Family made to jump through ‘hoop after hoop’
National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project director Megan Krakouer said the boy was removed from his parents’ care four days before Christmas in 2020 when they were living in a tent.
She said they had created a stable home in the years since and were working with the department in an attempt to reunite their family but it had been unsupportive and judgemental.
“Their hearts are broken,” she told AAP on Thursday.
“They are good people, respectful people, loving people.”
Ms Krakouer, who is acting for the parents, said they felt there had been an incredible power imbalance and the department had ignored them as they attempted to reunite their family.
Family spokesperson, Megan Krakouer says the department failed the family Source: Supplied / Supplied
“They made them jump through hoop after hoop after hoop,” she said.
“Some of the words they used were ‘grooming’ and ‘manipulation’ and they also said … they were being looked down upon.”
Ms Krakouer said the first time the boy’s parents had been permitted to see him as a couple since he was removed from their care was at a morgue.
She said the department had failed the family.
“Twenty-six case managers over four years and there was not even a cultural safety plan,” she said.
The Department of Communities said it could not comment on individual cases.
“The death of any child or young person is a tragedy which has a devastating impact on the families, friends and communities involved,” a spokesman said.
“Any death of a child in care automatically triggers a coronial inquest and we support all matters of this nature being investigated.”
PM says there will be a coronial inquiry
Talking to SBS World News, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that his heart goes out to the family and friends during this ‘enormous tragedy’.
“It is a tragedy when anyone takes their own life, when it’s someone so young that adds to the devastation, which is there.”
“This matter of course, will be before the coroner and there will be an appropriate coronial inquiry into this young person’s passing”, says the PM
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