care leavers
16 Nov 2009
Federal Government Apologises For Child Abuse
Today the Federal Government finally apologised for the terrible abuses suffered by children in Australian institutions, but Naomi Parry wants to know why it took so long, and what it actually means
At 11am this morning, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd led a bipartisan apology to the Forgotten Australians and child migrants. It wasn't before time.
For 10 years national attention was focused on the Howard government's failure to apologise to the Stolen Generations whose treatment was condemned by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission's Bringing Them Home report in 1997. But in that time there were three Senate inquiries into the harshness of life in government and religious institutions for children and child migration schemes: Lost Innocents - Righting the Record (2001), Forgotten Australians: A Report on Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children (2004) and this year's Lost Innocents and Forgotten Australians Revisited (2009).
The Howard government's lack of recognition of these reports was, at least, consistent with its broad approach to righting past wrongs. However, as we know, Kevin Rudd wasted little time in apologising to the Stolen Generations early last year. That moving, wonderful day was justly celebrated. But, as Frank Golding, vice-president of Care Leavers Australia Network, told the 2009 Senate Inquiry, for many care leavers the apology "brought tears that there had been an acknowledgement for those people, but it also brought tears of the other sort: 'Why not us?'"
Indeed, why not — and why has it taken so long? As late as Thursday, the Sydney Morning Herald was reporting that the Prime Minister had not told care leavers what he was going to say. They were resigned to the knowledge that the words said to them would not stop the nation, as did the national apology to the Stolen Generations, and that the speeches would be delivered in Federal Parliament's Great Hall, not the House of Representatives itself. But why should anyone who has lived through these systems be made to feel they are second best?
In asking these questions, I am not seeking to lessen the significance of the apology to the Stolen Generations. I spent almost eight years of my life looking at child welfare for my PhD, "Such a longing": black and white children in welfare in NSW and Tasmania, 1880–1920. As I pointed out in newmatilda.com in February 2008, Aboriginal children experienced some unique forms of welfare and racism added another dimension entirely to the awfulness of welfare systems. But, while writing my PhD, I met Leonie Sheedy and Joanna Penglase, who formed Care Leavers Australia Network to campaign for recognition and support, and realised their story has to be told and recognised.
Because, no matter how you look at it, you can't say the welfare experiences of white children were any good, either. Governments and churches presented their systems of fostering and their institutions as beacons of hope and engines of social reform, which would rescue children from the neglect, criminality and profligacy of their families and make them worthy citizens. Yet darker stories bubble up from the records. Inquiries into state institutions in NSW found stories of routine abuse that reflect a profoundly sick system.
Girls had their heads shaved so roughly they lost chunks of scalp and were thrashed with birch sticks for losing clothes pegs. Girls in the Parramatta Industrial School spoke of being slapped daily and made to "stand out", upright with their arms extended behind their backs, for hours, until they could barely breathe. At Mt Penang and Yanco boys were made to stand on the rims of giant coppers to stir boiling laundry and were punished by being locked in a room with older boys who were wearing boxing gloves. Girls became pregnant within the walls of institutions that were supposed to protect them from moral danger and superintendents complained they were unable to protect boys from the sexual predation of other inmates due to overcrowding and poor facilities.
There is more than enough evidence of similar abuses in the religious and charitable institutions that cared for up to half of all children who were raised in out-of-home care. And, in much of Australia, these were the same institutions the Stolen Generations were sent to.
The apologies are necessary because governments failed to superintend institutions or to provide the supports that kept children out of care. Some parents were neglectful and removal did save some children's lives, but, on the whole, families were rarely to blame for the circumstances that led to the loss of their children. In times of unemployment, illness and hardship, parents were pressured to surrender their children by priests, relatives, the police and welfare workers. Single mothers had to meet moral tests to receive support, and woe betide any working man careless enough to lose a wife when he had children to raise, because no government or agency would support him to stay home.
Children only stopped being institutionalised in large numbers when single parents of both genders and all races were able to access pensions and endowments, when there was enough public housing to go around, and when society began to see that it was worthwhile to work with troubled families instead of plucking a child out to "make a fresh start".
One of the saddest things for those who grew up in care is that it can be hard to see this. The records that might tell individual stories are, for the most part, lost, due to the ravages of time and the actions of individuals and organisations that wanted to protect their own reputations. In the few records that do survive, there is a heartbreaking glibness, because nobody thought it was important to record full details of children. They were supposed to forget their roots and look forward to the future. Governments can help loosen restrictions around records, but ultimately it is the responsibility of historians, who can reach further into the past than governments can and write the stories that explain all the forces that led to them growing up in out-of-home care.
