First Nations people who allege they have experienced unlawful racial discrimination at the hands of the Department of Communities in Western Australia and the Department of Communities and Justice in New South Wales have taken their battle to the Federal Court.

A class action on behalf of impacted families in WA was lodged on 7 November and on 17 November in NSW.

Shine Lawyers' Special Counsel, Caitlin Wilson, is spearheading the class action on behalf of the affected families.

"First Nations families allege that there has been widespread racial discrimination across a number of state governments that has resulted in the unlawful and unjust removal and separation of First Nations children from their families, and a loss in their cultural connection," she said on Wednesday.

"First Nations children are consistently and significantly overrepresented in out of home care, and at the present time, Western Australia boasts the highest rate of over-representation in the country.

"This class action alleges that this is largely because of the discriminatory conduct of the Department throughout each of the various entry points into the child protection system."

Shine noted that in Western Australia, Indigenous children are 19.7 times more likely than non-First Nations children to be removed from their families and placed into State care, and 19.4 times more likely to remain on long-term orders, with only around 7.8 per cent of First Nations children being reunified with their families.

"Families in NSW aren't better off," Ms Wilson said.

"NSW has the lowest reunification of First Nations children at only 2.3 per cent, has the third highest rate of First Nations children on long-term orders and First Nations children are around 11.5 times more likely than non-First Nations children to be living in out of home care.

"Despite these bleak statistics, the proportion of expenditure on family and intensive supports services in NSW was below the national average and dropping".

One of Shine's clients, Sarah, a mother of four, had her children taken into state care when they were very young. Her eldest three children who are now 20, 19, and 18, were each placed in care for seven years, while her youngest, aged 11, was taken just five days after birth and remained in care for nine months.

During their time in state care, one of Sarah's children was subjected to sexual abuse. Despite these challenges, Sarah worked toward reunification and had her parental rights reinstated. Today, all four of her children are back in her care, where they are being raised together as a family once more.

"Many of the families we have spoken to liken themselves to a modern-day Stolen Generation," Ms Wilson said.

"We do not move forward by repeating mistakes of the past.

"Connections to culture and community must be preserved for these families. This class action aims to mark the beginning of the end to this unjust and unnecessary separation."

National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project director Megan Krakouer, who has counselled many families through the trauma caused by this separation, has joined the campaign.

"I wholeheartedly welcome the class action initiated by Shine Lawyers against the ongoing child removals in Western Australia. This legal action is vital in addressing the grave injustice faced by our First Nations people," she said.

"The systemic harm caused by modern-day Stolen Generations is devastating, with child removals increasing dramatically from 2,000 in care in 1997 to a staggering 23,000 today. This highlights the urgent need for accountability and reform in the child protection system. Successive governments have failed to curb this trend, and this is an indictment.

"We are not an industry—our children are not statistics. The time to act is now. I have witnessed too many tears of families, of children, the power imbalance, and cultural theft. For every 10 children removed, only one is reunified. This is the Black struggle."

To be a part of the class action, a person must: be and identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander; and: be an adult who was placed into out of home care as a child; or be a parent, cultural parent or carer who was investigated by the Department or had a child removed from your care; or be a family member whose application to care for a child who was removed by the Department was not assessed or was refused.

The conduct of the Departments must have occurred in WA or NSW on or after 5 March 1992.

Shine is also investigating First Nations child removal in other states.