Indigenous Australians who were forcibly removed from their families in Western Australia will receive $85,000 in reparations under a stolen generations redress scheme announced by the state government.
Premier Roger Cook announced the program today, a day after National Sorry Day, which will be available to all living members of the stolen generations in WA.
Today, we take small steps towards righting a historic wrong,” Cook said.
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“The WA stolen generations redress scheme is a further step towards reconciliation and healing past roles.
“It acknowledges the stolen generations era represents a sorrowful and shameful part of our history and recognises it causes cycles of disadvantage and intergenerational trauma.”
The announcement brings WA into line with all other states and territories aside from Queensland, which now remains the only jurisdiction to not have set up a redress scheme for survivors of the stolen generations.
While the $85,000 in reparations is less than the $100,000 provided through Victoria’s scheme, it is more than the payments from NSW and the territories ($75,000), South Australia ($20,000 followed by an additional $10,000) and Tasmania ($58,333 for survivors and $22,000 for their descendants).
“No amount of money could ever make up for the experience of stolen generations members and their families and the ongoing effects on people’s lives,” Cook said.
“These payments acknowledge an injustice. It does not correct what has happened but it does offer a path forward.”
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Tony Hansen, a leading advocate for the scheme who was forcibly removed from his family during the stolen generations, welcomed the announcement.
“This has been a long time in the waiting,” he said.
“Our people have suffered. This is our shared history of this state.
“The evilness of what took place in this state has a ripple effect right across this country.”
Much of Western Australia’s policy of forcibly removing Indigenous children was driven by the bureaucrat A.O. Neville, who between 1915 to 1940 was the state’s chief protector of Aborigines and then native affairs commissioner.
A believer in eugenics, Neville spoke of using missions in WA to “pacify the natives and accustom them to white man’s ways and thus enable further settlement”, and also discussed a goal to “merge them into our white community and eventually forget that there were any Aborigines in Australia”.
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“This state was the worst state in the country, because of the chief protector we had in this space that controlled every aspect of each and every one of us as Aboriginal people of this state,” Hansen said.
“This man was practising eugenics before Hitler, weeding out the colour.
“Today is a historical moment and, as a survivor, I’m so proud to work in partnership with the premier and his government.”
Indigenous people who were removed from their families before July 1, 1972, will be eligible for the scheme.
Applications are open from today and Cook said payments are expected to be made in the second half of the year.
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