The Canberra Times
Letters
Wednesday, 18 October, 2000
Court case proved report's truth
CONTRARY to Bill Hayden's assertion (CT, October 12, p.3) that the
Cubillo-Gunner court case showed that the stolen generations report
was seriously flawed, I would say that the case confirmed the findings
of the report. 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 task, since the laws of the time
gave the Director of Native Welfare a large measure of authority to
remove children without their mothers' consent. But the case brought
to light hundreds of documents which confirm that removal of
part-Aboriginal children was government policy in the Northern
Territory until well into the 1950s. 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 unlikely to resolve
the grievance of the stolen generations. In several other countries,
the
Government has sat down with the victims of misguided past policies
and talked through the situation until agreement has been reached.
The same could happen here.
JOHN BOND
Hughes
Hayden forgets Australia's past
NOW SURELY, Bill Hayden has completed his journey as a Labor
apostate with his views on the stolen-generations report (CT, October
12, p.3). Indeed, he possesses the Tory blindspot for the idea that
access and equity for Aborigines is comprised at all. With the
near-total exclusion of Aborigines from the workforce most pointedly
when equal pay was achieved for black stockmen they have to seek
land rights and compensation for past mistreatments, including the
stolen-generation outrage, to survive economically. Certainly,
Aboriginal stars like Cathy Freeman and Stan Grant, and some
university graduates, can overcome the stiff Darwinian barrier
presented by the white social environment. But Hayden's blaming of
the victims of our fierce excluding culture by declaring they peddle
victimhood is especially cruel from a formerly aspiring Labor PM.
Hayden seems to have forgotten Australia's past and his own.
GAVIN THOMPSON
Queanbeyan
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