Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week represents the 10th anniversary of the Bringing them home report, which documented the systematic forced removal of up to 100,000 Indigenous children from their families. Most of these children were placed in dormitories, where they lived until their teenage years. They were then left to their own devices to cope as best they could without the support of any of their extended family. Many of them would not have known who their family were after that experience of being taken away at such a young age.

Even in our very modern society today we recognise the importance of the extended family. In my case, I could not begin to tell you just how important my mother and my husband’s mother have been in helping us to raise our children—not just in terms of physical help but also in terms of the wise words of experience they offer in times of everyday family stress. Even as adults, we rely on that family support to nurture and guide us. But the young Indigenous people of the stolen generation were left to manage without this help, and it was even harder for them, coming as they did from a culture where the extended family is paramount.

My electorate of Capricornia is blessed with a large Indigenous population. The elders of this community are very aware of the problems facing our stolen generation and have set about doing what they can to assist. I would like to take the time today to acknowledge the work of these people. A stolen generation support group has been established in Rockhampton. The group consists of representatives from the Aboriginal Mental Health Unit; the Rockhampton Women’s Health Service; Wahroonga, which is an excellent counselling service in Rockhampton; Darumbal Community Youth Services; and the Michael Hayes Diversionary Centre. These people come together with Mona Kielly at the Bidgerdii Regional Training Centre to assist and deliver services to support our stolen generation in Central Queensland.

This dedicated group have no direct funding. Instead, they are forced to take bits of money from here and there to put together their programs. Their task has been made even more difficult by the problems they have had in keeping a qualified bringing them home counsellor. The group is once again advertising for some qualified help. It seems that, when they do get a suitably qualified person, that person only stays with them until a much better-paid position becomes available, whether it is at the local base hospital, elsewhere within Queensland Health or at another, better-funded agency. Our local Indigenous group should be adequately funded by the federal government. At the very least they should be funded to a level that enables them to maintain a qualified counsellor. But we find, as usual with Indigenous matters in Central Queensland, that this is sadly not the case.

However, our support group is doing good work. In July of this year they are bringing Aunty Lorraine Peeters to Rockhampton from New South Wales. Lorraine has developed the Marumali Healing Circle program to assist members of our stolen generation. Four healing camps will be held in Rockhampton during July. Two of these camps will be for men, so Lorraine will be bringing Maurice Walker with her. Maurice is from our Central Queensland community in Woorabinda. I, along with the rest of the community, welcome him home to Central Queensland and congratulate him on his work with our stolen generation. The Marumali Healing Circle was developed by Aunty Lorraine Peeters out of her own experiences as a member of our stolen generation. Lorraine and Maurice have committed themselves to the work of bringing home our stolen generation, and I would ask the minister for Indigenous affairs to assist Lorraine and Maurice in their valuable work. As well as those healing camps and their ongoing daily work, our local support group has organised a visit in November from Western Australia of people from that state’s Indigenous Physiological Service. I want to take this opportunity today, in this House, to congratulate Mona Kielly and her group. I want to thank them on behalf of the whole Central Queensland community for their ongoing efforts in this very difficult area. Once again, I challenge the minister for Indigenous affairs to come to Rockhampton to meet with Mona and her group and to find out what the government can do to help those who are working on the front line to bring home our stolen generation.