An $82,000 per person payment has been announced for victims of the Stolen Generations in a historic move toward reconciliation.
The payment is part of the federal government’s new $378.6 million financial and wellbeing redress scheme for living Stolen Generations survivors.
First Nations people who are eligible will get a one-off payment of $75,000 in recognition of the harm caused by the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families, and a one-off healing assistance payment of $7000 to represent the fact that healing is specific to each individual.
Along with the total of $82,000, eligible survivors can also confidentially tell their story about the hurt and trauma their removal caused them to a senior official within government, and receive a face-to-face or written apology for their removal and the harm that came with it.
To be eligible for the scheme, the recipient of the payment must be:
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- Under the age of 18 at the time they were removed from their family by government bodies including the police, or churches/missions and/or welfare bodies, and in circumstances where their Indigeneity was a factor in their removal
- Removed while living in the Northern Territory, ACT or Jervis Bay Territory prior to those areas’ self-governments.
The Northern Territory became self-governing on July 1 1978, so recipients removed from their families before that day are eligible. However, Jervis Bay remains a non-self-governing external territory, so First Nations people removed from their families at any time are eligible.
Families of any Stolen Generations survivors who pass away between August 5, 2021 and March 1, 2022 will be able to submit an application on the survivor’s behalf.
Scott Morrison announced $75 000 reparations to survivors of the Stolen Generation on the same day Closing the Gap reports that First Nations kids are 11 times more likely to be in out of home care. The Stolen Generation never stopped, the processes of child removal just evolved.
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) August 5, 2021
The head of the Northern Territory’s Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, CEO Maisie Austin, welcomed the new scheme.
“It’s very emotional, very exciting, it’s been a very, very long fight to reach this stage,” she said.
“To get to this day, a lot of us never thought it would come.
“A lot of our Stolen Generations people felt that they’d never win the fight, that the government would wait until they all died before they did anything.”
It’s important to note that you can’t put a number on trauma, especially when that trauma is ongoing.
Aboriginal child removal rates have actually increased by roughly 1,000 kids per year since Kevin Rudd‘s 2008 apology, and the figures are a tragic reminder that we have a long way to go before ‘sorry’ means anything.
While the payment is potentially the most significant acknowledgment of the abuse and trauma inflicted upon First Nations people during colonisation since National Sorry Day, it doesn’t mean things are okay now.
However, this new payment is definitely a good start.
Applications for the scheme will open on March 1 and will run until June 2026. You can read more here.
