Petition for Stolen Generations Compensation Tabled in State Parliament
At this year’s Sorry Day Commemoration on 26th May, we marked 25 years since the tabling of the landmark report into the Stolen Generations, the “Bringing Them Home Report”, and on that day we launched a Petition to the Legislative Council in the WA Parliament calling for Compensation for Stolen Generations Survivors in line with two of the recommendations from that Report.
When the Petition was launched, Jim Morrison, the Chair of the Western Australian Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, highlighted the significant unfinished business from the Bringing Them Home Report. He stated: “Only a handful of the 54 recommendations in the Bringing Them Home Report have been properly implemented by Commonwealth or State Governments! The recommendations fall under 3 broad headings – Truth, Justice and Healing and they need to be considered as part of an integrated package and not cherry picked by Governments. We need to tell the Truth about these policies of child removal and their impact on Aboriginal families and we need to provide proper justice and healing for Stolen Generations Survivors and their families!”
Today we were delighted to be at Parliament House with Hon. Brad Pettit MLC, who tabled the Petition on our behalf. Tony Hansen, the Aboriginal Co-Chair of Bringing Them Home WA stated: “Whilst most States have implemented compensation schemes that are broadly consistent with Recommendations 3 and 4 in the Bringing Them Home Report, sadly this has not happened in Western Australia! Consequently, we are delighted that this Petition to the Legislative Council has been tabled with over 1300 signatures”.
“We are calling on the Legislative Council to set up a Committee Inquiry into Stolen Generations Compensation Schemes which have been established in other States, with a view to recommending the establishment of a similar scheme in this State. It would be a great disappointment and a travesty of justice if Stolen Generations Survivors in Western Australia were left as the only Survivors in Australia who have not been properly compensated!”
Bringing Them Home WA has been working to advocate on behalf of Stolen Generations Survivors and their families and to educate the broader community about these issues since the Bringing Them Home Report was tabled in 1997. We are an active, reconciliation-based organisation with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Members and Board members, with strong partnerships with the Aboriginal community and into the Reconciliation Movement.
If you would like to become involved (or want to renew your annual membership) download a Membership Form and submit it through the email admin@bringingthemhomewa.com or drop it into the Yokai office at 57 Murray St, Perth.
Sorry Day 2022 marks two significant anniversaries and a call for long overdue compensation.
At this year’s Sorry Day Commemoration on 26th May, we will be marking the 50th anniversary of the repeal of Western Australia’s Native Welfare Act 1963 and 25 years since the tabling of the landmark report into the Stolen Generations, the Bringing Them Home Report. “It is important for people to understand that this discriminatory legislation was still in force when I was removed from my family and sent to Marribank Mission in 1970 at the age of 3! I was not allowed to leave the Mission until I turned 16 and it took me many years to reunite with some of my family. We are not talking about ancient history here!”, according to Bringing Them Home WA Co-Chair, Tony Hansen. “It is also important to understand that in Western Australia in particular, the impact of these policies and legislation such as the Native Welfare Act, was significant. Recent research by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has shown that approximately 57% of the adult Aboriginal population in WA are either Stolen Generations survivors like me or are descendants!” Jim Morrison, the Chair of the Western Australian Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, has highlighted the significant unfinished business from the Bringing Them Home Report. “Only a handful of the 54 recommendations in the Bringing Them Home Report have been properly implemented by Commonwealth or State Governments! The recommendations fall under 3 broad headings – Truth, Justice and Healing and they need to be considered as part of an integrated package and not cherry picked by Governments. We need to tell the truth about these policies of child removal and their impact on Aboriginal families and we need to provide proper justice and healing for Stolen Generations Survivors and their families!” “Whilst most States have implemented compensation schemes that are broadly consistent with Recommendations 3 and 4 in the Bringing Them Home Report, sadly this has not happened in Western Australia! Consequently, we are launching a Petition to the Legislative Council on the 25th Anniversary of the Bringing Them Home Report calling for an Inquiry into compensation schemes established in other States with a view to establishing a similar scheme in this State.” Mark Bin Bakar, the Chairperson of the Kimberley Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, which will be celebrating its 21st Anniversary later this year concluded by saying, “We are looking to the broader community to support this online petition to demonstrate to the WA Government that there is strong support to put in place a proper compensation scheme for the Stolen Generations Survivors who suffered significant trauma as a result of their removal from their families and disconnection from their culture and country. He called on the Government to listen to the words of Midnight Oil – ‘the time has come to say fairs fair!”
