Arjun, Aila, Kaysen, Minnie, Sayda
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Sayda is in her 30s and lives with an intellectual disability. As a child, she was placed in foster care.
Sayda told the Royal Commission that soon after each of her four children were born, child protection officers took them away.
‘I’ll give birth to a baby in a back alleyway before I will ever go back to a hospital, where I am clearly not safe.’
Sayda’s first child, Arjun, is now in his early teens. When he was a few weeks old, Sayda took him to hospital to get help feeding him.
Sayda said the hospital told her he was ‘failing to thrive’. Child protection officers took Arjun away.
‘If my friend … had problems with her children [and] if she took her child to the hospital under the same conditions, they'd be, like, “All right, this woman's having problems with her baby, let's see how we can help. Let’s address her problems.”’
Sayda said the child protection service has since moved Arjun multiple times and police have arrested him for assault.
‘Because no-one is listening to him. And they're going to lock him away until my child turns up dead or fighting for his life in the gutter somewhere.’
Sayda’s daughter Aila was removed when she was days old, when Sayda was still in hospital.
‘No-one would tell me where she was, how she was going. Little did I know that they had already discharged her to the foster carer. But no-one told me that.’
Sayda said she later learnt that after the child protection service took Arjun away from her, it had placed her on a ‘watch list’.
‘They'd never made any effort to even check to see if anything had changed since then. They just made assumptions … I did absolutely nothing wrong.’
Sayda said the child protection service placed Aila in long-term care because it claimed she had formed no bond with her mother. Aila has now passed through multiple foster families.
‘They just recently shifted her because … the placement broke down as a result of her being in such distress. And they've denied me months and months and months of access to my baby.’
Sayda gave birth to her son Kaysen at home. Police took Kaysen away when he was a few weeks old.
‘He had literally conked out through having such a huge big feed ... I had [Kaysen] in my arms fast asleep. Two police officers pinned me down to my lounge and ripped my baby out of my arms, fast asleep and literally tore him out of my arms. And they think this shit does not traumatise children or parents?’
When Sayda was pregnant with her youngest daughter, Minnie, she organised a support network to help her after the birth.
‘My baby wasn't even two and a half hours old when they took my baby. I had done nothing wrong. Nothing.’
Sayda tried to commit suicide while still at the hospital.
‘I never really got to spend any time with her at all. I've never been alone with her either, so how am I a threat to her? I've never been in a room with her alone … What have I done to be a risk? I've done nothing.’
Sayda said the child protection service claimed during a court hearing that she was incapable of learning.
‘How can I master parenting and get all the skills involved if no-one gives me the [chance]?’ Sayda asked the Royal Commission. ‘I did a full first aid certificate. Passed it. Rocked that … A fully qualified first aid certificate. Does this mean I'm not capable of learning?’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.