WA stolen generations members to receive $85,000 each under redress scheme
West Australians who were members of the stolen generations will receive $85,000 each under a redress scheme to take effect by the end of the month.
Stolen generations redress schemes were recommended in the 1997 Bringing Them Home report and all states and territories, but Western Australia and Queensland had announced their schemes.
WA's scheme is less than Victoria's $100,000 lump sum payment but more than the $75,000 offered in New South Wales and $30,000 in South Australia.
Stolen generations refers to the thousands of Aboriginal children taken from their parents across the country until 1972, which caused significant disadvantage and intergenerational trauma among Aboriginal families.
WA Premier Roger Cook announced the redress scheme at a Reconciliation breakfast on Tuesday to a lengthy applause.
'Decade after shameful decade in Western Australia, right up until 1972, children were taken from mothers and sent to missions,' Cook said.
'More than a third of Aboriginal kids born in WA before 1972 were forcibly removed from their parents, their land, their home.
'They were left with unanswered questions about their fate, their identity, their culture, their family, their connection to country, and the biggest question of all to the government responsible is, 'why?'
'Why did they do this? Why do they believe that there's not a place on earth for people who look different to them?
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