JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

PHILIP RUDDOCK
Minister for Immigration and Multicultural
and Indigenous Affairs Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Reconciliation

NATIONAL SORRY DAY COMMITTEE

RECOGNITION OF REMOVAL PRACTICES AT RECONCILIATION PLACE

The Federal Government and the National Sorry Day Committee have reached agreement on the content and preliminary design of a new artwork to be installed at Reconciliation Place that recognises the great injustice of the past practice of separating Indigenous children from their families.

The Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Reconciliation, Philip Ruddock, today said the agreement represented another important step on the path to reconciliation.

“The Government has always acknowledged that the separation of Indigenous children from their families was a tragic and terrible part of Australia’s history,” Mr Ruddock said.

“The trauma and suffering that has been caused by these past actions is immense. I hope the agreement that we have reached on how this chapter of our history is to be portrayed at Reconciliation Place can contribute to healing the wounds of the past.”

Mr Ruddock expressed his sincere thanks to the National Sorry Day Committee for the extensive consultation it had undertaken with its members over the past 10 months, supported by the Government, to give them real input into the design of the artwork.

“What we have at the end of these consultations is the material for an artwork that I am sure will have a profound impact on all those who see it. The selection of text, testimonials and pictures to be included in the artwork guarantees this. I am very much looking forward to the project now getting under way and to seeing the new artworks installed at Reconciliation Place.”

The co-chairs of the National Sorry Day Committee, Audrey Ngingali Kinnear and John Brown, welcomed the agreement.

“This will give Australians, and visitors from other countries, the chance to learn the truth about what happened, so that we don't make the same mistakes again,” Ms Kinnear said. “Understanding is the first step towards healing.”

A separated children artwork was proposed for installation in the first stage of Reconciliation Place, opened by the Prime Minister in July last year, but this was put on hold when it became obvious that further consultation was needed.

The agreed artwork will include work already done and a number of new design elements.

The National Capital Authority will use the agreed text and preliminary design to prepare a final design, which needs to be approved by Parliament.

The Government provided $1 million in the recent Budget for the installation of the artwork at Reconciliation Place, as well as one other paying tribute to Indigenous leadership.

Mr Ruddock’s office: Jeremy Chitty 0418 971 042
National Sorry Day Committee Audrey Ngingali Kinnear 0408 823 450
John Brown 0417 209 076
John Bond 02 6281 0940

Text for the artwork at Reconciliation Place, agreed by the Federal Government and the National Sorry Day Committee

"THEY TOOK THE CHILDREN AWAY"

For 150 years until the 1970s, many thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were removed from their families, with the authorisation of Australian governments, to be raised in institutions, or fostered or adopted by non-indigenous families. Some were given up by parents seeking a better life for their children. Many were forcibly removed and see themselves as ‘the stolen generations’.
Many of these children experienced overwhelming grief, and the loss of childhood and innocence, family and family relationships, identity, language and culture, country and spirituality.

Their elders, parents and communities have experienced fear and trauma, emptiness, dis-empowerment, endless grieving, shame and failure.

Most who looked after the removed children believed they were offering them a better future, and did all they could to provide loving care. Some abused and exploited the children.

This place honours the people who have suffered under these policies and practices. It also honours those Indigenous and non-Indigenous people whose genuine care softened the tragic impact of what are now recognised as cruel and misguided policies.

In 1937 the first Commonwealth-State Native Welfare Conference, affirming the policies of previous decades, resolved that “the destiny of the natives of Aboriginal origin, but not of the full blood, lies in their ultimate absorption by the people of the Commonwealth, and it therefore recommends that all efforts be directed to that end”.

“Are we going to have a population of one million blacks, or are we going to merge them into our white community and eventually forget that there were any Aborigines in Australia?” A O Neville, Chief Protector of Aborigines, Western Australia, speaking at the conference in 1937.

“I would not hesitate for one moment to separate any half-caste child from the Aboriginal mother, no matter how frantic her momentary grief might be at the time. They soon forget their offspring.” James Isdell, Travelling Protector, Western Australia, 1909.

Reproduction of a letter from W Bray of Alice Springs, Alice Springs, Central Australia
April 1, 1941
Protector Aboriginals
Dear Sir
I myself and my wife, both of us half-castes we understand, do not want any of our children removed out of this Central Australia, their country. It would not be fair to us, the loss of them. Also not fair to them the loss of their parents, causing crying and fretting. We parents, born Aritunga Goldfields, children also, except one, he being the eldest, Norman. He born Deep Well, part of the east-west running James Range. We were all born here in Central Australia, we don't know any other parts, and we don't want to. Will you please place this Protest, as we do not understand any forcible removal, of any of us, from this Central Australia, our birthright country.
Yours sincerely
W Bray

Many similar letters were written by other parents

Quotes from those who were removed:

“We had been playing all together…then the air filled with screams because the police came and mother tried to hide their children…Six of us were put on an old truck and taken to Oodnadatta.”

