Stolen Generations<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Healing Foundation\u2019s plan, From Sorry to Action: A plan to act on Bringing Them Home, has been released before Sorry Day commemorations on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Aunty Lorraine has spent decades pushing for change and healing in her community. She testified at the national inquiry that led to the Bringing Them Home report, co-founded the Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation 13 years ago, and helped establish trauma\u2011informed support for survivors and families like her own.<\/p>\n
In 2008, she presented the then prime minister, Kevin Rudd, with a coolamon representing the lost babies and children, before the national apology to survivors and their families.<\/p>\n
The former Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls Home, Aunty Lorraine\u2019s home for six years. Photograph: Sarah Collard\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Now the 88-year-old is urging federal and state governments to throw their support behind Stolen Generations survivors as they enter their final years, with many still on the long search for connection and family reunification.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurvivors are still suffering trauma, survivors with disability or that are mentally not right, given the trauma they\u2019ve been through, and the organisation is still running on the smell of an oily rag with nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Healing Foundation\u2019s report urges comprehensive and practical support for thousands of survivors, many of whom are ageing, require culturally safe aged care and are still waiting for access to records held by private institutions such as churches and government agencies.<\/p>\n
The foundation\u2019s chief executive, Shannon Dodson, said many survivors are desperate for increased support and real action after decades of waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost survivors are now eligible for aged care and, from an overall health, social and emotional wellbeing perspective, it\u2019s really looking at what kind of trauma\u2011informed and culturally safe approaches are needed to ensure that survivors are not re\u2011traumatised during their ageing,\u201d Dodson said.<\/p>\n
The report also recommends removing medical co\u2011payments for survivors and establishing a comprehensive redress scheme in all states and territories. Queensland remains the last jurisdiction without a targeted compensation scheme after Western Australia announced its redress program last year.<\/p>\n
It recommends governments work with survivors and Stolen Generations organisations to establish an access and priority card so survivors can access primary health and aged care services to assist with universal and equitable access to care and support.<\/p>\n
Up until the 1970s, Aboriginal children were systematically removed from their families, communities and culture under assimilation laws and policies adopted by all Australian governments. Many never returned home.<\/p>\n
Children were put into institutions, fostered or adopted out to non-Indigenous families. Many suffered harsh, degrading treatment and sexual abuse. It is estimated between one in 10 \u2013 though it may be as high as one in three \u2013 Indigenous children were removed from their families between 1910 and 1970.<\/p>\n
Dodson said that since the Bringing Them Home report, and the apology in 2008, momentum has stalled, with piecemeal action from states and territories to support Stolen Generations survivors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t go on another year of saying the same thing and calling for the same thing, Dodson said. \u201cWe\u2019re coming up to 30 years \u2013 an entire generation where we\u2019ve lost already thousands of survivors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that it is a real plight on the country and a real stain on the country that we have not dealt with our duty to Stolen Generation survivors in the way that it was intended through the national inquiry.<\/p>\n
Aunty Lorraine says she has been able to build a \u201cgood life\u201d for her children and grandchildren. While her parents died before they could meet again, she returned home to the place she was born \u2013 a tree \u2013 taking some earth with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome lovely things have happened to me. Going to that tree was like a rebirth. I took some of the dirt, some of the bark and gum leaves and it\u2019s with me beside my bed. I\u2019ve been very fortunate in creating what I had lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to keep that legacy going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aunty Lorraine Peeters only remembers the metal gates opening as she was driven away from her home, at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-694326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}