Elders term SA Stolen Generation compensation scheme as ‘unworthy’ and ‘disgusting’
STOLEN Generation compensation payments of $20,000 have been blasted as “unworthy” and “disgusting” by furious Aboriginal elders.
STOLEN Generation compensation payments of $20,000 have been blasted as “unworthy” and “disgusting” by furious Aboriginal elders.
As part of the State Government’s $11 million reparation scheme, 332 Stolen Generation survivors taken from their families have been offered $20,000 each.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher has acknowledged “no amount of money” would erase their hurt.
Mr Maher said they could choose not to accept the offer and launch court action if they thought it was inadequate.
He said 12 offers had been accepted so far, and more were expected in coming weeks.
But the amount offered has been condemned as “ridiculous” by Stolen Generation survivor Lowitja O’Donoghue and Aboriginal elder Tauto Sansbury, born at the Point Pearce Aboriginal mission.
Dr O’Donoghue — the 1984 Australian of the Year and the inaugural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission chair — said she would accept the payment, but it was an “unworthy” amount.
“I think that Australians should know that I, if not others, don’t accept $20,000 as a satisfactory payment at all,” she said.
Mr Sansbury said giving people who had been ripped away from their families $20,000 was “disgusting”, “totally inadequate” and a “cop-out”.
“Whoever made this decision is missing the mark completely,” Mr Sansbury said. “I think the scheme only benefits the Government. To me it’s a cop-out.”
He said rejecting the offer and engaging in civil action would not be a valid option for many Stolen Generation survivors because they were “getting older” and it could take many years for their cases to progress through the courts.
Mr Maher said the compensation process had been difficult and acknowledged “no amount of money would ever be enough”.
He said the scheme had a “low evidentiary base” and was designed to provide compensation quickly to members of the Stolen Generation.
“Of course, they can have the right not to accept it if they think $20,000 is not enough to compensate what they went through,” he said.
“At the end of the day there’s no amount of money that can make up for the loss of culture and connection to community, but it goes some way to healing some of the pain in the past.”
Dr O’Donoghue also criticised the Government for paying each survivor the same amount, something Mr Maher said was decided as a result of “overwhelming” feedback from the Aboriginal community.
“I’m really crooked about the advice given to (scheme independent assessor) John Hill and the State Government by an Aboriginal committee that we should all receive the same compensation,” she said.
“Everything that happened to us didn’t happen the same, so I don’t think we should all receive the same amount.”
Dr O’Donoghue was taken away from her community of Indulkana in the APY Lands as a two-year-old and was sent to the Colebrook Children’s Home in Quorn.
“Us Colebrook kids went through a whole lot of problems to get to where we are today,” she said. “We had to get educated and get a job and buy clothes. The mission didn’t do anything for us.”
The scheme had always promised to distribute up to $6 million in combined individual compensation payments, but ended up being extended to $6.64 million, with the rest to be comprised of community project payments.
Mr Maher said those who accepted the offers could also be reimbursed up to $1000 in legal costs if they received advice about whether or not to accept the Government’s offer.
Just under 450 South Australians applied for the compensation, with 116 ruled ineligible because they had already taken civil action or didn’t fit the scheme’s criteria.