There is no doubt about it: the child protection system is in crisis, and it is manifestly failing Aboriginal children and young people. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on removing children and depositing them in a revolving door of unstable placements, homelessness, substance abuse and prison, the rate of Aboriginal children being removed from their families is expected to triple by 2037.

In Victoria, Aboriginal children are 15.8 times more likely to be removed from their homes than their non-Aboriginal peers. Despite making up 1% of the population, Aboriginal children represent 20% of children in out-of-home care.

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Since Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations in 2008, the rate of Aboriginal children being removed from their homes has doubled nationally, and tripled in Victoria, from 660 in 2008 to 2,091 in 2017.

The rate of removal of Australia’s First Nations children is one of the highest in the world. In 2016 the number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care in Victoria was double the rate of Indigenous children in out-of-home care in Canada, and 10 times the rate of Māori children in New Zealand.

Why? It is not – and I can’t believe I have to say this – it is not because we don’t love our children.

It’s because the system is individualistic, pathologising and reactionary, and what should be the last resort is the only resort. In a majority of cases, the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and communities is a Band-Aid fix on a gushing wound, and has far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for children, families, carers and communities.

Despite the myth that Aboriginal children are removed from abusive homes, more often than not this is not the case. The rates of removal for cases of physical or sexual abuse are actually higher in the general population. In 75% of cases Aboriginal children are removed from their homes because of exposure to family violence or a parent’s inability to care for them. This “inability” is often a result of parents’ own mental illness or extreme disadvantage, with a Victorian review of the cases of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care finding that parental mental illness was present in 60% of cases.

This needs to change. Our families need help – and we have the solutions.

Hope and resilience are not an option for us, they are a necessity

We want the best for our children, we want to see them have every opportunity to thrive and to be raised in safe and happy families. But the system’s often all-or-nothing approach is failing to intervene early to provide holistic supports to families who are struggling. It means that children are already traumatised before they are removed. And families? Well they are hung out to dry – and, without the hope of being reunited with their children, parents fall into greater depths of despair.

In Victoria we are seeing real and systemic change, and our Aboriginal communities are leading the nation in self-determination. Through the Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Alliance – I am proud to be its chair – we have advocated for progressive reforms and legislation which will see all Aboriginal children in out-of-home care case managed by Aboriginal organisations by 2021. This means we can ensure children remain connected to their culture, country and community – vital to improving a child’s sense of belonging and overall social and emotional wellbeing.

I am a proud Wotjobaluk and Latje Latje woman and chief executive of Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-operative, the first regional Aboriginal community-controlled organisation to take on the legal guardianship of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care, under section 18 of the Child, Youth and Families Act.

We work intensively with the families to help them heal and provide vital support. In a pilot scheme, 100% of Aboriginal children and young people were placed in kinship care (with their extended families) and half were reunited with their families.

And the ball is in motion with Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative and Njernda Aboriginal Corporation, two other Victorian Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, which are preparing to take on the legal guardianship of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care.

The path to self-determination is a long one, with many roadblocks. We carry a mammoth responsibility yet lack adequate resources.

We need flexible, long-term funding to respond to the needs of our community. A large proportion of funding is funnelled towards upholding the current child protection system, failing to provide help to support us to intervene early.

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In the face of crisis it is easy to disengage. Please don’t – we don’t. We face up to these problems every day but we continue to fight for our children and young people.

Hope and resilience are not an option for us, they are a necessity.

Help us dispel the myth that Aboriginal children are only removed from abusive homes. It simply isn’t true.

Take a second to look at the drivers behind these removals. In most cases you will see a loving family struggling to survive.

Together, let’s change that and give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children a better and brighter future.

• Raylene Harradine is a Wotjobaluk and Latje Latje woman. She chairs the Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Alliance and is the chief executive of Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-operation