When Mary was pregnant with her fifth baby, she was struggling with drug addiction and living in a violent relationship.
She knew her child would be safer outside of her home, but she didn't want them to grow up in the system.
Mary, who lives in the Aboriginal community of Lockhart River in Queensland's Cape York, has had four children removed from her custody. They live in what the sector calls out-of-home care — a system where most Indigenous kids end up living with non-Indigenous carers.
Mary (not her real name) was desperate to do things differently this time – for this baby to grow up with culture and kin.
Enter Mookai Rosie CEO Theresa Simpson.
"She reached out to us and asked rather than child safety coming in, could we advocate on her behalf to facilitate for a cultural adoption?" the Wakka Wakka and Kalkadoon woman told the ABC's Indigenous Affairs Team.
"Which is what we did."
There are a record 22,908 First Nations children living in the child protection system, according to the annual Family Matters report released on Thursday — a jump of more than 500 kids from this time last year.
Staff at Mookai Rosie, an Aboriginal-run women's health service in Cairns, worked around the clock to ensure Mary's baby could stay on-country, in a safe environment, holding discussions with the family member Mary had recommended as the adoptive parent.
They also helped facilitate screening with the Child Safety department and supported both women through the transition.
"She didn't want another child being taken away from her," Theresa said, adding that birth mum Mary and the new mum live in the same tight-knit community.
"These are the key ingredients that we need to keep families together … that was a fantastic outcome."
'Gross over-representation'
Circumstances for First Nations children have never been worse, according to Family Matters report co-author Catherine Liddle.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 10.8 times more likely to be removed from their families than any other child," said Ms Liddle, who is also the CEO of SNAICC, the national voice for Indigenous children.
"The highest number we've seen recorded."
The Family Matters report assesses how government funding is directed, and found non-Indigenous non-government organisations have an oversized role in the child protection system, with most cash flowing to the removal of kids rather than prevention and family support.
According to data from this year's Closing the Gap Productivity Commission report, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Family Matters report, Aboriginal-run family services like Mookai Rosie outperform mainstream health and other non-government organisations when it comes to keeping kids safe.
"The Aboriginal community-controlled sector gets much better results and is more likely to keep a family safe together … more reunifications," Ms Liddle said.
Despite this, only 6 per cent of child protection prevention money goes to Aboriginal-run organisations.
Government must redirect funding from the NGO service providers' pot into the Aboriginal-run sector, according to Ms Liddle, and a large number of out-of-home care providers in the NGO sector agree.
Last month, Allies For Children, an umbrella organisation for many child and family care organisations, including Life without Barriers, committed to letting the Aboriginal sector take the lead when it comes to First Nations kids in care.
"[They] looked in the mirror and said, 'this is moving too slow, we all know who gets the best results, we all know who's not getting that investment, if the machinery — the government — is clogged and blocked then let's move in as a community and start this process ourselves."
"They know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are much better at getting the results that we need."
'Saving government $9.6 million a year'
This year's Family Matters report shows, for the first time, a backward trend in the number of First Nations children being reunited with their families.
Bucking this trend is Tawata Pari, or the Finding Families pilot program run out of the KWY Aboriginal Corporation in Adelaide.
Ruka Taite runs the program and said that while families were initially skeptical due to the program's partnership with the South Australian child protection department, trust was quickly earned because Tawata Pari is "mob talking to mob."
"The program involves us going out into community, speaking to elders to find placements that are safe and ideally with family members that have bloodline connections to the children," Ruka said.
The program costs the South Australian government $1.3 million, Ruka said, but funding runs out in January 2025 and there is no indication yet if it will be extended.
"We've placed a certain amount of kids, that's going to be a cost saving to the department of approximately $9.6 million over the next 12 months," he said.
"If you see the grandmothers crying and the grandfathers crying and siblings that haven't been removed … you talk to all of them about this program and the benefits that come with it … the answer is not actually in their voices, it's in their faces."
