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New Chairs for Sorry Day Committee

10 September 2004 - National Sorry Day Committee (NSDC) Media release - At its annual conference, held in Adelaide last weekend, the National Sorry Day Committee chose two new co-chairs.

Ray Minniecon is the Director of Crossroads Aboriginal Ministries in Redfern, Sydney. He has particularly devoted himself to the stolen generations of New South Wales. Formerly he was head of World Vision's Indigenous Programs.

Gillian Brannigan is the Women's Rights Organiser at the University of Queensland Union. Formerly she worked with Link-Up Queensland, which is bringing together families separated by the removal policies.

The conference also chose Brian Butler from South Australia as consultant to the Committee, and Frank Edwards-Haines from NSW as Assistant Secretary.

The outgoing chairs, Audrey Ngingali Kinnear and John Brown, have served for five years. Under their leadership, the national memorial in Canberra to the stolen generations was dedicated this year. 'Without Audrey and John's patient negotiation with many stolen generations groups and the Federal Government, the memorial would not be there,' said Minniecon.

The conference called for the recommendations of the Bringing Them Home report to be implemented in full, and stated that Australia has much to learn from Canada. 'I hope a Canadian Government representative will visit Australia,' said Minniecon, 'since their Government is far ahead of ours in developing creative responses to the concerns of their stolen generations.' Canadians have launched an annual National Day of Healing and Reconciliation (www.ndhr.ca) to coincide with Australia's Sorry Day.

The conference recognised the suffering endured by the 'forgotten children' - the children whose abuse has been revealed by the recent Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care. The National Sorry Day Committee will monitor the response to the Inquiry report.

The new co-chairs pointed out that the stolen generations still carry deep emotional and mental scars as a result of the forced removal policies, and called on the Government to commit itself to the Journey of Healing.

They also called on the million Australians who signed Sorry Books in 1998 and walked across bridges in 2000 to continue supporting the stolen generations by expressing their concerns about Indigenous issues to the election candidates, and by attending Sorry Day activities on May 26th 2005.

Source: National Sorry Day Committee

Further information: stolen generations issues page - includes news index and external links

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