Background: The Native Welfare Act 1963 was repealed on 9 June 1972. It was part of a series of WA Government race-based legislative acts commencing in 1887, under which thousands of Aboriginal children were removed from their families and placed in state institutions, missions, and foster homes. The Native Welfare Act 1963 replaced the Aborigines Act 1905, which had remained law from 1906 to 1964. Under the six decades of this latter act, the government’s Chief Protector of Aborigines — the most infamous and long-standing of who was A.O. Neville — and later Commissioner of Native Affairs, ruled almost every aspect of the lives of Aboriginal people in Western Australia. Indigenous people were subjected to forced cultural assimilation, continuing dispossession of Country, denial of basic civil rights, racial segregation, internment in oppressive and resource-deprived church missions and government settlements, and psychological and physical abuse. The First Nations peoples in Western Australia, as for those across the continent, were denied self-determination, cultural autonomy, political power, and treaty-negotiating authority. As the legal guardian of every Aboriginal child, the Chief Protector and Commissioner had the power to forcibly remove children, confine them in institutions, put them to menial work and deny them access to their family and kin. On top of the terrible grief and trauma of separation, many children suffered cruelty, sexual abuse and strict repression of their language, culture, and identity. While the Native Welfare Act 1963 ended the legal guardianship of Aboriginal children by the Commissioner of Native Welfare, the program of child removals and social assimilation continued under it, until it was repealed on 9 June 1972. From that point on, state practices in relation to Aboriginal children were assigned to mainstream welfare departments along with institutions into which children were placed. The separation of children from their families up to the present day, continues to be an issue of deep concern for Indigenous people, as does the enormous intergenerational trauma caused by the many decades of the destruction of families. The Bringing Them Home Report was tabled in the Federal Parliament on 26th May 1997 after an extensive Inquiry conducted by the late Sir Ronald Wilson and respected Aboriginal Lawyer, Mick Dodson. It is now 25 years since that report was provided to the Federal Government and sadly most of the 54 recommendations have not been implemented.
Wandering Girl by Glenyse Ward, Fawcett, 1992 God, the Devil and Me by Alf Taylor, Magabala Books, 2022 Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800-2000 by Anna Haebich, Fremantle Press, 2001 Spinning the Dream: Assimilation in Australia 1950-1970 by Anna Haebich, Fremantle Press, 2008
Gather with your friends, family, colleagues and school groups to help us commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the tabling of the Bringing Them Home Report in the Australian Federal Parliament in 1997. Streamed LIVE from the newly completed Stolen Generations Memorial within Wellington Square (Moort-ak-Waadiny) East Perth, this event will include a Welcome To Country, Smoking Ceremony, Speakers as well as musical performances. Due to COVID concerns this Sorry Day Commemoration is strictly invitation only, but you can still be a part of this important event on the Reconciliation Calendar by watching Live on YouTube. YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/zX-bVaXlkoY The link will take you straight to our live broadcast with links to other educational materials on our YouTube Channel Yokai Healing Our Spirit.
Call for members, Membership renewals and Joining the Bringing Them Home WA Board
Did you know that 55.6% of the Aboriginal population in Western Australia are either Stolen Generations Survivors or their descendants? That’s by far the highest in Australia. New research has confirmed that there is a “Double Gap” in relation to most of the health and social wellbeing indicators, when comparing Stolen Generations Survivors and their families with the rest of our Aboriginal community?