“I remember this woman saying to me, 'your mother's dead. That's why you're here with us.' Two years after that my mother and her sister came to the Bungalow but they weren't allowed to visit us because they were black.”

“I didn't know any Aboriginal people at all, none at all. I was placed in a white family and I was just – I was white.”

“Dormitory life was like living in hell. It was not a life. The only things that sort of came out of it was how to work, how to clean…But we got a lot of bashings.”

“I ran away because my foster father used to tamper with me and I'd had enough. I went to the police but they didn't believe me.”

“We were all happy together, us kids. We had two very wonderful old ladies that looked after us.”

“Another thing we find hard is giving our children love. We never had it. So we don't know how to tell our kids that we love them. All we do is protect them. I can't even cuddle my kids 'cause I never got cuddled.”

“The nuns and fathers at Beagle Bay were good to us. We learnt at school there, we worked in the gardens and there was plenty of food. But my mother’s heart was broken, and soon after she was admitted to Claremont Mental Hospital where she died.”

“Through all these years - from five-and-a-half months to 18 years of age - my mother never gave up trying to locate me. She wrote many letters to the State welfare department, pleading to give her son back. All these letters were shelved. The department rejected and scoffed at all my mother's cries for help.”

“We went there to be brought up as white kids, but when we left there we were Aborigines, second-class citizens and we were nothing.”

Quotes from the carers:

“To my knowledge nobody ever discussed how or why the children had been placed there. We took for granted that we were doing the right thing. I saw my job as giving care and imparting understanding and self-esteem.”

“I cannot comment on other missionary enterprises. Moore River Settlement, at that time however, failed to achieve what was intended due to its location, lack of facilities and inadequate finance.”

“We would get a message on the radio from Welfare in Darwin to say that a certain plane would be coming out and there would be three children there for us…We knew their name, their date of birth…but there was no official information beyond that.”

“We read in the newspapers that there were young Aboriginal children who were not being adopted and would go into orphanages. So, against the advice of some people, we went ahead. We didn't realise the identity issues that would arise.”

“To me, they were children, that's that. I never thought about what colour their skin was... they were there for me to mother - and it had to be mothering, not just caring.”


The National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families (known as the Bringing Them Home report) recommended in 1997 that reparation, including acknowledgment and apology, be made to all who suffered because of forcible removal policies. Its recommendations were directed to all Australian governments, the churches and others involved in those policies.

On 26 August 1999, both Houses of Parliament endorsed a Commonwealth government’s Motion of Reconciliation. Through this motion, the national parliament:

- expressed its deep and sincere regret that Indigenous Australians suffered injustice under the practices of past generations, and for the hurt and trauma that many Indigenous people continue to feel as a consequence of these practices; and
- reaffirmed a whole-hearted commitment to the cause of reconciliation between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians as an important national priority for all Australians.

“The impacts of the removal policies continue to resound through the generations of Indigenous families. The overwhelming evidence is that the impact does not stop with the children removed. It is inherited by their own children in complex and sometimes heightened ways.” Bringing Them Home Report, 1997

We the removed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children of Australia would urge you to look through our eyes and walk in our footsteps, to be able to understand our pain. We call on all Australians to acknowledge the truth of our history, to enable us to move forward together on our journey on healing, because it is only the truth that will set us all free.

Description of preliminary design

Two new “slivers” adjacent to each other will combine at Reconciliation Place to address the issue of the past practice of separating Indigenous children from their families.
One will be constructed of red ochre concrete and incorporates a water feature of a stream meandering over its surface and spilling into a rock pool.

- The sides of the concrete structure will incorporate a map of Australia locating the "homes" to which the children were taken and artworks representing the communities from which they came.
The other will incorporate historic photos of institutionalised children as well as children in the environment from which they came, selected from the National Archives publication "Between Two Worlds".
- The artwork includes an artistic representation of a "Coolamon" or traditional cradle.
Words describing aspects of the experience are also incorporated. These will appear in the form of direct quotes from those who were taken, their carers and others involved.

The audio system will play excerpts from songs by Aboriginal artists about these experiences.

The artworks are complemented by a seat from which they can be viewed.