The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle (ACPP) developed largely due to the efforts of Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agencies ("AICCAS") during the 1970s for the purpose of trying to ensure that Aboriginal children were placed with Aboriginal families when adoption or fostering was thought to be necessary. It recognises the significance and value of family, extended family, kinship networks, community and culture in enhancing and preserving the Aboriginal identity of children and young people.
While the 1993 Adoption Act encapsulated some of the ideas from the ACPP it was not specifically referred to by name in ACT legislation until the Children and Young Persons Act of 1999, following the 1997 Report into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their families titled Bringing them home. The ACPP was not applied however, to disposition of 'young offenders.'
The ACPP was incorporated into Northern Territory welfare legislation in 1983, followed by NSW (1987), Victoria (1989), South Australia (1993), Queensland and the ACT (1999), Tasmania (2000) and Western Australia (2006).
Sources used to compile this entry: (taken from The History of Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, Australian Human Rights Commission, http://www.hreoc.gov.au/education/bth/timeline/timeline_text.html, accessed 8 November 2011).
Prepared by: Lydia Connell
Created: 25 October 2011, Last modified: 7 November 2017
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/act/biogs/AE00044b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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