Healing the Stolen Generations requires long-term partnerships

26 May, 2017

26 May 2017

Healing the Stolen Generations requires long-term partnerships

The NSW Government must work closely with Stolen Generation survivors and Aboriginal organisations as it moves to implement its response to a landmark parliamentary inquiry.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the tabling in the Australian Parliament of Bringing Them Home, which documented Federal and State government policies to remove Aboriginal children from their families.

NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) Chair Roy Ah-See said the policy of race-based child removal, which was practiced between the 19th century and the 1970s, continues to devastate Aboriginal families.

"No Aboriginal family has been untouched by the horror of child removal and every Local Aboriginal Land Council in NSW has Stolen Generations survivors as members," he said.

Last year a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry delivered a landmark report into a reparations scheme for the Stolen Generations and made 35 recommendations to the NSW Government.

Cr Ah-See said the NSW Government's response - including a $73 million compensation package for Stolen Generation survivors and their families - was welcome.

"But it's vital that the Government place Stolen Generations survivors and Aboriginal organisations at the centre of its response to the recommendations.

"One of the major themes of the inquiry report was for Stolen Generation survivors to have a greater voice and input into decisions and policies that affect them.

"The NSW Government has accepted, in principle, a recommendation to establish a Stolen Generations Advisory Committee comprising members of the Stolen Generations.

"The NSW Aboriginal Land Council looks forward to receiving an update from the State Government on progress on the implementation of the report's recommendations."

Media contact: Andrew Williams 0429 585 291

Acknowledgement

We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of the lands where we work as well as across the lands we travel through. We also acknowledge our Elders past, present and emerging.

Artwork Credit: Craig Cromelin, from a painting he did titled, "4 favourite fishing holes". It is a snippet of his growing years on the Lachlan River, featuring yabby, turtle, fish and family.

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