u/Bron345

May she rest in peace. This beautiful girl was failed by everyone. The government, who are too scared to intervene, as they don’t want to be seen as racist. Child protective services, who in my opinion should be called ‘parent protective services’. Failed by her family, who chose to bring her to a party house, with Jim beam bottles lining shelves, rubbish strewn throughout, walls filthy with grime and graffiti. Too drunk to intervene or notice if she was safe. Yet, in countless meetings every day across Australia we begin with “welcome to country”. It’s tokenism. We don’t actually care. Because if we did, child protective services wouldn’t put the fear of being called racist, ahead of the safety and protection of a child. ALL children should matter in Australia. Kumanjayi little baby had every right to go to sleep in a warm bed, surrounded by soft toys and clean sheets, with the knowledge that she was safe. Instead she went to bed that awful night, seven days ago, on a broken mattress, surrounded by drunk adults, dirty walls, and chaos. If she were white, living in the suburbs of Sydney, and child protective services saw the condition she was living in, she would be pulled out and put into foster care, and rightfully so. Because of her race, and because generations before us absolutely did the wrong thing, we put our hands up, and shy away from blatant, obvious abuse and neglect. We say our “welcome to country”, and feel good about ourselves. It’s shameful that Aboriginal children are left in these conditions, and something needs to change.