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their own kids. I ended up getting caught and sent back to Wilson. I was depressedagain. The family who I’d stayed with made several attempts at fostering me. Thewelfare department blocked all attempts. I didn’t know how to feel. All this time, thewelfare couldn’t wait to put me into a home. Then when I found a family that I wanted tostay with on my own, they wouldn’t allow it. It was like nobody cared what I wanted. Itwas as if I had no say in anything. It was being arranged for me to be adopted again byanother family. When I became aware of this, I did what I was beginning to do best, runaway. This made matters worse. People were beginning to give up on me. I was finallysent to Boys Town [aged nearly 14].I ran away from Boys Town several times. On one occasion that I ran away, I caught atrain back up to Townsville. One of the passengers – a woman travelling with herboyfriend – took care of me. We got on real good. She had brown skin just like me. Thiswoman kept asking me questions about who I was and where I came from. I was arunaway, so I was restricted to how much I could say, in fear of being caught. I was inlove with this woman. I remember falling asleep with my head on her lap. We talkedeach other to sleep.We talked each other to sleep.The following day we arrived at Townsville station. She asked me if I had anywhere tostay. I told her no. Her and her boyfriend invited me to stay with them. I stayed only twodays with them. She washed my clothes and made sure that I had a good feed. On thesecond day she went out with her boyfriend. I got jealous of her boyfriend and ran awaywhen they left.Until the age of 28 I wasn’t aware just how close I was to finding my mother.Later the next day I was arrested by the Townsville police. [Tony was returned to BoysTown where he stayed until he turned 15. He then found employment.]It was a difficult time in my life. It was then that I was mature enough to realise the fullramifications of what everything was building up to. I started to convince myself that Iwas destined to spend the rest of my life alone. I often saw old people in the street, whowere obviously homeless, and knew that that was how I was going to end up. I used toget really depressed about that. Those thoughts and feelings stayed with me for a verylong time.I was never sent back to my family. [When Tony was aged 17 his welfare officerrecommended reintroduction to his birth family. The recommendation was ignored.]Nobody cared about the pain that I was feeling. So I tried my best to hide from it.Antisocial behaviour seemed the only way that I could deal with my problems for yearsto follow. I’ve been a loner since then.[At 16 Tony stole a car from the family with whom he was staying and left the State. At18 he committed a burglary and spent 10 months in prison.]When I got out I started making contact with my adoption family by phone. It wasbecoming positive. My adoption mother refused me permission to go home to them
when I got my holidays from work. She claimed that, ‘… dad doesn’t think it’s a goodidea’. That hurt me a lot. A year later I tried to contact them again. This time my adoptionfather answered the phone. I rang up to wish my adoption mother a happy birthday.When I asked, ‘…is mum there?’, I was told that she had died two months earlier. Itdevastated me. While I was on the phone, I made it clear to my adoption father that Iloved him. I felt terrible because I never got to say it to my adoption mother. I’d spent theprevious two years trying to make amends.My life fell apart once again. I became a drug addict and started to abuse alcohol andeveryone around me.[Tony was soon convicted of robbery with wounding in company. He is serving a 14 yearsentence. Link-Up (Qld) located his family in 1993. His mother had died 9 years earlier.She had been the woman on the train.]Confidential submission 82, Queensland.
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(c) examine the principles relevant
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The Inquiry’s recommendations are
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child. We’d like to take this bab
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The benefits that influenced the pa
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Confidential submission 843, Queens
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Fair 23.4% 13.0%Poor 5.7% 2.4%Not s
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The Inquiry is aware that many othe
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Part 2Tracing the HistoryC h a p t
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appointed a Select Committee to inq
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The ‘protectionist’ legislation
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From this time on, States began ado
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For the Aboriginal child growing up
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3 New South Wales and the ACTAt Dar
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Indigenous children from their fami
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1933 and to those resisting removal
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towards their people since the time
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By the late 1930s it was clear the
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Mt Penang Training Centre [in the e
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had died.In Sydney my mother and Es
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She made us stay up late sewing, kn
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her family background made sure of
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and publicity that occurs with prop
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on the conditions under which Indig
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was rare for legal representation t
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whatever. Considering I come from a
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Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA
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unacceptable or unchristian-like be
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government policy until at least 19
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Forcible separation through the dor
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ecome very frightened of her. We cl
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leave or escape from such reserve o
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and financial responsibilities.In 1
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Night is drawing nearThis always up
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several days later that she was adm
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than an Aboriginal Penal Colony. Ou
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6 Tasmania… there does not appear
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Ten years later few of the Islander
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with that. It was just the way of l
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in Tasmania. The idea being to even
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and my brothers and sisters.Confide
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domestic and farm work. Under the I
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If the police sent me only the most
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[In 1926] came a visit from A.J. Ne
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‘neglect’ was not a justificati
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accepted into the state schools. Fr
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I never received any money from my
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Several more years passed and I sti
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8 South AustraliaThe general opinio
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South lobbied for the power to remo
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In 1936 David Unaipon spoke on the
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Confidential submission 112, South
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tried to place all Indigenous child
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culture was gone, our family was go
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Goldsmith, argued for the establish
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At The Bungalow in the 1920s about
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future ‘absorption’. He wanted
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The stated intentions of the missio
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The assembled children were loaded
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emoval only on a children’s court
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Department of Aboriginal Affairs wh
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All the girls slept in one dormitor
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Part 3Consequences of RemovalChapte
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Totality of separationThe overwhelm
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When I first met my mother - when I
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Institutional conditionsThe living
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Confidential evidence, New South Wa
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Sexual assaults reported by Inquiry
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A good home with a kindly mistress
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They had to - if they didn’t do i
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and babies, infants and young child
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Confidential submission 109, Queens
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We were constantly told that we did
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of religion to us. We used to have
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poverty. These in turn cause their
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He says looking within himself that
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Most families provide growing child
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(Wolkind and Rutter 1984 page 47).
