Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

Policy deficienciesThe general experience of searchers interested in accessing privately-heldrecords has been a negative one.I have found that it is quite difficult to access a number of files on behalf of clients. Churchorganisations and private organisations are unwilling to even understand the problems thatthis group encounter without archival information. The effect of not being able to access thisinformation can have devastating consequences for people attempting to piece their familyhistory together (Rosie Baird presentation submitted with Karu Aboriginal and Islander ChildCare Agency submission 540 page 6).It is quite difficult to get access to some mission files. Negotiations have not yet beenproductive. Access to information of this sort is not only a right by virtue of citizenship, andthe treatment that Stolen Generations received, but also it should be recalled that theinstitutions were the Stolen Generations’ de facto parents. Their responsibility to assist accessgoes beyond mere citizenship (Karu submission 540 page 31).A range of difficulties has been encountered.In some cases the problem is cooperation; some of these agencies refuse to give Link-Up anyinformation about a child, and refuse access to their records. In other cases, the agency hasclosed and the records have been lost or destroyed, or the agency only keeps the records for ashort time as a matter of policy … Since the record trail of any given person may movethrough a number of different placements, both government and non-government, onemissing or inaccessible file can cause serious problems (Link-Up (NSW) submission 186pages 155 and 156).These difficulties are exacerbated in the case of records kept or taken by privateindividuals. Link-Up (NSW) reported, for example, its unsuccessful efforts to obtainrecords held by private landowners in whose pastoral property journals the births ordeaths of Aboriginal residents were often recorded. There is a very significant riskthat these records will be destroyed or will disintegrate for want of appropriatestorage. The Inquiry was told that a former Darwin institution manager storeschildren’s personal records in his garage, making them available to searchers at hisown discretion. Some have been lost while the remainder are held in poor conditionsin a humid tropical climate.In July 1995 the Australian Cultural Ministers Council appointed an ArchivesWorking Group. The Working Group’s first project was to identify and survey thecurrent state of access to records relating to Indigenous people. The report of thatproject was finalised late in 1996 and covered both government and non-governmentarchives. However, the report is not comprehensive. Some record-holding agencieswere undoubtedly not identified and some of those from whom information wasrequested did not respond.Current access proceduresA number of church agencies employ archivists or other professional staff toadminister records and to assist searchers.