‘Stolen Generations’ sue Australian government
AFP, SYDNEY
Hundreds of Aborigines in Australia who were forcibly removed from their families as children are suing the government in a class action launched yesterday that seeks compensation for the injustice.
Thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youths were taken from their homes and put in foster care with white families, under official assimilation policies that persisted into the 1970s.
Now known as the “Stolen Generations,” they were routinely punished for speaking their own languages or practicing their culture, and many never saw their parents or siblings again.
Waterfalls tumble over the surface of Uluru in Australia’s Northern Territory on March 21.
Ken Canning (left) and Cheryl (right).
Ken Canning, a 68-year-old Bidjara man, poet and a playwright and a much-loved fighter for the rights of First Nations people and all down-trodden, urgently needs to return to Australia for specialist medical treatment.
But Canning and his partner Cheryl have not been able to return. When the pandemic began last year, Canning was spending time in the Philippines with Cheryl and her family. On a number of occasions now, flights that have been booked have been unilaterally cancelled.
These delays have meant that Canning has been prevented from seeing medical specialists to manage a number of chronic health conditions, including diabetes and a long-term neuromuscular disease that leads to varying degrees of skeletal muscle weakness. He is also suffering from years of torture at the hands of Australia’s prison authorities in the 1970s.
For these Torres Strait Islanders, climate change is already here — and they re urging the government to do more abc.net.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from abc.net.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“Still no justice”: First Nations activists hold speak-out after NSW parliamentary inquiry
Speakers argued that justice would be won by the people and not the state. Photography: Aman Kapoor.
April 15, 2021
After a NSW Parliamentary Committee into the high levels of First Nations people in custody tabled its findings and 39 recommendations today, activists held a speak-out with the overarching message that justice would be won by the people and not the state.
The inquiry was established after thousands took to the streets in June 2020 at the height of Black Lives Matter movement, and handed down its report on the 30th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.