Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

In most States and Territories Indigenous communities are not being involved in thedecisions government and non-government agencies make about the management ofaccess to and research into their records. Concerns about confidentiality dominate theprocess of releasing records. Most Indigenous communities are not consulted on howthird party information should be treated. Some Indigenous communities may be lesssensitive about the release of third party information than about longstanding gaps andblanks in the picture of the community’s history. On the other hand, non-Indigenoussearchers have tapped the documentary history without consultation with the relevantcommunity.Coherent policy baseNo government has a policy statement which acknowledges the full range of needsof people affected by forcible removal. All governments are in the position admitted toby the Northern Territory.The effects … have not been examined to any significant degree by government. A number ofbooks and articles have been published [by others]. As far as this Government is aware, none ofthese so far have carried out a rigorous analysis of the effects in a manner that would be ofassistance in developing programs that could address the problems that appear to continue to exist(interim submission page 18).Agencies which have responded at all have done so on their own initiative or moreoften at the instigation of an Indigenous organisation.The current social welfare policies within Tasmania merely seek to patch up identified problems.There is no long term social policy in place. Government response is therefore ad hoc(Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre first submission 325 page 8).Even access to personal and family records is typically addressed on an ad hoc basiswith the various record agencies operating differently and in isolation from each other.In New South Wales it was recognised ‘that one of the real problems … wasfragmentation, lack of co-ordination and lack of a whole-of-government approach’(Richard Gore, NSW Archives, evidence). The working party established in NSW todevelop common access guidelines has contributed to significantly enhanced coordination.ATSIC commended the ‘holistic’ NSW approach to the Inquiry (secondsubmission 684 page 1).WA has also established an inter-agency co-ordinating committee to address theproblem to some extent. Winji Bulup draws its membership from the Aboriginal AffairsDepartment, the Department of Family and Children’s Services, the Aboriginal LegalService, the Aboriginal family and children’s issues services Manguri and Yorganop, andCentacare, a Catholic family welfare agency. All of the organisations represented areengaged in accessing Indigenous family and community records and the committeediscusses ‘ease of access, types of records that we hold or … if we’re unable to locate aparticular record, then we’re able to utilise the membership of that committee to try andhelp us search’ (Dawn Wallam, WA Family and Children’s Services, evidence).