Emma Garlett: No amount of money can heal the wounds of Stolen Generations

West Australian

2 days ago

For decades, West Australian children were taken from their families, for no reason other than their race.
These were the Stolen Generations — thousands of Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their homes, denied access to their mothers and fathers, their communities and their culture.
They were stolen, and they were stolen from. They were robbed of the basic right to live with their loved ones.
The impact from that injustice has rippled out for generations.
And now, the WA Government has put a dollar figure on their suffering.
Under a redress scheme announced by Premier Roger Cook during Reconciliation Week, surviving members of the Stolen Generation are eligible for a one-off payment of $85,000.
Mr Cook said the payments were an acknowledgement of a great injustice.
'It acknowledges the Stolen Generations era represents a sorrowful and shameful part of our history, and recognises that it has caused cycles of disadvantage and intergenerational trauma,' he said.
'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.'
He is right that it is inadequate. Australia's median annual income is about $72,500. In return for lifetimes of trauma and suffering, victims will receive a little over a year's wages.
What of those Stolen Generation members who are no longer living? They receive nothing, their families receive nothing.
Intergenerational trauma is exactly that: intergenerational.
The death of a person who was stolen doesn't end the suffering. It continues in their own children and grandchildren, handed down through families.
It almost seems convenient that we should wait so long to repay the victims of direct government action and then give no heed to the impacts the stolen generations had on their families.
That said, there's no way money could ever heal those wounds.
Instead, the Government needs to step up on other initiatives which will help to acknowledge the sins of the past and make real steps towards reconciliation.
Labor has said it intends to 'partner with Aboriginal stakeholder organisations to develop measures for healing and truth telling'.
When it does so, these healing and truth telling measures need to be enshrined in law. They need to be locked in, made more difficult to abolition should a future government have a change of heart.
Emma Garlett is a legal academic and Nyiyaparli- Yamatji-Nyungar woman