Aunty Muriel Bamblett was awarded the Person of the Year at the National NAIDOC Awards, held on the lands of the Kaurna people in Tarntanya/Adelaide, on Saturday.

The Yorta Yorta/Dja Dja Wurrung woman was acknowledged for her tireless work in the community, including as the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA) chief executive since 1999, and the chairperson of SNAICC, the peak body representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family services nationally.

Speaking to National Indigenous Times, Aunty Muriel said the emotion at the win had been almost overwhelming.

"It was just the sheer emotion of being in that room with so many Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people," she said.

"It was just the atmosphere and so many people being nominated for so many great things…you have to experience it; you really can't describe everything that happens in that room.

"All the hugs I got, all the kisses, all the congratulations…that doesn't happen with non-Aboriginal people…I just thought it was amazing. Really amazing."

Under her leadership, VACCA has expanded significantly, and now has more than 1000 employees and over 80 programs.

Aunty Muriel said when she joined the organisation, it had a single typewriter, 20 staff and was fighting for its life funding-wise from the government.

"When I went to a community meeting with regards to VACCA, the government was on the verge of closing us down," Aunty Muriel said. "It was purely [the] government…not delivering on its responsibilities."

"They were expecting VACCA to manage 200 children with funding for 26. I found huge underfunding, huge issues with the government not really taking up its duty of care to our people, our families."

Coming from Telstra, where she had worked to help many Aboriginal people to gain employment, and where "everything was computerised," VACCA's lack of technology showed the lack of care from the government.

"The government didn't see the value of us," Aunty Muriel said, "and were at the point of defunding VACCA…that was really sort of the crisis point."

Fast forward to 2024 and Aunty Muriel is clear in the difference.

"It's not the numbers of staff, and it's not the money, it's what we are able to deliver today, which has changed," she said.

"Now our families get what they rightfully should have got from the system; a lot of our people weren't offered the same equity as what non-Aboriginal Australians were."

The child protection system - both in Victoria and around the country - has routinely been in focus, with First Nations children removed from their families are a disproportionate rate to non-Indigenous children.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission last year recommended a separate Indigenous child protection system - as a model of self-determination.

Last month, Guardian Australia reported internal documents showed Victoria's Department of Fairness, Families and Housing (DFFH) was preparing for a "likely transfer" of powers to Indigenous groups because of the Treaty negotiations between the First Peoples' Assembly and the state government - to begin later this year.

Aunty Muriel said most people who think of child protection believe it is about taking the child away from their parents.

"We've got to flip it on its head," she said. "It's about keeping children at home and doing everything to keep children at home."

"But it's also about the system, [which] is about taking away Aboriginality. It's about putting [children] into a non-Aboriginal family, a non-Aboriginal environment, and growing you up away from your culture."

Aunty Muriel said it was important to alter this view; making sure children - even if they couldn't stay with their family - were staying in touch with their Aboriginality, culture, genealogy, and Country.

She spoke about guardianship, where organisations like VACCA were able to take on children and, in essence, act as their parent, which has improved the reunification rate.

"The department's reunification rate for kids on long term orders is 5 per cent," Aunty Muriel said. "Our reunification rate is 24 per cent."

"So, what that data equates to is so many more children going home. If we start to look at more and more Aboriginal people taking on decision making, more children will go home."

Throughout the conversation with National Indigenous Times, Aunty Muriel consistently highlighted the strength of others - both in her organisation, and amongst many in the First Nations community. It was obvious that the "VACCA kids" who have gone on to lead organisations across the state brought her immense joy.

Asked to name a memorable memory of her entire time helping others, she pointed to a young person who asked to dance in front of her. After doing so, his carer told Aunty Muriel "I can't believe he did that; he would never do that".

Fast forward 12 months Aunty Muriel said the difference was night and day.

"You can see when you really care about kids, and they really connect with you, and they see you as someone special…I think that's what I love," she said.

"I love the fact that all the kids that are in VACCA care, see me as someone they can connect to and someone that's real, and that's what I love about my job.

"I just think kids need somebody to have what we call Big Auntie energy."