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Tasmania to pay 'stolen generation' of Aborigines £2.2m in reparations

By Barbara McMahon

23 January 2008 - The Guardian UK - Tasmania approved yesterday millions of pounds in compensation for more than 100 members of the "stolen generation" of Aborigines, with the state premier describing the move as an attempt to right a shameful wrong in the island's history.

One hundred and six claimants will share a £2.2m fund for indigenous children who were forcibly taken from their parents.

"No amount of money can make up for Aboriginal children being removed from their families simply on the basis of race," the Tasmanian premier, Paul Lennon, said in the capital, Hobart. "But the payments I announce today to those whose lives have been so deeply affected by this flawed policy of separation are a symbolic recognition of the pain, suffering and dislocation they have experienced."

The stolen generation refers to Aboriginal children - mainly those of mixed race - who were removed from their families and sent to institutions run by the church or state or who were adopted into white families in a practice that ended in 1970.

Some of the children were snatched from their mothers' arms. Others were taken under the guise of court orders or were removed by stealth, with their parents tricked into handing them over.

The removals were intended to integrate mixed-race children into white society, a policy now recognised as well intentioned but misguided.

Of the 106 Tasmanian claimants, 84 who were removed from their families as children will each get £26,000, while 22 children of victims who have since died will receive about £2,200 each. Another 45 cases were rejected by the independent assessor.

One of those to be compensated is Eddie Thomas, who was a baby when he was removed from his family on Cape Barren Island and institutionalised. He said the compensation was an acknowledgement that his removal was wrong. "There's been quite a bit of anger and sadness at times and sadly I took to the drink to try and forget - I became a loner," he said. "If it hadn't been for my wife, I'd still be in the gutter."

So far, Tasmania is the only Australian state to offer compensation. Other states and territories have apologised to their members of the stolen generation but have not set up reparation schemes.

The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has pledged to apologise during the next parliamentary session to Aborigines for the widely criticised policy - something his predecessor, John Howard, refused to do. But Rudd has ruled out backing this with money.

Individual members of the stolen generation can sue for compensation, but so far only one man has succeeded. Last year, the supreme court of South Australia awarded Bruce Trevorrow £220,000.

His lawyer, Julian Burnside, told ABC television it would be better if the estimated 55,000 members of the stolen generation throughout Australia could apply for financial reparation under a scheme based on the Tasmanian model.

"If individual Aborigines who were taken as children are left to fight their own cases, the process is incredibly difficult for them, very distressing for them, and also extremely expensive for them and for the state," he said.

The Australian minister for indigenous affairs, Jenny Macklin, yesterday again ruled out any national compensation scheme. However, she said that extra funding would instead be invested in Aboriginal health, education and counselling services.

Source: The Guardian

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