Statement by Reconciliation Australia CEO, Karen Mundine

It is estimated that as many as one in three Indigenous children were taken from their families between 1910 and the 1970s as part of formal government assimilationist policies 

The policy affected most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia as their children were removed into institutions, adopted, or fostered out to non-Indigenous families, and the trauma continues to impact First Nations communities today 

The National Apology to the Stolen Generations delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the Federal Parliament on 13 February 2008 was a watershed moment for reconciliation and truth-telling in Australia. 

Prime Minister Rudd’s Apology joined Prime Minister Paul Keating’s famous 1992 Redfern Speech in finally acknowledging the trauma and grief suffered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people caused by past colonial and more recent government policies, including the removal of children.  

Despite Kevin Rudd’s apology Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are still grossly over-represented at every stage of the child protection system. In 2023, across Australia 43.7% of children aged 0–⁠17 years old in out of home care were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander – an increase of 3.7 percentage points since 2019. 

The Healing Foundation’s report, Are you waiting for us to die?’ – The Unfinished Business of Bringing Them Home, released today, found only 6% of the recommendations from the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families 1997 (the Bringing Them Home report) – to support Stolen Generations survivors and their families – have been clearly implemented. 

Reconciliation Australia firmly backs the Healing Foundation’s call for a National Healing Package of urgent changes to enable survivors to live out their remaining days with dignity. 

The lack of comprehensive implementation of recommendations from the ground-breaking Bringing Them Home report illustrate a vital component of truth-telling – that it must achieve change.  

The trauma experienced by Stolen Generation survivors in telling their stories in 1997 needs to be acknowledged with a package of assistance for the remaining elderly survivors. 

Reconciliation Australia continues to work towards a wider community understanding of Australia’s true history through our Community Truth-telling Pathways program, and we continue to work with our RAP partner Life Without Barriers and its commitment to transfer its Out of Home Care services to Aboriginal Community Controlled organisations.  

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