Former Democrats Senator Andrew Murray, who was a child migrant and has been a loyal champion of care leavers, has said they are not motivated by demands for compensation, but recognition. He told the most recent Senate Inquiry that the purpose of an apology is intrinsically emotional: "What an apology does is say, 'We did wrong by you. We didn't exercise a duty of care and we're sorry for that.'"
But the apology should not be the end of it. Governments need to support the people who lived through these systems, not just now, but into the future. Former wards were lucky to get through childhood with any education, and although many have had successful lives, they experience high rates of unemployment, mental illness, incarceration, substance abuse, family breakdown and violence, as do the Stolen Generations. What happened to them was not their fault, nor, in the vast majority of cases, the fault of their families. All care leavers, black and white, need help with family reunion, and additional social services so they can have an old age with more dignity than they were afforded in their childhoods. If this means compensation, so be it.
And we, as a society, need to ensure the apologies live on in policy. Every time a community services department is criticised by a tabloid for trying to keep a struggling family together, or a government decides the solution to child poverty is an intervention, we need to remember the terrible price paid by children when families are broken.
So, today, take some time to pause and remember the children our society thought were not worthy of tenderness, and promise them you will make sure our governments do not repeat the mistakes of the past.
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Jungarrayi
"But the apology should not be the end of it…"
Having lived on a remote Aboriginal community for over three decades, the apology (the one before this one) brought tears of joy to me. I honestly believed that a new era in "Aboriginal affairs" had dawned upon us.
I sincerely hope that those being addressed by the "Apology-Mark II" will not get as dissilusioned as we in remote Aboriginal Australia have been.
Those wonderfull words ring rather hollow as we continue to be under a multi-pronged ethnocentric, monolingual assimilationist attack that is tearing at our social fabric and seems to be aimed at destroying what is wonderful and distinct about these places.
I just hope that people will finally do something to heal the wounds and I ain’t just talking money
I want people to learn from these and others hurt and for once admit the hurt that they have done to my innocent son the past 12 years
Altering and destruction of files and records might be one thing when there is an end to a person in care being there but while the actual Court Case is in motion and the files are being altered before even the next Court date, and I ain’t talking 20,30,40, years ago I am talking from 1997 while all these enquiries are going on and "apologies" being made
Outright criminal acts being committed and when raised in Court the Magistrate saying but where does this or that help
If this wasn’t reality it would be gut busting hilarious
Thanks For your time
From Dave
The Rudd government has apologized to the Stolen Generation and now to the Child Migrants.
Not that I am opposed to an apology. An apology recognizes a past wrong and hopefully will not repeat such a wrong in the future.
But where do we draw the line?
Prior to the 1970s women in the work force were extremely disadvantaged visaviz men. This is well known and I don’t have to list all the finer details. Are governments apologizing to these women?
Then there were those women who were virtually forced, for a multitude of reasons, to surrunder their newborn babies at birth for adoption - a heartbreaking exercise for many a woman. Are governments apologizing to these women?
And how far back in history will we go to apologize?
We are already obsessed with ‘celebrating’, ‘glorifying’, ‘memorizing’ long past events - but we are not doing nearly enough for the future. We have not learnt from the past and therefore repeat it.
And then there is the question of compensation. All those who clamour for an apology wholeheartedly assure us that they do not want the apology for financial reasons. Hardly has the apology been delivered and out stretches the hand that asks for compensation.
Rudd excludes compensation payments and rightly so. I personally am opposed to any kind of personal lump sum compensation payments for whatever reason. People who need help should be given ‘collective’ help for as long as necessary, but not enrich them with huge payouts that will only be wrongly spent.
Of course, I would like to see the religious institutions involved in this Child Migrant scam to be taken to the cleaners, but any monies should go to a Trust Fund to make overall improvements and - as I said before - prevent a repeat.
What about the horrible sub-standard treatment of today’s young people in out-of-home ‘care’?
Marga and others
"Not that I am opposed to an apology. An apology recognizes a past wrong and hopefully will not repeat such a wrong in the future."
The future has come is now of the past. While all these enquiries have been going on, the "apologies" made for 12 years DoCS and the rest have continued to have my son removed from me to the extent now I am not even sure in which town or state that he actually is
There is more breaches of the laws in relation to my son than you would find in a maximum security prison
What about the deaths of children that have been in care since 1997 as well
Read some of my posts.
It is still going on as long as they can keep it out of public eye they continue to sweep it under the carpet
Thanks
From Dave
This makes me so angry. The abuse of these children over a period of decades apparently never resulted in any prosecutions of perpetrators or groups of perpetrators. The reports are heart rending to read. I hope today’s apology brings some peace to the victims, but no apology can repair the human damage.
Children died in care with no inquests or investigation. Complaints from staff in institutions were ignored or concealed. Complaints from children resulted in punishment of the child. For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, there were multiple questions in the NSW Parliament about Parramatta Girl’s Home and Hay Institution for Girls. (Both closed in 1974.) Neither institution was fully subjected to independent investigation at the time and the parliament happily accepted assurances that all was well, despite most questions being a result of staff complaints or following riots at Parramatta.
