Money Isn’t Everything’: Kimberley Stolen Generations survivors respond to WA redress scheme

“I’m happy to be recognised — but inside, I’m hurting. Money isn’t everything.” Those were the words of Stolen Generation survivor Jaru elder Daisy Howard following WA Premier Roger Cook’s historic announcement of a redress scheme that will give the State’s survivors of the Stolen Generation $85,000 in compensation. Aunty Daisy was just two years old in 1938 when she and her brother were taken from their mother in Halls Creek, first to Moola Bulla Station, then to Beagle Bay Mission. Decades later, she sat with fellow Kimberley Stolen Generations survivors at a viewing hosted by the Kimberley Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation in Broome. Wearing lilac native hibiscus — the KSGAC’s symbolic flower — the group watched Mr Cook on television during Reconciliation Week, saying: “No amount of money could ever make up for the experience of Stolen Generations members and their families.” “These payments acknowledge an injustice. It does not correct what has happened, but it does offer a path forward,” Mr Cook said. Under the program, Aboriginal people in WA removed as children before July 1972 will be eligible for the one-off payment, with applications open in the second half of the year. Only surviving members of the Stolen Generation will be eligible. Attorney-General Tony Buti said between 2500 and 3000 people in WA were expected to be eligible, meaning the State could pay up to $250 million. For Aunty Daisy, financial compensation wasn’t the focus. Her thoughts were with her late brother and other Stolen Generations survivors who have since passed. “I’m feeling very emotional, thinking of all the people who have died, including my brother, who were part of the Stolen Generation,” she said. Aunty Daisy wasn’t alone in her grief — it hung in the air for those who never lived to see this day. KSGAC chair Mark Bin Bakar reflected on the absence of his mother, Phyllis Bin Bakar, who was forcibly removed from a place called Margaret River near Halls Creek, taken to Moola Bulla Station near Wyndham, then relocated to the Holy Child Orphanage in Broome. “I’m sad that my mother isn’t here to receive it,” Mr Bin Barker said. He has been campaigning for reparations for Stolen Generation survivors since he founded KSGAC in 2001. “You can’t compensate because you could never fund what it’s really worth,” Mr Bin Bakar said. “It’s not about money, it’s about recognition that these kids were stolen from their language, culture, country and people in the name of laws that governed Aboriginal people.” The Healing Foundation CEO Shannon Dodson echoed this sentiment, acknowledging the weight of the announcement while underscoring the limits of a financial redress. “No amount of money will make up for the trauma inflicted on stolen children,” Ms Dodson said. “But redress is validation of their experience, and some compensation for the pain they’ve suffered.” She highlighted the lasting trauma among descendants of the Stolen Generation, and how the effects of past government policies are still felt today. “The Bringing Them Home report showed how being forcibly removed from family, community, culture and country is linked to many key indicators within the Closing the Gap targets.” “As a direct result of their forcible removal, both groups now face poorer health, mental health, social and economic outcomes than other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.” John Cooper was also forcibly removed from his mother in Halls Creek and taken to Beagle Bay as a toddler. Seated at the back, he watched the Premier intently, a half-smile flickering across his face as the reparations were announced. “What I will say about the $85,000 is I consider it a privilege, and I respect their sense of direction on this,” Mr Cooper said. “By doing this, the gates of equality have opened.”