Feb 13th...Sorry Day

sailor

sailor

Looks as though some Aboriginal activists are already thinking about being compensated for the Stolen Generation:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/push-for-sorry-cash/2008/02/13/1202760380240.html

But Rudd is claiming parliamentary priviledge to avoid having his national apology used in a court of law.
The Government would not consider compensation but would take further legal advice on whether to defend any future lawsuits.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23146173-662,00.html

Mr Mansell, who was in Canberra for the PM's apology, still believes that the door has been left open for compensation.
"The moment of the apology didn't lend itself really to the prime minister announcing a compensation package," Mr Mansell said.
"But we won't rest until we get that compensation package. We know the prime minister, because he didn't expressly rule it out with an apology, knows we're going to come to him."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/080213/2/15thx.html

However, word on the street is that those who want compensation are going for $1mill each.
 
It truly was a sad and 'sorry' day. Especially seeing as how every major poll showed Rudd unsupported in the token event. What about an apology to the 70% of us who have been misrepresented?
 
I still seek clarification on whether someone that is 'half aboriginal' 'half whatever everyone else is' feels sorry for themselves?

interesting to see the Brits are refusign to apologise, this was after all a british colony.
 
Oh well, I guess if the Rescued Generation starts getting monetary compensation, that's even more motivation for me to stop paying tax. Win/win.
 
Ausprop said:
I still seek clarification on whether someone that is 'half aboriginal' 'half whatever everyone else is' feels sorry for themselves?

interesting to see the Brits are refusign to apologise, this was after all a british colony.
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Given that "half castes" were specifically targeted by goverment policy as part of the plan to breed "the black" out of them within six generations then yes I imagine some members of this group would have experienced removal and hence have experienced the grief associated with this removal. I assume this is what you are asking?
 
Excuse my ignorance but what compensation are they talking about?

Weren't those kids taken away from troubled families?
The same thing happens today with kids irrespective of their colour.

If a kid is abused, neglected or in danger it can be taken away from it's
parents.

Cheers
 
Troubled by whose standards?

It was a systematic, government sponsored removal of children. Not an isolated here and there thing.

Mate, you cant bend the facts to suit your viewpoint.

BV said:
Excuse my ignorance but what compensation are they talking about?

Weren't those kids taken away from troubled families?
The same thing happens today with kids irrespective of their colour.

If a kid is abused, neglected or in danger it can be taken away from it's
parents.

Cheers
Click to expand...
 
evand said:
Mate, you cant bend the facts to suit your viewpoint.
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what the ?????

I actually heard an aboriginal lady talk about this on ABC radio (2BL).

She mentioned how she was being raped by her 2 brothers and her mother was always drunk and her abuse even continued later when she was in an institution.

Cases such as this should have been reported to police and the individuals who commited these crimes put in jail.

Anyway, I can't see a failure in the child protection system (which is a state responsibility) being compensated at federal level.
The law is there to protect kids and we have built jails for those who choose to abuse them.

IMHO
 
In my lady's extended family there are two two aboriginal persons (thanks for the English lesson Lucy). Both had been left behind when the family went walk-about. Seriously, thats how things happened. The intention was to come back, but it seems that was never important enough.

The boy became a stockman (his sir-name became "Windsor" the name of the property. I only mention that because it should not breach his privacy, as there would have been many "Windsors" in the country, and for the touch of irony) and the girl a house maid. They can't have been too badly treated because they stayed and then identified with the white family that raised them, even today, and the family accepts them.

There are a lot of people with nothing to apologise for.
 
Some may have been from troubled homes but that is not the point.

The point is the parents of all the aboriginal children were denied their Australian rights. It is not about the children, it's about the parents who lost their children whether they were being raised well or not.

The Australian government departments had no right to do it although they made up a nice bit of legislation to say they could.

How would you feel if your children were suddenly taken away because the government said so?
 
BV said:
what the ?????

