RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA:
Apology, No Compensation
For Lost Generations
By Stephen de Tarczynski
MELBOURNE, (IPS) -
While aboriginal groups
have welcomed the
Australian government’s
pledge to apologise to
the 'stolen
generations', they argue
that the gesture should
be backed up with
compensation.
But earlier this month,
Indigenous Affairs
Minister Jenny Macklin
ruled out such a fund
for people taken from
their families.
Lynn Austin, chairperson
of Stolen Generations
Victoria, told IPS that
the stolen generations
are victims of crimes
and deserve to be
compensated. "The forced
removals, the atrocities
that our people have
suffered in the
institutions and the
church homes and
wherever (as) victims of
sexual and physical
abuse and the trauma and
the pain," are reasons
for compensation, she
says.
"I could walk out on the
street tomorrow and trip
over the footpath and
sue the local council.
I’d get compensated for
that, so why not
compensation for stolen
generation members?"
asks Austin.
Some 230 years have
passed since Europeans
first established a
settlement in Australia.
But Australians --
non-indigenous as well
as indigenous -- are
struggling to come to
terms with the past, and
therefore, the present.
The seminal ‘Bringing
Them Home’ report,
released in 1997, from
the ‘National Inquiry
into the Separation of
Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Children
from Their Families’
acknowledged that
indigenous children were
"forcibly separated from
their families and
communities from the
very first days of the
European occupation of
Australia."
Among the 54
recommendations
contained in the report
is a call for monetary
compensation, as a part
of reparations, "in
recognition of the
history of gross
violations of human
rights".
Instead of a
compensation fund,
minister Macklin says
the government will be
funding health,
counselling and
education services. She
argues that providing
funding to these sectors
will help to close the
gap between the life
expectancies of
indigenous and
non-indigenous
Australians. The
minister says that this
will be the best way of
adding "force" to the
apology, which is
expected to be made in
February.
Studies -- such as the
report commissioned by
Oxfam and the National
Aboriginal Community
Controlled Health
Organisation, released
in April last year --
show a discrepancy in
the life expectancy
between the country’s
indigenous and
non-indigenous
populations of around
twenty years. Indigenous
Australians’ health also
ranks poorly compared to
the indigenous
populations of the
United States, New
Zealand and Canada.
Unlike Australia, the
Canadian government has
agreed to establish a $2
billion compensation
fund for indigenous
people forcibly
separated from their
communities as children.
According to Lynn
Austin, the Australian
government’s plan to
provide funding to
health, education and
counselling is far from
sufficient. "They’re
already pumping millions
into those things
anyway. They’ve been
doing it for years…It’s
not good enough at all.
It’s just absolutely
outrageous," she says.
John Browne, chairperson
of the Journey of
Healing Association of
South Australia, argues
that if the federal
government will not set
up a compensation fund,
then it should provide
more specialised
programmes for people
who were stolen, such as
a funeral fund and free
medical services.
Browne says that being
removed from their
families was "bad
enough" for the stolen
generations. He argues
that they should also be
compensated for "all the
pain and hurt that
they’ve suffered because
of that abuse in foster
families and adoption
families."
He told IPS that moving
children into a foreign
culture had devastating
effects. "They lost
their link to their
culture. They lost their
kinship ties to their
families, their link to
the aboriginal
spirituality, like a
link to the land," he
says.
Browne says the issues
stemming from the forced
removal of children have
created many problems
for other generations.
"It’s an ongoing issue
and it needs to be
resolved fairly quickly
because it becomes an
intergenerational issue
after a while."
He likens the effect to
radiation poisoning,
where the poison shifts
from one generation to
the next. The problems
are transferred "to the
next generation, and the
next generation then
lives out those problems
and then again with the
grandchildren," he says.
But one Australian state
appears to want to end
these problems.
Following its landmark
decision in 2006 to
establish a compensation
fund, the Tasmanian
state government
announced on Jan.15 that
84 people who were
removed from their
families as children
would receive financial
compensation, while
another 22 ex-gratia
payments were approved
for children of stolen
generations victims. The
Tasmanian government has
allocated five million
Australian dollars to
the fund.
Austin says that the
federal government’s
refusal to set up a
similar fund means the
apology will be empty.
"You’ve got to have
something to go with the
apology…They’re going to
say sorry but it’s going
to be more tokenistic,"
she says.
Austin told IPS that the
lack of a federal fund
means that people --
including herself and
her adopted siblings --
will be looking to take
legal action, with class
action also an option.
And a precedent has been
set. Following a 13-year
battle, Bruce Trevorrow
last year became the
first person removed
from their family to
successfully sue
authorities. Trevorrow
was awarded AUD 525,000
(461,291 US dollars) for
false imprisonment, pain
and suffering.
But John Browne says the
apology, even without
compensation, should be
seen as a first step.
"People are saying
(that) an apology is
hollow without
reparations or
compensation. Well, I
say it may be hollow but
it’s a start. I mean,
just to get the federal
government to apologise
is a big thing," says
Browne.
While he plans to
continue applying
pressure to the federal
government to establish
a fund, Browne says that
he will also look to the
South Australian state
government. "The state
governments seem to be
more conducive to
providing that
remuneration. Tasmania’s
already started and
Western Australia is on
its way. South Australia
has to look at that sort
of thing," he told IPS.
But like Austin, Browne
views legal action as an
option. Either a fund is
set up "or we can |
