Australia to compensate thousands of indigenous people who were stolen from their families as children | Biggest gesture of reparation after the 2008 apology

Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, announced Thursday that will compensate thousands of indigenous people of the so-called “stolen generation”, those who during their childhood were deprived of their family as part of the official policy of assimilation between 1910 and 1970.

the Australian government will donate up to AU $ 86,000 (US $ 63,517 or € 53,666) to affected Aborigines in the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay (in the state of New South Wales). The measure is in addition to the previous compensation offered by the rest of the regions that make up the country.

“What happened is a shameful chapter in our history,” Morrison told Parliament in Canberra, after a plan was implemented to end discrimination against the indigenous population. They represent 3.3 percent of Australia’s more than 25 million people.

the Repairs are one of the most important official gestures since Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized in 2008 to the “stolen generation” in the name of the nation.

“The announcement reflects the government’s commitment to recognize and acknowledge past grievances as part of the nation’s journey to reconciliation, and this plan represents an important step towards healing,” said Indigenous Minister Ken Wyatt, in a joint statement with Morrison.

The generation stolen from Australia

The compensated, around 3,600 survivors, they also have the opportunity to tell their story about the impact of these practices on their lives to a designated official and to receive a personal or written apology.

We calculate that some 100,000 indigenous Australian children of the stolen generation were separated from their families between 1910 and 1970 and placed in white families or institutions for their education as part of the past policy of “white Australia” which sought to assimilate minorities.

Australian Aborigines have been subjected to constant mistreatment since colonization, in addition to being dispossessed of their land and systematically discriminated against, and many of them live in poverty and inequality.

Australia’s constitution, which dates back to 1901, neither mentions nor recognizes Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders as the country’s original inhabitants, although in recent years a civil movement has grown to recognize their natural rights.