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The effects of institutionalisation
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Confidential submission 126, Victor
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Helen Siggers, a former nursing sis
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sense of being different from other
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The Sydney Aboriginal Mental Health
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The following table summarises the
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The effects of separation from the
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The policies of separation were oft
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It is possible for Aboriginal peopl
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aged between 6 months and 7 years.]
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Eventually I got married when I was
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The effects on family and community
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profound disadvantages (‘other li
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That’s also impacted on my own li
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Association in the Northern Territo
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I look at my son today who had to b
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Now I understand why Mum is the way
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emoved. More than one-third of thos
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Mother Jenny:Jenny grew up in a cha
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He was about 6 month becaus he was
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articulated needs to trace their fa
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Quoted by Link-Up (NSW) submission
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Bonds broken foreverEven for those
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I was in one of the cottages [in a
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the last she saw of him. She said t
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We kept in contact with one another
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Part 4ReparationKooris Come in All
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Two broad periodsBroadly speaking t
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the kingdom. The law defended indiv
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Jaggs 1986 page 7). However, no Sta
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The manner in which children were t
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page 211; see also Ex parte Earl of
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Source: Appendices to this report.F
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understanding. Indigenous children
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Nations Resolution of 1946, followe
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Article 2 states that,Everyone is e
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The Convention confirmed that genoc
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the extent to which that intention
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y Australia in July 1949, came into
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14 Making ReparationThe Government
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A human rights frameworkPrinciples
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(submission 754 page 50).The Broome
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(c) An official declaration or a ju
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There would be few Aboriginal peopl
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On behalf of our constituent nation
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It must be acknowledged that, no ma
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and effects of forcible removals.Ju
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[Thus] it will be the relevant indi
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The significance of Indigenous lang
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This recommendation extends only to
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general damages for the pain and su
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the United Nations Special Rapporte
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In relation to the compensation iss
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medical, psychological and social a
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It should be appreciated that the a
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Part 5Services for Those AffectedEm
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Inquiry to examine all services app
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governments should confine their ro
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the history of forcible removal and
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16 Access to Personal and Family Re
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Little effort has been made to iden
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What was very disturbing … was th
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through all of their files to disco
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Confidentiality provisions within t
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a former ward who was harmed or abu
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derogatory and racist language, so
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family history. Other agencies, how
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Non-discriminationThe arrangements
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Adequate resourcesThe deployment of
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implications’ of this task ‘sho
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That a consistent approach be adopt
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and access procedures so that they
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Murri academic Henrietta Fourmile m
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Recommendation 29b: That the Counci
