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A sky writer spells the word "sorry" over the Sydney Opera House, calling for support for a national apology to members of the Stolen Generations.
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NIT FORUMS: Restoring identity before it's too late
ISSUE 190 - 12 Nov 2009
ISSUE 190, November 12, 2009: Governments must get serious about providing proper reparations to members of the Stolen Generations, writes VAVAA MAWULI*.
An elderly Aboriginal woman passed away while waiting for the NSW Government to repay wages she had earned as a teenage domestic servant; wages which had been withheld from her and placed in a trust fund account by government agencies.
This woman was one of thousands of Aboriginal people who registered a claim to a NSW Government scheme set up in 2004 to repay Aboriginal people their wages and other entitlements.
These entitlements had been kept in trust fund accounts and never repaid under the paternalistic laws, practices and policies of past governments.
She was also one of many who died before seeing her wages returned.
The injustice for Aboriginal people of being deprived of wages and other entitlements was compounded by the amount of time it took the government to acknowledge this past wrong and provide measures to restore the monies to its rightful owners, many of whom were members of the Stolen Generations.
It is positive that the NSW Government has now established a process to pay the money back. But for some, it has come too late.
The lesson which must be learned is that the federal government, as well as state and territory governments, must not further delay implementing measures to address the harm caused to members of the Stolen Generations, their families and communities as a result of forcible removal policies.
Twelve years ago, the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families released a historic report, Bringing Them Home, which recommended that reparations should be made to all those who suffered because of forcible removal policies.
Since then, only limited progress has been made in implementing the recommendations.
The Prime Minister's apology to members of the Stolen Generations in February 2008 was the first significant breakthrough on a national scale in acknowledging the experiences of those affected by forcible removal policies.
However, an apology is only one aspect of the reparations package recommended in the Bringing Them Home report.
Other essential features of reparations are guarantees against repetition, measures of restitution and rehabilitation and monetary compensation.
In 2002, in response to the failure of governments and churches to act on the recommendations in the Bringing Them Home report, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) published a report, Restoring Identity, which proposed a model for a national Stolen Generations Reparations Tribunal.
The model was developed after extensive community consultation that included the opinions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about a model for a reparations tribunal for the Stolen Generations.
The consultation was carried out with the assistance of the (then) Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the National Sorry Day Committee and Stolen Generations groups in the Northern Territory.
The purpose of the tribunal proposed in Restoring Identity is to provide a comprehensive reparations package as recommended in Bringing them Home to acknowledge and address the harms caused to Indigenous people and communities as a result of forcible removal policies.
The tribunal provides an alternative to litigation for members of the Stolen Generations seeking compensation for harm and injustices suffered.
Legal claims for compensation have proven to be complex, lengthy and costly and have produced very few successful outcomes for the Stolen Generations.
Statutory limitation periods prevent many from bringing claims because the law requires that a claim be made within a specified period of time, usually three to six years from when the harm occurred.
The proposed reparations tribunal would provide a forum for Indigenous people affected by forcible removal policies to tell their story in a non-adversarial process and to have their experiences documented and acknowledged.
The tribunal would also be able to provide measures for reparations, including monetary compensation for the harm caused to Indigenous people and communities as a result of forcible removal policies.
Earlier this year, the federal government announced plans to set up an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation to address the cycle of grief and trauma affecting the Stolen Generations and their families.
With these plans underway, it is now time for the federal government to place the issue of reparations for members of the Stolen Generations back on the agenda.
There has been some progress made at a state level to provide redress.
The Tasmanian, Queensland and Western Australian governments established redress schemes to provide ex gratia payments to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who experienced harm while in state care.
In NSW and Queensland, 'Stolen Wages' schemes have been established to repay wages and other entitlements withheld from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: a practice that widely affected members of the Stolen Generations.
These developments have been positive for some members of the Stolen Generations, however many are still waiting for justice.
PIAC is releasing a second edition of Restoring Identity to encourage all governments, churches and other stakeholders to revisit the national reparations tribunal model and consider a collective approach that is culturally appropriate.
The federal government must show leadership on this issue and take swift action to ensure that more time is not lost and many more members of the Stolen Generations do not die before justice is served.
forum@nit.com.au
* Vavaa Mawuli is a senior solicitor in the Indigenous Justice Program at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
** The second edition of Restoring Identity will be launched at Tranby Aboriginal College in Sydney on November 20. For further details about the launch contact PIAC at piac@piac.asn.au
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