A wonderful start, but compensation? Peter Read February 9, 2008 CONGRATULATIONS, Prime Minister, on planning your apology to the removed children and their families. You may not realise how incredibly important it will be for the stolen generations to hear the words: "We thought it was right for the country, now we realise it was wrong, and we are sorry for the hurt we caused you, your extended family, and to Aboriginal society." I know you're surrounded on all sides by advisers, but let me put in two-bob's worth from someone who has been closely involved in the story for more than 25 years. Note, please, the plural. There are seven or eight generations stolen, beginning with Governor Macquarie enticing a dozen children into his Aboriginal school at Parramatta. Were the removal policies really all that ill-intentioned? After decades of research there isn't doubt any more about the purpose of the state and federal policies. Let's face it, Prime Minister, the policies were quite malevolent. They were designed to put an end to Aboriginality in southern Australia forever. We can be confident of that malevolence because the early 20th century policymakers didn't bother to mince their words. Here's a NSW official in 1909: "The only solution of this great problem (is) the removal of children and their complete isolation from the influence of the camps. In the course of the next few years there will be no need for the camps and stations; the old people will have passed away, and their progeny will be absorbed in the industrial classes of the country." Yes, I know that your speechwriters are saying: "But there were children who had to be removed." Sure there were - but these kids should have been allowed to be raised by their own race and within their own cultures. They were almost never allowed to. And yes, of course there were deeply caring white adopting parents who created an enduring bond of love with their children. But that's not the point. Almost none of those children should have been removed in the first place. Don't let anyone talk you down about numbers, making out that a removal rate of one in three is a wild exaggeration. For the decades of the 1920s and the 1950s especially, there is no exaggeration. I see no reason to reduce my original calculation of about 50,000 Aboriginal children removed in all the states and territories since settlement. It's hard today to grasp how relentless some of those "welfare" officers could be in the pursuit even of one particular family and, equally, how many children bypassed the government net and were simply handed over by churches or hospitals or managers of holiday camps. These were children who left in good faith and never came home. I'm sure you don't need prompting from me to avoid the "genocide" distraction. I don't use the term either. First, it's too divisive. Second, the children were being deprived of their identity, not their lives. Third, the policies were directed at part-Aboriginality, the mixed-descent children who supposedly, in the late 19th century, threatened anarchy and uprisings around the half-formed bush towns. Even in the north, it was almost always the so-called "half-caste" children who were taken. If you want to use a term, try "ethnocide". But no compensation? Mr Prime Minister, come on! It seems like the Labor Party simply doesn't get it either. I've known many hundreds of stolen generation adults and worked with quite a few, and there is not one who does not deserve a monetary apology as well as one in words. So much abuse, so much pain, so much torment, death for some, misery for almost everyone. And it was all so unnecessary. It didn't have to happen. Don't listen just to me, it's there in thousands of hours of recorded testimonies. No, it won't be easy to sort out who is more deserving. But that's what a tribunal could do, work out the guidelines in advance, and respect them. I'm glad you are heeding the argument of the migrants who say: "Why are you apologising on my behalf? I hadn't even arrived in the country when all this was happening." It's best to say sorry not for what "we" have done, but for what the Australian government has done. Many Australians of every variety will be satisfied. Everything's OK now from Wednesday? Not without compensation, no. And even if you paid compensation, your government would have done something for only one part of the long-suffering Aboriginal people. To the terrible threesome - stolen children, frontier killings and land theft - sooner or later our nation is going to have to confront the fourth, the enormity of the managed reserve system that degraded and abused and humiliated Aboriginal people for 90 years after 1870. Don't worry about that on Wednesday, though, you'll have my best wishes. I'll be there in the crowd cheering you on. It will be one of the biggest events in my life. Professor Peter Read works in the department of history, the University of Sydney. In 1981 he originated the phrase "The Stolen Generations" in a pamphlet of that name. He was a co-founder of "Stolen Generations Link Up, (NSW)" and today is the public officer of that organisation. These opinions are his own. **** Apology must be followed by compensation: ALS Posted February 13, 2008 15:08:00 Sorry Day crowd in Perth The Aboriginal Legal Service says compensation must follow the Prime Minister's formal apology to the Stolen Generations. (ABC) The Aboriginal Legal Service in Perth says Indigenous people are now looking to compensation following the formal apology to the Stolen Generations by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. West Australians packed Perth's foreshore to listen and watch the telecast of Mr Rudd, but the Opposition leader's reply was met with an angry response that forced organisers to cut short his speech. This morning a large crowd, including the Premier Alan Carpenter applauded Kevin Rudd from an auditorium on Perth's foreshore as he said sorry to the Stolen Generations. The Chief Executive of the Aboriginal Legal Service Dennis Eggington says the crowd's reaction to Dr Nelson's reply was indicative of the passion surrounding the issue. "Because of the acknowledgment that these policies were wrong and that they have suffered there's no denying that compensation should be paid," he said. Legal experts believe the apology will not trigger claims because authorities removed children lawfully. ***** Money should follow sorry - Greens February 11, 2008 09:19am GREENS leader Bob Brown has said the Federal Government's apology to the indigenous stolen generations must be accompanied by financial compensation. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday will formally say sorry to Aboriginal people for past administrations' policy of forcibly removing indigenous children from their families. He has ruled out paying compensation but has foreshadowed a major spending package to improve Aboriginal health and education outcomes. As politicians returned to Canberra for the resumption of parliament tomorrow, Senator Brown said the Greens would aim to "get more out of the new government than it's prepared to give" - and singled out the apology. "With the statement of sorry ... there has to be reparations. There has to be compensation come from that," he said. "The fact that Mr Rudd has said no to it doesn't mean that that will be the outcome. "It's not a case of what is politically good or bad, it's a case of what is the right thing." The Tasmanian government had agreed, with opposition and Greens support, to pay $5 million in reparations for past wrongs, Senator Brown said. "So you can extrapolate that to the rest of the country. But the matter's not the cost, the matter is doing the right thing," he said. **** Pat Dodson wants compensation for Stolen Generations By Paul Maley February 14, 2008 06:48am THE father of reconciliation, Pat Dodson, has added his voice to calls for compensation for the Stolen Generations, saying yesterday's apology acknowledged the complicity of Australian governments in attempts to "destroy" Aborigines. Mr Dodson praised Kevin Rudd for having the courage to apologise to members of the Stolen Generations, pointedly noting that it marked the end of a "crippling long, dry spell" in the political cycle. "The parliament has now accepted the complicity of Australian governments in a misguided attempt to destroy our people," he told the National Press Club in Canberra. ****
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