As children, Jenni Caruso, an Eastern Arrente woman, and her siblings were stolen from their family in Alice Springs and taken hundreds of kilometres away.
Before they were placed in the Croker Island Mission, 290 kilometres east of Garramilla (Darwin), they were put in a ‘holding place’, Kahlin Compound.
Last week Aunty Jenni and other survivors from the Stolen Generations and their supporting organisations gathered in Garramilla and paid a visit to Kahlin Compound.
“I have to say that I got very angry that that’s where we were placed when we were taken away from Alice Springs, my brothers and sisters and I,” she told NITV.
Aunty Jenni, who chairs a Stolen Generations organisation in South Australia, found connecting with other survivors uplifting.
“They’ve been grounding, they’ve been returning,” she said.
<b>They’ve been reminding me that the little girl that I was when I was taken away is now this strong, determined Black woman and I hope she’s proud of me.</b>
— Aunty Jenni
The members of the Stolen Generations have unfinished business, because the recommendations in the Bringing Them Home report - tabled in 1997 - still have not been fully implemented.
Sector unites to demand report’s implementation
More than 100 people from Stolen Generations organisations came together in Garramilla last week, for a gathering organised by the Healing Foundation.
“Something big is happening for our survivor organisations and for the country,” Raelene Rosas, chief executive of the Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, said.
“Momentum is here, the fire is burning.
“We are organising together as a sector, to speak as one voice and push for the finalisation of the Bringing Them Home recommendations and to bring about the change we so desperately need.”
The group of 19 organisations reaffirmed its commitment to the Bringing Them Home report recommendations, and called on governments, churches and non-government organisations to respond to the unfinished business.
Professor Steve Larkin, Healing Foundation chair, said all Stolen Generations survivors are now aged over 50, when access to appropriate care is crucial.
“Our current aged care system is not fit for purpose and risks retraumatising many and denying them a quality of life they are not only entitled to but deserve,” he said.
The group of Stolen Generations organisations is calling for adequate and sustainable funding, support for truth-telling and recognition of the importance of intergenerational healing.
“We all committed to galvanising as a sector to bring together knowledge from across the country and hold governments and institutions to account,” Healing Foundation chief executive Shannan Dodson said.
“We have no time to waste, we can’t lose anymore survivors before they see justice.”
Aunty Jenni said aged care for Stolen Generations members needs to be culturally and trauma-informed.
“Because being sent into or choosing to go into aged care is a form of re-institutionalisation and can give rise to all different forms of trauma,” she said.
“So that’s that’s a big issue, something that needs to be addressed on the national level.”
‘Many survivors are not learning about their history’
The group wants consistent and urgent redress for all survivors as part of a broader reparations package that includes survivors, family and community healing and cultural restitution.
“We are looking at compensation for Stolen Generations survivors, which still has not been seen for all survivors, particularly in WA and Queensland, where we do have large populations of survivors,” Ms Dodson said.
And they’re calling for better access to records relating to the forced removal of Stolen Generations, and for proper support for their organisations so they can continue their work and have resources to research and manage related records, histories and collections.
“It really means that many of these survivors are not learning about their history and who they are and their families,” Ms Dodson said.
The Healing Foundation recently commissioned analysis of how many of the total 83 recommendations made in the Bringing Them Home report have been implemented.
It estimates that only five have been clearly implemented; a further 12 recommendations receive a qualified pass, bringing the total that have been adopted to around one fifth.
“Most of us will take away a feeling of being uplifted and strengthened and knowing even stronger who we are as individuals, and then taking that back to each of our individual organisations,” she said.
“It’s a very significant event and it is again laying a new foundation and platform for both the Healing Foundation and for Stolen Generations organisations and the federal and state governments to work from to continue to look at implementing those recommendations.”
- NITV