Indigenous children have been forcibly removed from their families and communities since the very early days of the European occupation of Australia. The findings of the [1997 National Inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children from their families] found that not one indigenous family has escaped the effects. Nationally, the Inquiry concluded that between one in three and one in ten indigenous children were forcibly removed, by the State, from their families and communities between 1910 and 1970.