Introduction to the Moving forward - Achieving reparations for the stolen generations Conference Report
In mid-August 2001, approximately 250 people attended a two-day conference, Moving forward - Achieving reparations for the stolen generations, at the University of New South Wales.
The conference was a joint project between the peak national and elected Indigenous representative body - the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC); the Government's independent monitoring agency on human rights - the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC); and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) - an independent, non-profit legal and policy centre which represents many Aboriginal clients removed from their families and which had developed a stolen generations reparations tribunal model as an alternative to seeking redress for these clients via litigation.
Over the previous eighteen months, ATSIC and HREOC, alongside the National Sorry Day Committee and stolen generations groups, had participated in a reference group formed by PIAC to guide the process of furthering the reparations tribunal proposal. This process had culminated in national consultations with Indigenous people on the meaning of reparations for the stolen generations in the first half of 2001.
HREOC, ATSIC and PIAC remained concerned about the inadequacy of the responses of governments and the churches to the issues raised in Bringing them home - the report of the National Inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their families. The three organisations agreed to join in a partnership to convene a national conference to facilitate discussion about ways to move forward and better meet the needs of those people forcibly removed from their families.
The conference sought to provide a forum to consider the adequacy of government measures to meet the needs of those affected by forcible removals; international law principles and models for providing reparations for violations of human rights; the findings of the PIAC national consultation process on reparations; government and church responses to the history and effects of forcible removals; and the importance of reparations in advancing the process of reconciliation.
The conference organisers were greatly assisted in this task by the participation of a distinguished range of speakers, including international guests from Canada, the United States of America, South Africa and New Zealand, representatives of churches, the government and opposition parties, the reconciliation movement and stolen generations representative organisations.
The conference consisted of a range of plenary sessions followed by time for questions from conference participants, and two sessions of concurrent workshops were scheduled over the two days. What became apparent fairly early in the conference was that members of the stolen generations continue to suffer great hardships, and that efforts to date have not ameliorated their harm. Stolen generations members needed to be able to share their stories and experiences as part of their individual healing process.
As a result, the second session of workshops - due to take place on the morning of the second day of the conference - were abandoned and replaced by a plenary session for members of the stolen generations to share their stories and concerns. One after the other, members of the stolen generations rose to speak about their lives and the problems they face as a consequence of their removal.
The emotion and the reality of their experiences stood in stark contrast to the response by the Government that immediately followed, with its detailed rejection of the concept of a reparations tribunal. There could be no greater gulf between the individual cries for help heard during the conference, and the narrowness and unwillingness of theGovernment to consider alternative approaches to redressing this harm.
Ultimately, through the workshops on the first day and two plenary sessions on the second day, a series of conference recommendations were formed. These recommendations were sent out in draft format to all participants in the conference so that they could contemplate them and discuss them further with their communities prior to their adoption. The recommendations remained open for comment for approximately ten weeks after the conference and were finalised in early November.
This conference report begins with the final recommendations. The recommendations reflect concerns at the level of implementation of the recommendations of Bringing them home, with conference participants urging Government to see the recommendations as a package of integrated, complementary measures. Conference participants considered that there are significant social and economic costs to the current approach of not adequately responding to the recommendations, and reaffirmed the ongoing and urgent need for reparations and healing.
A strong message from the conference was the need for broader consultations with stolen generations members about the forms reparations should take. They considered that the PIAC reparations tribunal model was an appropriate basis on which to conduct further consultations.
This collection also includes the written versions of all the presentations made at the conference. The papers are structured according to the conference program. The papers do not reflect those occasions where speakers deviated from their written presentations.
A copy of this report has been provided to every participant in the conference, as well as to representative stolen generations groups. A limited number of additional copies are available from the conference organisers. The full report will be made available here for download in PDF format shortly.
One of the main outcomes of the conference was that it expanded the knowledge of participants on the reparations approach and national and international developments in this regard. Many people left the conference keen to go back to their communities to share their experiences and their knowledge. They saw the conference outcomes as the start of further important processes which might bring some resolution to their calls for redress.
We believe that this collection of recommendations and papers from the conference will help further stimulate debate and proposals for new program initiatives so that those people forcibly removed from their families can be healed and Australian society can move towards addressing, in real terms, a major component of the 'unfinished business' of reconciliation .
Dr William Jonas
AM
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner
December 2001
For and on behalf of the conference partners:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
- Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
- Public Interest
Advocacy Centre
