“We’re all impacted,but we need to get their stories down. Their truths will become part of Australia’s recorded history,” Fry says.
Last month,Fry helped Aunty Sandra Rowe record her testimony and submit it to the commission. The process took around a month and involved Aunty Sandra and Fry meeting in person several times and talking “on numerous occasions” over the phone before recording what Rowe wanted to say.
Rowe,a 65-year-old Dja Dja Wurrung,Yorta Yorta and Wemba Wemba elder,is yet another Stolen Generations survivor. The trauma she experienced as a ward of the state until the age of seven,when she was reunited with her mother – who was also removed from her parents – continued to reverberate throughout her life.
At the age of 23,Rowe’s first baby was immediately taken from her because she was battling a drug addiction. Rowe didn’t meet her daughter again until 18 years later. At the age of 50,Rowe spent time at the Lady Gladys Nicholls Hostel,which provided temporary accommodation to homeless Aboriginal people in Melbourne.
“Because I was visually impaired since I was 15,I wasn’t able to learn and attend school like other fully sighted children. As I got older and shared my story with counsellors and friends,they would tell me to write a biography,but because I wasn’t educated,I didn’t have the skills to do that,” says Rowe.
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“Being able to share and make a submission with the support of Tara,I feel as though my story is being told. To be able to sit in the comfort of my home with a like-minded person who understands the trauma that I’ve been through made the process comfortable.
“I feel as though I’m not carrying the weight of injustices on my shoulders any more.”
This week the commission will resume its public hearings focus on the impact of the child protection system on First Peoples in Victoria. Aboriginal children in Victoria are being removed from their families at over 20 times the rate of removals of non-Indigenous children. Fifty-six per cent of Aboriginal kids in out-of-home care in Victoria are placed with a non-Aboriginal carer. Over 50 per cent are separated from their siblings.
The inquiry will be led by Wirdi man Tony McAvoy,SC – widely recognised as Australia’s most senior First Nations barrister – and Fiona McLeod AO,SC,with junior counsel provided by Yuin man Timothy Goodwin and Sarala Fitzgerald.
The focus of the hearings is a response to calls from elders and community leaders,says Yoorrook deputy chair Sue-Anne Hunter.
“The harm inflicted on the stolen generation continues to traumatise our people,yet record numbers of First Peoples’ children are being taken from their families,” Hunter said. “We are seeing a new stolen generation happening before our eyes.”
An Auditor-General’s report into kinship care in Victoria,released in June,found the Department of Families,Fairness and Housing handling of Aboriginal children had led to them being put into culturally unsuitable environments,jeopardising connections with their culture and family.
Coinciding with the tabling of the report,the Andrews government introduced theChildren,Youth and Families Amendment (Child Protection) Bill 2021. The bill sought to make a string of changes to existing legislation to empower Aboriginal community-led decision-making,which included acknowledging cultural principles for decisions on child placement.The bill lapsed when the 50th parliament went into caretaker mode before the state election.
A second week of hearings will address issues within the state’s criminal justice system. Three decades have passed since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody tabled its landmark report. More than 500 Aboriginal people have died in custody across Australia since that inquiry,while in Victoria,Aboriginal people continue to be imprisoned at 14 times the rate of non-Indigenous people.
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The December hearings will include evidence from around 50 witnesses ranging from community members with lived experience to representatives from Aboriginal Ccommunity-Controlled Organisations,service providers and experts.
The Yoorrook commissioners,led by chair Professor Eleanor Bourke,AM,a Wergaia and Wamba Wamba elder,recently completed a series of roundtable discussions with a select group of representatives from Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations,researchers,and the co-chairs of theAboriginal Justice Caucus,to discuss key issues facing the child protection and criminal justice systems.
“The situation is getting worse in many respects,” Bourke said.
“Yoorrook will investigate the reasons why current approaches continue to fail First Peoples. It will examine why governments are removing our children from their families and communities at the worst rate in the country and why they are imprisoning our people at rising rates,with continued deaths in custody.”
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