Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

17 Funding for Reunion AssistanceIn each State and Territory with the exception of the ACT specific funding is madeavailable for specialised assistance to Indigenous people seeking family information andreunion support.… many survivors today still live with the sad reality that they have still not reunited with theirfamily and land and cannot move forward in their lives until they have all the information thatthey need concerning their past. This makes Link-Up an important agency as they can assist inproviding the answers many survivors are seeking in order to rebuild their lives (SA AboriginalLegal Rights Movement submission 484 page 40).The first Indigenous family tracing and reunion service was established in NewSouth Wales in 1980 by Coral Edwards and Peter Read. Coral Edwards was removedfrom her Koori family and raised in Cootamundra Girls’ Home. Peter Read wasresearching the impacts of government policies on the Wiradjuri people of NSW. Theyrecognised the need for a tracing and support organisation for people who had been takenand for the families who had lost their children.Reunion is important but very difficult because of the way in which the removalpolicies were administered. Prior to the establishment of Link-Up most people were notaware of the family records that might provide clues to their identity. Accessing thoserecords was difficult. Between 1980 and 1994 Link-Up (NSW) Aboriginal Corporationreunited more than 1,000 individuals.The following table shows the family tracing and reunion services that now exist.Family tracing and reunion services were established at the instigation of Aboriginalindividuals and organisations who recognised the need and lobbied for funding. In somecases services have been provided without specific funding for various periods. Forexample, Karu provided a tracing service without specific funding from 1985 until 1989.They also rely heavily on volunteers.Late in 1996 the Stolen Generations Kimberley Steering Committee launched a bidto establish a family reunion and tracing service in that region of Western Australia.Evaluation – government objectivesFunding family tracing and reunion services is a government response to the effectsof forcible removals. The objective of current funding is the implementation ofRecommendation 52 of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. TheRoyal Commission recognised that,The legacy of child separation is still a significant issue in the lives of many Aboriginal people. Itis an issue that still needs investigation and there is still a ‘lost generation’ that needs support andreunion with their families. Hence there is a need for more expanded services such as thoseprovided by Link-Up which would deal with the emotional and psychological legacy of what arenow recognized as misguided child placement policies (National Report Volume 2 page 77).