I actually heard an aboriginal lady talk about this on ABC radio (2BL).

She mentioned how she was being raped by her 2 brothers and her mother was always drunk and her abuse even continued later when she was in an institution.

Cases such as this should have been reported to police and the individuals who commited these crimes put in jail.

Anyway, I can't see a failure in the child protection system (which is a state responsibility) being compensated at federal level.
The law is there to protect kids and we have built jails for those who choose to abuse them.

IMHO
Click to expand...

The issue of the Stolen Generations is not about the justifiable removal of children for their own safety but rather the remval of child based on race alone - a documented goverment(s) policy over the decades right up into the 1970's. The was outcry against it as far back as the 1930's especially as many of the children were instituationalised rather than going to loving homes and some were then abused within that system. Many of the children were female and were then raised as domestic servants. Aboriginals had to fight for citizenship, voting rights, the right for their children to attend school. freedom of movement, freedom to speak their own languages, freedom to spend their own wages, freedom to own property, freedom to marry whom they wished. And of course many were denied the most basic of human rights - their own family.

I am gobsmacked that those of us who have and believe in such abundance should have so little empathy, compassion and generosity of spirit.

I presume the nay sayers DID listen to the speach yesterday and read the bringing them home report?
 
GoAnna! said:
I presume the nay sayers DID listen to the speach yesterday and read the bringing them home report?
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Are you suggesting that any who have not studied these texts are unqualified to speak on the subject? Even after living 65 years with them?

I have noticed on this forum that there is a healthy disrespect for theoretical economists. Seems that's OK. Well I have the same attitude towards tertiary qualified social workers and political hacks.
 
Sunfish said:
Are you suggesting that any who have not studied these texts are unqualified to speak on the subject? Even after living 65 years with them?

I have noticed on this forum that there is a healthy disrespect for theoretical economists. Seems that's OK. Well I have the same attitude towards tertiary qualified social workers and political hacks.
Click to expand...

Not a great fan of academic theories myself - I was more interested in actual government policies, laws etc, the personal stories of those effected by these laws and policies and the current goverment's acknowledgement of both.

A brief google search will undercover some amazing facts that may never come to light in our day to day lives regardless of whom we live amongst. It's hardly theory - it's well documented fact.
 
Bringing Them Home...The Report.

For reference:

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/

In particular:
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/index.html

Frequently Asked Questions:

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/about/faqs.html

Eg: Why is so much of the report focused on the past? What we need to do is look at the present and the future, not dwell on the past

Is the report saying that Australians should feel guilty about what happened in the past?

What will saying sorry achieve?

Weren't Indigenous children removed for their own good? Being taken away from their Indigenous families gave them a good education and opportunities they would not have had otherwise

Lots of children have been removed from their families - from poor families or from single mothers - not just Indigenous children. Why do Aboriginal children who were removed deserve their own National Inquiry?

How can you judge the past from the perspective of the present? At the time people thought they were doing the right thing by the children

Why was the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children genocide?

Why do people from the 'stolen generations' deserve compensation?

Why do Indigenous people say that their children are still being taken?
 
You mentioned personal stories. I have not strayed far from simply that, or are you only interested in personal stories that "interest" you?
 
Brenda Irwin said:
Some may have been from troubled homes but that is not the point.
...

How would you feel if your children were suddenly taken away because the government said so?
Click to expand...
this happens every day all over the country when family law courts decide that children should be removed from their parent/s and home environment because they are not being properly cared for. The department of human services conduct these all the time.
 
GoAnna! said:
The issue of the Stolen Generations is not about the justifiable removal of children for their own safety but rather the removal of child based on race alone
Click to expand...

Ok but why would any government implement such a policy if it was not in the best interest of the children? What did they have to gain?

It's common knowledge that child abuse exists even today and aboriginal leaders generally turn a blind eye to it.

Think about this one for a moment because it is us who also turn a blind eye to it and we let it continue.
 
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