I doubt that Australian Child Care agencies, religious or state based, were any better than the Irish child care agencies which were mostly run by the Catholic church. The Ryan report released in May this year would indicate that such abuse was systemic in almost all institutions. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-schools-child…
The perpetrators, in all instances, seem to have been protected from criticism at the time of the events and are still protected by secrecy and deliberate concealment in bureaucracies or the religious institutions. To me, this is the far bigger insult to the human lives that were damaged. The general public, who were willing to believe that children in homes were "undeserving" of real care and that they were "bad" children because they were in homes, are equally culpable; no one asked questions.
I’m not sure revenge is appropriate in any case, but not one prosecution in over 60 years?? Surely reparations of some sort should be considered.
ilago,
What makes me so angry is that I have the documentation to prove that my son was for all intents and purposes stolen and illegally adopted with outright criminal offences yet no one is interested in helping me get it to the media
If all that are tied to my son’s case were exposed then it would break the back of the organisations that have/are and will continue to make these cover ups possible just contact graysond49@yahoo.com and I will forward all the law and its breaches
If all that say they want child abuse to stop and Justice to be served that is what my son’s name stands for "Justice and Equality for All"
Thanks all
From Dave
If the apologies tendered by the government have made a difference to people then I am happy for them. I’m very sorry for what happened to them and have a deep desire to get my hands round certain people’s throats. Some of them are doubtless still around. Having apologised I think we should move on. I think people like David Grayson need and deserve justice, not an apology. Words are cheap. If the institutions that were responsible for the crimes still exist, they should be investigated, culprits who can be identified should be prosecuted, and if the institutions are still suspect, they should be closed down immediately. Apologies are all very well but actions speak louder than words, at least they do for me. In a sense, we have the most apologetic government this country has ever had.
Martyns
" I think people like David Grayson need and deserve justice, not an apology."
Thanks for that.
The apology was a little helpful as far as my removal from my mum was/is but that is as far as it goes in relation to my son all concerned were/are well aware of the hurt they have done to him and that is unforgivable Justice is now the only option for my son and all others in the last decade
Thanks
From Dave
" Some parents were neglectful and removal did save some children’s lives, but, on the whole, families were rarely to blame for the circumstances that led to the loss of their children."
Additionally some parents dumped their children in religious homes simply out of selfishness. At the time, 1950s/60s Sydney I couldn’t believe such callousness could exist.
EarnestLee
This appears as some form of quote
"" Some parents were neglectful and removal did save some children’s lives, but, on the whole, families were rarely to blame for the circumstances that led to the loss of their children.""
Where did this arrive from and, Yes I will agree that "some" parents were/are/will be neglectful but it condones nothing
Yes, "some" childrens lives were probably saved but they are still dying while in "care" today while under the Departments eye
Now we are getting somewhere "Families were rarely to blame for the loss of thier children"
That is what I am saying with my son’s case
When DoCS can break all the rules, Collude and conspire, Lie and Perjure to remove a child and place in an absolute unworkable situation with the very people that the mother of the child is under Mental Health from and let the same people verbal the father of the child DON"T you or anyone else here think that something should be done to bring DoCS and its associates to Justice?
Further this was done immediately after the "Bringing Them Home"inquiry was released overseen by a non-indigenous trainee district officer and a foriegner and against the recommendations of the Inquiry, The Act, The Law and logical thinking.
Then it just continues and even when access between the parents and child is reinstated after three yearsof being separated, the child is showing that he is remembering more and more of his time with his parents with happiness and pleasure.
Then a Dr. and Professor of Child and Family matters is engaged by the Court itself reccommends the return of the child he is then totally removed from the parents and left with the people that DoCS started the show with who are trying to separate the parents (which has now been done)and refused point blank to allow the child access with the parents Don’t you and everyone else think that DoCS should be brought to count and JUSTICE finally given to the Child and his father?
Like I have said if anyone wants to know more contact me on graysond49@yahoo.com and I will be happy to forward all proof of what I have to say
Quotes; "any Nation that does not care for and protect ALL of its children does not deserve to be called a Nation" Nelson Mandela
"I HAVE A DREAM" Martin Luther-King
Thanks from Dave
EarnestLee,
I gather by your non-response that you are not interested in Justice for the children that were taken illegally and those that still are
So it is all okay to to commit serious criminal acts and just say "SORRY"
Then there is no need for the police, lawyers or courts we can all do as we please and just say "SORRY" as that is the example that the government has displayed by their inaction to prosecute those concerned
"Any Nation that does not care for and protect ALLits children does not deserve to be called a Nation" Nelson Mandela
Thanks from Dave