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Royal Commission Recommendation 52
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can be kept to a minimum because of
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The SA Aboriginal Child Care Agency
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• consultation regarding record a
Page 319 and 320: operation.The funding constraints l
Page 321 and 322: States when James was six. The adop
Page 323 and 324: Confidential evidence 553, Northern
Page 325 and 326: expectations of two different cultu
Page 327 and 328: In other cases psychiatrists do not
Page 329 and 330: The need for trauma and grief couns
Page 331 and 332: worker is based at the State’s ps
Page 333 and 334: The Yorgum Aboriginal Family Counse
Page 335 and 336: When we began [in 1991], we were se
Page 337 and 338: Most States and the Northern Territ
Page 339 and 340: Territory Health Service [must] rec
Page 341 and 342: services, Aboriginal and Islander C
Page 343 and 344: It is a model that takes into accou
Page 345 and 346: There are very strong and cogent ar
Page 347 and 348: The effects of forcible removal are
Page 349 and 350: needed services. The point was clea
Page 351 and 352: Carol[Carol’s grandmother was rem
Page 353 and 354: me how to be a good mother. A year
Page 355 and 356: statements expressing understanding
Page 357 and 358: Policy deficienciesThe general expe
Page 359 and 360: Likewise there can be cases where r
Page 361 and 362: We have proposed that the churches
Page 363 and 364: A further problem is that we alread
Page 365 and 366: issues with relevant communities’
Page 367 and 368: Part 6Contemporary SeparationsThere
Page 369: disappointment in the family is you
Page 373 and 374: missing information in both of thes
Page 375 and 376: part of welfare practice. The forma
Page 377 and 378: integrated into the Aboriginal Chil
Page 379: Reliance on a view of culture as fi
Page 382 and 383: Non-Indigenous care for Indigenous
Page 384 and 385: were placed with non-Aboriginal fos
Page 386 and 387: The protocol also provides for CSV
Page 388 and 389: identified an urgent need for statu
Page 390 and 391: Inadequate consultation with AICCAs
Page 392 and 393: The assessment of prospective foste
Page 394 and 395: seen as pathological or dysfunction
Page 396 and 397: It is not surprising, given the exp
Page 398 and 399: Department of Social Security inacc
Page 400 and 401: acknowledged and addressed.Conclusi
Page 402 and 403: have the scar today.I did not know
Page 404 and 405: 22 AdoptionThere can be little argu
Page 406 and 407: of care (Ban 1993 page 5).• The c
Page 408 and 409: and counselling is to ‘explore al
Page 410 and 411: Aboriginal child. The Aboriginal ag
Page 412 and 413: In possession of this evidence, the
Page 414 and 415: Confidential submission 9, Queensla
Page 416 and 417: The criteria are alien to aborigina
Page 418 and 419: never got kicked out because she ne
Page 420 and 421:
23 Family LawFamily law plays a rol
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• whether stability is to be pref
Page 424 and 425:
family member. Thus there is still
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judges (Nicholson 1995 page 13, Coo
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without any legislative base. Howev
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The Australian Institute of Crimino
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While there are many occasions wher
Page 434 and 435:
However, NSW had the highest number
Page 436 and 437:
Dec 95 254 481.1 491 25.0Mar 96 276
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custody,• the Children’s Court
Page 440 and 441:
In addition Indigenous people gener
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wilderness trek with several weeks
Page 444 and 445:
submission pages D-26 to D-28).West
Page 446 and 447:
Responses to law and order problems
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Arrests for public order offences s
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legislation. The available evidence
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also to provide greater control ove
Page 454 and 455:
had high proportions of Indigenous
Page 456 and 457:
alternative facilities. At times, n
Page 458 and 459:
communities and show no understandi
Page 460 and 461:
conferences lack specific time fram
Page 462 and 463:
Similarly, when questioned about th
Page 464 and 465:
Repeat offendersRecent changes to s
Page 466 and 467:
justice system’ (1995 page 69).Pu
Page 468 and 469:
[Significantly] contributes to on-g
Page 470 and 471:
The Inquiry was repeatedly told tha
Page 472 and 473:
oys will have no family visits for
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people or to reduce the levels of p
Page 476 and 477:
Education (interim submission page
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dispossession and marginalisation -
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• the implicit or explicit interp
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their initiatives include programs
Page 484 and 485:
private dwellings, of which three-q
Page 486 and 487:
During the early part of the twenti
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always associated with the alienati
Page 490 and 491:
Because of their high unemployment
Page 492 and 493:
26 A New FrameworkAn entrenched pat
Page 494 and 495:
ecognised international right of al
Page 496 and 497:
ange of possible outcomes other tha
Page 498 and 499:
Aboriginal local governing bodies r
Page 500 and 501:
submission 309, Anglican Church Soc
Page 502 and 503:
matter holding instead that ‘we m
Page 504 and 505:
‘internally legitimised tribal au
Page 506 and 507:
and/or the establishment of regiona
Page 508 and 509:
In 1992 the Council of Australian G
Page 510 and 511:
3. That negotiated agreements will
Page 512 and 513:
Recommendation 44: That the Council
Page 514 and 515:
It is not surprising, given the exp
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inevitably face and be able to addr
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ureaucratic procedures (Homes for B
Page 520 and 521:
designed for Indigenous children mu
Page 522 and 523:
Rule 8. RecordingEvery interview mu
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currently sets out four principles
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