Bringing Them Home WA has been working to advocate on behalf of Stolen Generations Survivors and their families and to educate the broader community about these issues since the Bringing Them Home Report was tabled in 1997. We are an active, reconciliation-based organisation with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Members and Board members, with strong partnerships with the Aboriginal community and into the Reconciliation Movement.
If you would like to become involved (or want to renew your annual membership) download a Membership Form and submit it through the email geoffrey.bice@wa.uca.org.au or drop it into the Yokai office at 57 Murray St, Perth.
We are always looking for new Members to join our Board so if you are interested in getting involved, please let us know and we will invite you to join us to meet the rest of the Board and many other members.
Tuesday 26th May 2021 is the 24th Anniversary of the tabling of the Bringing Them Home Report in the Commonwealth Parliament. This landmark Report by the Australian Human Rights Commission was the culmination of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families.
Bringing Them Home WA (BTH) and the WA Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation (WASGAC) would normally be jointly hosting a major commemorative event at Wellington Square, but due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, particularly for the schoolchildren who normally attend our event, we have again developed an online “event” in partnership with Curtin University. This “online event”, which features interviews with Stolen Generations Survivors and related documentaries from Curtin’s Noongar Dandjoo television program will be accessible from the morning of Sorry Day by clicking on the following link: https://youtu.be/c-QhJFjXYgA
However, WASGAC Managing Director, Jim Morrison, expressed concern on this anniversary that Governments have still not acknowledged the widespread impact of Stolen Generations policies on the Aboriginal community in Western Australian. “Soon to be released research has highlighted the astonishing statistic that approximately 50% of the Aboriginal population in Western Australia are either Stolen Generations Survivors or their descendants.” “Sadly, there is ongoing trauma associated with their removal from families and the intergenerational trauma that impacts on their children and grandchildren. These Stolen Generations Survivors are still looking for psychological support and long-term strategies for healing and Governments are not responding to this significant need”.
BTH Co-Chair, Tony Hansen, a Stolen Generations Survivor from Marribank Mission, added: “The other priority issue for Stolen Generations Survivors is the ongoing fight for justice! Survivors who suffered sexual abuse have options open to them to pursue compensation through the Redress Scheme established as a result of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse or through the Civil Courts, but this comes with the added burdens associated with re-traumatisation”. “It is time for Commonwealth and State Governments to consider the Bringing Them Home Report Recommendations 3 and 4 which proposed compensation or reparation for all Survivors to acknowledge the trauma associated with removal from their families and loss of culture. The NSW, Tasmanian, South Australian and Victorian Governments have all established compensation schemes and Survivors in WA, where the impact of removal policies was most profound, are still waiting!” “As we commemorate the 24th Anniversary of the Bringing Them Home Report, it is time for the WA Government to stand up and acknowledge the unfinished business associated with the Bringing Them Home Report, Mr Hansen concluded.
Further comment: Jim Morrison 0408 917 133 or Tony Hansen 0417 610 412
With Sorry Day being on a Sunday this year the Bringing Them Home WA Committee have produced a prayer and reflection resource which can be used in churches and faith communities on 26 May. This will give an opportunity for faith communities to raise awareness about Sorry Day and continue the journey of reconciliation.
The forced removal of so many Aboriginal children from their mothers, families and communities inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss that continues to affect them, their communities and descendants.
In 1998, Kerry Fletcher wrote the Sorry Song , on behalf of all of us whose hearts ache when we think of the pain those children and communities suffered and the pain which they still endure today.
The Sorry Song is regularly performed at the annual WA Sorry Day event, as well as having been performed at events marking the National Apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008.
Listen to (a short version of) the Sorry Song below ::
Visit www.sorrysong.com.au to view the lyrics, download the sheet music or watch/listen to other performances of this moving song.
Bringing Them Home WA 