Marvyn McKenzie: My personal opinion

Stolen Generation Compensation Payments

Somebody recently asked me about my personal views and opinions of the Aboriginal ‘Stolen Generation’ and whether I not I believed that they should receive a compensation payment from the Australian Government.

I must honestly confess and declare a ‘conflict of interest’ when it comes to the ‘Stolen Generation’ because both my Mother’s Mother and my Father’s Father were members of the Stolen Generation. Both were both forcibly removed from their families and in the case of my Father’s Father, from his Mother, without their consent or permission.

My response is to such questions are as follows:

If a thief came into your house and stole your most precious material possession and you knew the identity of the thief.

What would you do to the thief? Would you let him freely go or would you report him to the legal authorities and take him to court in order to seek justice and compensation for what the thief stole.

If this thief had either damaged or broken your most precious material possession would you merely forgive him or would you seek full compensation of equal or greater value.

Now what if the thief had stolen your child whose value and worth is even greater than that of your most prized precious material possession? What would you do? How much value and compensation would you seek and want the thief to pay back to you?

Now what if the thief told you that he stole your child for only good intentions because he thought and assumed that he could grow up your child better than you? What would you say to the thief? Would you merely forgive him and let him go freely or would you take him to court and seek compensation?

People who use good intentions as an excuse to do wrongful things need to heed Aldous Huxley words where he once said:

Hell isn’t merely paved with good intentions; it is walled and roofed with them.

If the courts told you that you can have a choice between accepting either the minimal compensation repayment amount or accepting the maximum compensation repayment amount, which one would you choose?

What is the dollar value you would place on your very own child?

For those of you who may not know of the ‘Stolen Generation’ then I direct you to read the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 1997 Bringing them Home, Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, as this document provides a lot of information about the issue.

Some of the key Recommendations from the Bringing Them Home Report were as follows:

Components of reparations

3. That, for the purposes of responding to the effects of forcible removals, ‘compensation’ be widely defined to mean ‘reparation’; that reparation be made in recognition of the history of gross violations of human rights; and that the van Boven principles guide the reparation measures. Reparation should consist of:

  1. Acknowledgment and apology,
  2. Guarantees against repetition,
  3. Measures of restitution,
  4. Measures of rehabilitation, and
  5. Monetary compensation.

Claimants

4. That reparation be made to all who suffered because of forcible removal policies including,

1. Individuals who were forcibly removed as children

2. Family members who suffered as a result of their removal,

3. Communities which, as a result of the forcible removal of children, suffered cultural and community disintegration, and

4. Descendants of those forcibly removed who, as a result, have been deprived of community ties, culture and language, and links with and entitlements to their traditional land.

‘In July 2000, the issue of the Stolen Generation came before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva who heavily criticised the Howard government for its manner of attempting to resolve the issues related to the Stolen Generation. Australia was also the target of a formal censure by the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’ (Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generation).

Now you would think that these Recommendations were reasonable and because it was actually done by the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission you would think it would be accepted by the Australian Parliament and there would be little or no opposition to it.

Also you would think that being censure and criticised by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights these recommendations would have been passed by now through the Australian Parliament and acted upon.

Not according to our politicians because they have delayed it as per the norm when it comes to issues and restorative social justice for Aboriginal people.

At last in 2008, eleven years later there is a Senate Inquiry into the Stolen Generation Private Bill that was introduced by Senator Andrew Bartlett

The Bill proposes a compensation model for ex gratia payments to be made to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons who are found to be eligible for such payments under the Bill.

The committee will examine the viability of the Bill's proposed compensation model, consider existing domestic and international compensation models, and review any relevant unimplemented recommendations of the 1997 Bringing Them Home report.

I leave the last words to Undakarra (God) who said:

If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the LORD by deceiving his neighbour about something entrusted to him or left in his care or stolen, or if he cheats him, or if he finds lost property and lies about it, or if he swears falsely, or if he commits any such sin that people may do- when he thus sins and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to him, or the lost property he found, or whatever it was he swore falsely about. He must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day he presents his guilt offering. (Leviticus 6:2-5)

Regards
Virdianha Nhunga Marvyn-anha McKenzie
Adnyamathanha Ararru Vukarra Milana Yura