reconnet: reconciliation email network
Dear Friends,
Helen Moran and Johnny Huckle, with their 4-month-old daughter, Dindima,
have started their six-week Journey of Healing music tour of Western
Australia. They have a busy programme ahead. They have just arrived in
Broome, where they started by singing to a pre-school in the morning,
and
at a Country and Western concert in the evening. They will give more
gigs
there, Beagle Bay and elsewhere in the Kimberleys for ten days, before
coming down to Perth. They have two new CDs available - Listen to the
Spirit, which includes many of the songs they are singing on this tour,
including a new version of the Journey of Healing song, and Wombat
Wobble,
a wonderful collection of their songs for children. They cost $30 each,
or
$50 for the two, and are available from me. (Tel 02 6281 0940).
In response to Bill Hayden's speech last night, our Committee issued the
following media release.
Best wishes,
John Bond
Once again the stolen generations are facing the pain of having their
story
denied, this time thanks to former Governor-General Bill Hayden.
Contrary to his assertion that the Cubillo-Gunner court case showed that
the Bringing Them Home report was flawed, the case confirmed the
report�s
findings.
It is true that Lorna Cubillo and Peter Gunner could not prove that,
under
the laws of the time, they were illegally removed from their families.
That was a hard ask, since the laws of the time gave the Director of
Native
Welfare a large measure of authority to remove children without parental
consent.
But the case brought to light hundreds of documents which confirm that
removal of part-Aboriginal children, on the basis of their race alone,
was
Government policy in the Northern Territory at least until the early
1950s.
F H Moy, Director of Native Affairs, wrote in 1950: 'It is the policy
of
this Branch to remove the children from their native mothers as soon
after
birth as is reasonably possible. However, this is not always possible.
Half-caste births are sometimes not known for some years (especially if)
the mother takes the child 'bush'.'
The case brought to light the harrowing effect of the removal policies
on
Aboriginal communities. A patrol officer reported after visiting an
Aboriginal camp in 1955: 'The majority of children disappear
quickly...frightened that they will be taken away.' 'Why would the
mothers
and children flee when a patrol officer appeared?� asks Justice
O�Loughlin
in his judgement. �There can be only one answer: the presence of a
white
patrol officer was synonymous with children being taken from their
families; and, clearly, such takings had occurred with sufficient
frequency
that the urge to flee was uppermost.'
The case also brought to light the appalling conditions of some of the
institutions for removed children. In 1962 an Anglican Archdeacon
described St Mary's Anglican Home in Alice Springs (where Peter Gunner
was
taken) as a 'stinking slum'.
In the end, the case demonstrated that the courts are unable to heal the
wounds of the stolen generations. If the stolen generations are to be
given a fair go, we need a new approach. In several other countries,
the
Government has sat down with the victims of misguided past policies, and
reached agreement on how to resolve their grievances. The same could
happen here.
Rev Dr John Brown, Co-chair; Ms Audrey Kinnear, Co-chair
National Sorry Day Committee 12 October 2000
Tel 02 6281 0940 or 02 6232 4554
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