Brian - Sorry and Beyond: Healing the Stolen Generations

I remember shepherding people across the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the Sorry walk the feeling of understanding and inclusion was almost palpable. I got that same feeling reading this book. Imagine how different our country would be if all people everywhere felt the same longing for unity. This book will go a long way to healing our nations. I encourage you to read it, and reflect upon your own journey to reconciliation.

PROFESSOR AUNTY KERRIE E DOYLE, RN, PHD, ASSOCIATE DEAN, INDIGENOUS HEALTH, SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY

Here is a committed history of understanding and fighting for the Stolen Generations over the last 50 years. Read of the battle for recognition in the teeth of half a dozen obdurate Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs. And the state of play today: unfinished business.

Youll find not a word of theoretical jargon in this passionate narrative by two of the leading players working right at the coalface. This is one ripping yarn.

PROFESSOR PETER READ, CO-FOUNDER, LINK-UP NSW ABORIGINAL CORPORATION

Brian Butler and John Bond have combined to write a must-read story of the Stolen Generations. Brian takes us through his personal journey and John relates the facts of the terrible injustices and recounts numerous examples of government and systemic failures many of which continue today. One cannot on reading this book but be inspired by Brians passion and commitment. He honours the many that told their stories and those that fought for and with us in bringing to national attention this shameful part of Australias history. This book calls for us all to pursue our rights to keep Aboriginal children in their families in their culture and within their communities.

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR MURIEL BAMBLETT, A YORTA YORTA AND DJA DJA WURRUNG WOMAN PASSIONATE ADVOCATE AND NATIONAL LEADER IN THE PURSUIT OF CULTURAL AND INHERENT RIGHTS OF ABORIGINAL CHILDREN

An unflinchingly honest account of recognising the Stolen Generations and the rise of a national movement for reconciliation. The struggles, the hurt and the resurgence of hope for so many of us Stolen Generations survivors are here.

These powerful words and photos reminded me of just how deep the pain runs, but also, of how far we have come. John and Brians book shows what truly working together can do, and even more so, what a movement of people working together toward healing can achieve. Read it and be inspired.

AUNTY LORRAINE PEETERS, ADVOCATE FOR THE APOLOGY AND CREATOR OF THE MARUMALI JOURNEY OF HEALING AND MARAMULI PROGRAM

Sorry and Beyond

Healing the Stolen Generations

BRIAN BUTLER AND JOHN BOND

First published in 2021

by Aboriginal Studies Press

Brian Butler and John Bond 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its education purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

The opinions expressed in this book are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect the view of AIATSIS or ASP.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are respectfully advised that this publication contains names and images of deceased persons and culturally sensitive information.

Aboriginal Studies Press is the publishing arm of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

ISBN: 978-1-925302-74-5 (pb)

ISBN: 978-1-925302-69-1 (ePub)

Cover design by Design By Committee

Photographs as credited

Foreword

Professor Mick Dodson AM FASSA

Reading this book reminded me of Archie Roachs song Took the Children Away. Sad, truthful and heart wrenching. It took me back to the inquiry that produced the Bringing Them Home report, which exposed the shocking practice of Indigenous child removal for all to see. Sorry and Beyond is Australian history, shared history, our history.

The removal of Indigenous children from their families, communities and homelands began from the very first days of European invasion and occupation of Aboriginal lands. It became entrenched in colonial governments policy, practice and law.

The forcible removals were justified by dubious and discriminatory policies of absorption, integration, protection and assimilation. It was argued that the children were taken for their own good, but that was far from what actually happened to them.

From about the mid 1930s the policy of assimilation was the key driver. Assimilation was designed to destroy the Indigenous childrens Aboriginal identity, making them like whitefellas, destroying their language, culture, identity and connection to country including spiritual affiliations to their ancestral lands. Many were punished some were flogged simply for speaking their native tongues.

Brian Butler is a man of courage and utmost integrity, and I am honoured to have him as a friend. He knows the horror of the policies and practices that forcibly removed children. He understands the pain. This book is the story we should all know.

The literature about these shameful events is growing. Renowned historians and other scholars are writing. And increasingly the victims of these atrocities are writing. This book is an invaluable contribution to that library.

In time, these testaments will enable a process of truth-telling that will heal our past and lay a foundation for a better future.

Foreword

Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia 200710, 2013

I have long believed that the miracle of the national apology was not that it happened; its miracle lies in our Indigenous brothers and sisters accepting it. Reading through Sorry and Beyond by Brian Butler and John Bond, we can see why.

It is difficult to imagine anything more traumatic for a child than being forcibly removed from their family, taken many miles away, deposited in a dormitory and told that all they knew about their culture, language and way of life was wrong. Families were torn apart and communities broken. This is the history of Australia, a history that we must acknowledge. Denying the existence of these individual stories or sidestepping their honesty is just plain wrong. Such was the widespread impact of these racist policies that, as the Bringing Them Home report expresses it, not one Indigenous person in Australia today has not been affected by the forced removal of children.

This book is important because it is only through the powerful testimony of Indigenous Australians that we can understand the sheer scale of the harm we non-Indigenous people have caused. Each of us must follow in the footsteps of Sir Ronald Wilson, whose epiphany came while hearing many hundreds of stories of pain and loss while leading the national inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. Only through listening could he begin to understand the horror of what had occurred.