Aboriginal, Torres Strait Island people ramping up campaign for Stolen Generations compensation

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are ramping up a campaign for compensation to help heal the horrors of the Stolen Generation. But a state government minister says it won’t happen.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Fiona Simpson. Picture: Liam Kidston

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are stepping up a campaign for the Queensland government to offer compensation to help heal the horrors of the Stolen Generation.

Queensland is the only state not to offer compensation in the 18 years since the landmark Australian Human Rights Commission’s Bringing them Home report recommended doing so.

Indigenous advocacy group Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation Queensland has sent a letter to Premier David Crisafulli calling for the state to offer compensation.

“It is primarily about healing now, recognising hurt and harm and bringing some justice to the situation,” the letter said.

“Reparation would have positive effects for the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities now, with potential flowthrough for incarceration and suicide rates.”

The Human Rights Commission’s 1997 Bringing Them Home report outlined the responsibility to repair the damage caused, award victims means of rehabilitation and compensation.

“This obligation passes from the violating government to its successors until satisfaction has been made,” it said.

The report outlined the “wide-ranging and often tragic impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland over successive generations”.

Between 1908 and 1971 some 2302 Indigenous children were removed to missions and settlements across Queensland – a process during which mothers were shot and killed.

“The children were taken to live in prison-like conditions in missions around the state, separated from all family members, not allowed to speak their own languages, and trained to be domestic servants or labourers,” the letter to the Premier read.

“The consequence of these disastrous and destructive policies has been deep trauma, often expressed in high rates of mental and physical illness, imprisonment, poverty and suicide.

“These terrible consequences continue to affect younger generations, as the mental health of parents often flows down to and affects their children.

“Compensation will not replace the spiritual, psychological, physical, and emotional neglect and abuse incurred.

“However, responding positively to this claim will begin the healing process, assisting people to reclaim their culture through connection to country, language and displaced kin and help restore … the strength of traumatised individuals, families, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.”

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Fiona Simpson said the government would not progress compensation but was delivering projects designed in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders to support “measurable improvements in health, education, critical infrastructure, housing, tourism, and community partnerships”.

Originally published as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Island people ramping up campaign for Stolen Generations compensation