Today marks 12 years since then prime minister Kevin Rudd rose in parliament and apologised for the actions of successive Australian governments in forcibly removing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.

But twelve years on, Indigenous children are still over-represented in child protection orders and there's a higher incidence of the removal of Indigenous children from their homes compared to non-indigenous children.

Community elders have warned before, and they're warning again - that child protection services around the country are repeating the mistakes of the past.