Nearly 30 years after the landmark Bringing them Home report made wide-ranging recommendations to bring healing and justice for the Stolen Generations, new research documents a collective failure by governments to act.
Only five of 83 recommendations made in the 1997 report have been clearly implemented in the ensuing decades, according to an analysis by University of Canberra researchers that is cited in a new report from the Healing Foundation.
One of the recommendations that was not enacted called for a national monitoring mechanism and annual audit process to track progress in implementing the recommendations.
The Healing Foundation’s report, ‘Are you waiting for us to die?’ The unfinished business of Bringing Them Home’, says the “woefully inadequate” responses of successive federal, state and territory governments have created further trauma and distress for the Stolen Generations, their families and wider communities.
The report makes 19 recommendations as part of a proposed National Healing Package for Stolen Generations survivors across six areas: reparations, rehabilitation and research, records, family tracing and reunions, acknowledgements and apologies, education and training, and monitoring and accountability.
Urgency
Action is urgently needed, the report says, because of the moral imperative, given the decades-long delay, and because of the age and often poorer health of Stolen Generations survivors.
Healing Foundation Chair Professor Steve Larkin writes in the report that survivors are passing away at a rapid rate. “Many are without the necessary supports or care to age with the dignity they deserve,” he says.
Yet, year after year, on the anniversary of the National Apology, survivors have continued to retell their stories to ensure their voices are not dismissed, he says.
Since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the National Apology on 13 February 2008, Stolen Generations survivors have testified at more than 20 inquiries, including royal commissions examining institutional responses to child sexual abuse, aged care and disability.
The Healing Foundation’s CEO Shannan Dodson said with survivor numbers declining every year, an urgent response was required from all sides of politics, all levels of government, police, churches and others with responsibilities to support the Stolen Generations.
“We have already lost too many survivors, even in the last few weeks,” she said in a statement.
“Immediate and prioritised action is needed to provide equitable redress for all survivors, rectify issues preventing survivors from accessing their own family records, offer ongoing support for Stolen Generations organisations and ensure there are culturally safe, trauma informed aged care and health services for survivors.”
Recommendations
The report calls for federal, state and territory governments to fund and lead a National Healing Package, in partnership with The Healing Foundation and Stolen Generations organisations.
The Closing the Gap National Agreement, aged care frameworks and other relevant policies must include policies for Stolen Generations survivors and descendants, it says.
The report also singles out specific governments and agencies for action.
The Western Australian and Queensland Governments must act urgently to deliver reparations to Stolen Generations in line with the Bringing Them Home report, following their “manifestly unjust” failure to do so to date.
The report urges other jurisdictions – especially South Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales – to revisit existing and closed schemes to examine equity and access issues due to significant discrepancies in some packages across states and territories.
As well, the Australian Federal Police, ACT Police, Queensland Police Service, Tasmania Police and South Australia Police should act urgently to deliver apologies to Stolen Generations for harm caused to them, as have police in other state and territory jurisdictions.
Churches and other non-government organisations that have not yet delivered apologies for their roles in harm done to the Stolen Generations should do so urgently, and ensure safe and easy access to their records.
The report says access to records, a crucial part of healing, is inconsistent and inequitable, particularly across state and territory borders. It recommends federal, state and territory governments should establish traineeships and scholarships for Indigenous archivists, genealogists, and historical researchers.
“These skills and capacities are particularly critical in and for Stolen Generations organisations and other relevant community owned record keeping places,” it says.
Workforce matters
The report stresses the importance of a culturally safe, trauma-informed, skilled and sustainable workforce to provide services and support to Stolen Generations survivors, especially as they age, and to their families and communities.
Culturally safe and survivor-led Elder care services are critical for Stolen Generations survivors and descendants, it says.
All services and programs provided to Stolen Generations survivors must emphasise local Indigenous healing and wellbeing perspectives that are grounded in intergenerational trauma-informed healing.
The report also urges Australian universities, vocational institutions and schools to work closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders to determine how core curricula can effectively include the history and effects of forcible removal.
The report draws upon a discussion paper by Professor Alison Gerard and Maureen Bates-McKay from the University of Canberra, commissioned by The Healing Foundation.
Of 83 Bringing Them Home recommendations, five were clearly implemented, 11 recommendations are categorised as a qualified pass, ten are classified as a partial failure to implement and 45 have not been implemented. The status for ten recommendations is unclear, and one is no longer applicable.
The discussion paper’s authors say: “Whilst the Bringing Them Home report and the testimonies of the Stolen Generations survivors left an enormous legacy, progress against its recommendations has been woeful.
“It is hard to conceive that gross human rights violations, documented and bravely retold by survivors in public forums, can be met with systematic inaction in so many areas. Yet that is the confronting reality that exists in Australia.”
Further commentary
In a statement marking the National Apology anniversary, the National Association of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners (NAATSIHWP), called for greater investment and effort to address “the complex intergenerational trauma and grief impacting our families and communities”.
“Today, contemporary government policies of child removal in the name of ‘protection’ are amplifying the intergenerational trauma in our communities, leading to the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in our health, juvenile justice, child protection and welfare systems.
“We urge all Australians to not only educate themselves about the history of the Stolen Generations, but to also listen to the solutions proposed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in bringing an end to the lingering impacts of these policies. Saying sorry means you don’t do it again.”
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