Wakwakurna Kanyini a response to 'systemic racism' behind removal of Aboriginal children in South Australia
Kaurna, Narungga and Ngarrindjeri woman Ashum Owen was appointed first chief executive of Wakwakurna Kanyini, the community-controlled peak body for Aboriginal children and families in South Australia. The Wakwakurna Kanyini logo artwork was by Wirangu, Kokatha and Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara woman Jaylene Ware.
Images courtesy Wakwakurna Kanyini and South Australian Native Title Services
Wakwakurna Kanyini became the new community-controlled peak body for Aboriginal children and families in South Australia in 2024. Wakwakurna was a Kaurna word for children and Kanyini in Pitjantjatjara was loosely translated as interconnectedness, nurture and support for family, country and community.
The new peak body was announced a week after the release of Holding on to Our Future, a scathing report by Aboriginal children and young people commissioner April Lawrie, who found “systemic racism” was driving Aboriginal child removals in South Australia..
The report’s six headline findings included “insufficient funding” for early intervention services and the state “unnecessarily removing disproportionate and growing numbers of Aboriginal children from their families and communities”. The report warned that one in 10 Aboriginal children in South Australia were in state care and that would grow to 140 in every 1,000 Aboriginal children by 2031 without reforms. The state government’s child protection department had “no defined strategy to improve outcomes for Aboriginal children and young people, or a culturally appropriate accountability and oversight mechanism for monitoring its performance”.
The South Australian invested $3.2 million towards setting up Wakwakurna Kanyini that had Kaurna, Narungga and Ngarrindjeri woman Ashum Owen as its first chief executive. Owen, with a background in law, policy and advocacy, contributed to work culminating in the Holding on to Our Future report.
Wakwakurna Kanyini came from decades of local Aboriginal leaders advocating for an Aboriginal peak body to bring the community voice into the child protection and family support services sector to ensure and maintain a priority on improving outcomes for children. Wakwakurna Kanyini was formed through a statewide community-led design and led by a steering committee involving local Aboriginal representatives from across the South Australian child and family services sector and Aboriginal community. It was supported by SNAAIC (Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care), the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family services, with origins in 1981.
As a peak Aboriginal body in South Australia, Wakwakurna Kanyini would lead in representing community-led priorities to the state government for improving outcomes for Aboriginal children and families and building the capacity of the Aboriginal community-controlled sector to provide services to Aboriginal families in need. Its vision was for Aboriginal children to flourish with culture as proud and confident members of their community.