Chisolm reports on a Department of Youth and Community Services 'case conference' he sat in on in 1982. The conference was between an Aboriginal family, Department case workers and 'Aboriginal Community leaders' - representatives from Aboriginal community services including from the Local Lands Council, Aboriginal Medical Service and Aboriginal Legal Service. The conference concerned the fostering out of three Aboriginal children whose mother was struggling with substance abuse. It resulted in the children remaining in the care Indigenous family recommended by the community service workers who had offered to adopt the three children (other than the oldest child, who apparently opted to move into a 'hostel') - against the advice of the Department case workers who wanted the children made State wards. Chisolm's observations demonstrate that up the early 1980s protectionist and assimilationist attitudes s still pervaded the child welfare system in NSW. Despite the involvement of Aboriginal community services, Euroccentric assumptions about child care and family structure still informed non-Indigenous case workers. Chisolm draws on consultations with Aboriginal Children's Services in NSW and Victoria to present models of reform that would given Aboriginal communities greater control over the child welfare, He concludes self-determination is the preferred model, which involves giving Aboriginal communities substantive control over DYCS.