Stolen Generations
Stolen Generations timeline
Explore the timeline of the Stolen Generations—from the Board for the Protection of Aborigines to the Prime Minister's apology and beyond.
Here's a timeline of the events surrounding the Stolen Generations:
Found 92 results for your search. Showing page 1 of 5.
2021
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The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory promise to compensate survivors of the Stolen Generations with up to $75,000 each for the suffering inflicted on them by forcibly removing them from their families, after the federal government no longer opposes a compensation scheme.
2020
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Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gavin Jennings announces a new $10 million Stolen Generations Redress Scheme to support counselling services, a funeral or memorial fund and redress payments for survivors.
2019
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An independent review into Aboriginal out-of-home care in NSW presents its final report. It finds that child protection workers regularly gave "misleading" evidence to the children’s court, often took the most traumatic option by removing Aboriginal children from their families, and operated in a "closed system" that lacked transparency, had no effective regulator and was run with little or no genuine consultation with the Aboriginal community. The review also found "widespread noncompliance" with law and policy by family and community services workers.
2018
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The government passes the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Amendment Bill, granting the Children’s Court the power to decide whether a child who has stayed with foster parents for up to two years should be restored to their family or be adopted by the foster parents. Aboriginal people worry the new law leads to a new generation of stolen Aboriginal children.
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A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Healing Foundation reveals for the first time the direct link between the forced removal of tens of thousands of Aboriginal children from their families and the real-life symptoms of intergenerational trauma. It finds that Stolen Generations members are almost twice as likely as other Aboriginal people to rely on welfare payments and experience violence.[1]
2016
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NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Leslie Williams, announces a reparations package worth more than $73 million to Stolen Generations survivors. It includes a $59.5 million administrative scheme offering one-off financial payments of $75,000 to survivors and a $5 million healing fund. He also promised to establish a Stolen Generations advisory committee.
The NSW Government officially acknowledges the real and heartbreaking trauma caused by historic government policies and practices of removing Aboriginal children from their kin and country.
— Leslie Williams, NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs [2] -
Members of the NSW Parliament offer apologies for past government policies after the state government tabled a report which makes 35 recommendations for reparations. Among these is a financial reparation scheme, similar to those in place in Tasmania and South Australia.
We are sorry, we are very, very sorry for the past.
— Jan Barham, Greens MLC and committee chair [3]
2015
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South Australia announces a compensation fund worth $11 million for members of the Stolen Generations, the second state after Tasmania to do so. However, half of the money is allocated for memorials, counselling and other indirect compensation. [4].
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The Legislative Council refers to the General Purpose Standing Committee No.3 the Inquiry into Reparations for the Stolen Generations in New South Wales.
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Third progress scorecard of the Stolen Generations Working Partnership.
2013
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The Supreme Court of Western Australia in Perth begins a "landmark" Stolen Generations test case which started in 2010 when law firm Lavan Legal lodged a Writ on behalf of 9 members of the Collard family, including parents Donald and Sylvia, whose children were removed without consent and placed in state care between 1958 and 1961 [5].
2012
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Second progress scorecard of the Stolen Generations Working Partnership.
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Three former Aboriginal children’s homes are added to the NSW State Heritage RegisterCootamundra, Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home and Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home.
2011
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The National Sorry Day Committee releases the first progress scorecard of the Stolen Generations Working Partnership.
2010
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Following discussions between Stolen Generations peak organisations and government agencies, the Stolen Generations Working Partnership is launched to track the outstanding recommendations of the Bringing Them Home Report.
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The South Australian government loses an appeal against the $775,000 payout to a member of the Stolen Generations. The Full Court of the SA Supreme Court ruled that the government had been negligent in its treatment of Bruce Trevorrow, who was taken from his parents as a child more than 50 years ago.
2009
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NSW Governor Marie Bashir launches the Kinchela Boy's Home Aboriginal Corporation Strategic Plan to help Aboriginal men who passed through Kinchela with counselling, reunions targeted at group healing, and programs for their families.
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The Australian government refuses compensation despite the UN being 'concerned about a lack of adequate access to justice' [6] for Indigenous people and recommending the government compensating victims of the Stolen Generations. The UN responded to a formal complaint submitted by the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement in March.
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The Human Rights Committee report on Australia recommends the government "adopt a comprehensive national mechanism to ensure that adequate reparation, including compensation, is provided to the victims of the Stolen Generations policies" [7]. The Federal-Attorn General decides not to follow that recommendation and rules that no challenge to this decision be allowed.
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The Australian government promises to establish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation which will deal with the "trauma experienced by all Aboriginal people as the after-effect of colonisation" [8], but with a particular focus on the Stolen Generations.
The foundation won't deliver healing services, instead it will fund healing work, educate communities and social workers and evaluate healing programs to find out what works.
