Prominent Australian musician Archie Roach sings a story all too familiar to him called Took the Children Away.
It is a story about the children of the Stolen Generations, and he is one.
"I was 3 ... three years old. I was three years old when I was first removed from my family. And I don't have much of a recollection about that."
He says it was only a decade later that he finally found out he was Aboriginal.
"I wasn't quite sure what that was or what it meant. So I had to find out. But it changed my life in the sense that, realising that I was the First Peoples of this country, to me, I thought, was pretty amazing."
Andrew Jackomos is the Victorian Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People.
Mr Jackomos says many Indigenous children in Victoria placed in out-of-home care are unaware of their cultural heritage.
"What we've seen, where children aren't allowed to mix with their Aboriginal first cousins, second cousins, with their cousins, we've seen where Aboriginal children have been denied their existence. I've seen an example where, on the computer system in the department, the department has de-identified an Aboriginal child so the child can be placed in the care of a white couple."
Mr Jackomos has released a landmark report looking into the state's care of almost a thousand Indigenous children in out-of-home care.
In Victoria, Indigenous children make up 20 per cent of all children in state care.
They are nearly 12 times more likely than non-Indigenous children to be placed in out-of-home care.
The report found, before going into care, 88 per cent of the children had experienced family violence, with virtually the same per cent exposed to parental drug abuse.
Raylene Harradine is from the Bendigo and District Aboriginal Cooperative.
"We have Westernisation, I suppose, (to blame), from the point of view of access to alcohol and drugs, which leads into family violence."
The report recommends 77 changes.
They include increasing Indigenous community involvement in every level of the child-protection system.
Andrew Jackomos says that is critical.
"What we've seen is where children are losing contact with families, with culture and with kin. We know that nine out of 10 of our children that we looked at were placed outside of the Aboriginal community. Yet, we know that we have a whole lot of great family members who would love to care for their children."
Victoria's Children's Minister, Jenny Mikakos, says she agrees.
"Essentially, the report is saying that far too many Aboriginal children have been managed by non-Aboriginal organisations in the past, and this is something that we are working to address."
It is something Archie Roach says he would have benefited from as a child.
"I suppose, earlier, I wouldn't have gone down the road that I did in the past, which wasn't a very good road. So I think it's ... yeah, it's that important."
The state government says it accepts all of the report's recommendations.
