Page 491 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 March 2023
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Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders—Stolen Generation
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Families and Community Services and Minister for Health) (4.55): We recently marked the 15-year anniversary of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivering the National Apology to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Australian government and parliament, so I wanted to recognise that 15-year anniversary in this place.
In the apology, Mr Rudd said:
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
The apology was a direct response to the landmark Bringing them home report 1997, albeit delivered years later than it should have been, thanks to the intransigence of John Howard and his government. Throughout the report, the impact of these policies and practices is described in visceral terms through excerpts from the accounts of members of the Stolen Generations. These include a submission from one of eight siblings who were removed and separated in the 1960s.
So the next thing I remember was that they took us from there and we went to the hospital and I kept asking – because the children were screaming and the little brothers and sisters were just babies of course, and I couldn’t move, they were all around me, around my neck and legs, yelling and screaming. I was all upset and I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t know where we were going. I just thought: well, they’re police, they must know what they’re doing. I suppose I’ve got to go with them, they’re taking me to see Mum. You know this is what I honestly thought. They kept us in hospital for three days and I kept asking, ‘When are we going to see Mum?’ And no-one told us at this time. And I think on the third or fourth day they piled us in the car and I said, ‘Where are we going?’ And they said, ‘We are going to see your mother’. But then we turned left to go to the airport and I got a bit panicky about where we were going ... They got hold of me, you know what I mean, and I got a little baby in my arms and they put us on the plane. And they still told us we were going to see Mum. So I thought she must be wherever they’re taking us.
Following the apology, the State Library of Queensland recorded the responses from Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders Queenslanders, capturing their impressions and feelings. These recordings are still available online.
Nadine McDonald-Dowd attended the apology with her mother, Veronica Anne McDonald, a member of the Stolen Generations. Nadine reflected on her mother’s experience.
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