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Senate looks at stolen generations compo

http://news.smh.com.au/senate-looks-at-stolen-generations-compo/20080312-1ywl.html

A bill that aims to pay compensation to victims of the stolen generations will be examined by a Senate committee.

Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett on Wednesday said the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee would hold an inquiry into his Stolen Generation Compensation Bill 2008.

Under the bill, applicants - who could include living descendants of indigenous stolen generation members - would be paid out of a Stolen Generations Fund.

Ex-gratia payments would be set at $20,000 as a common experience payment with an additional $3,000 for each year of institutionalisation.

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'Rescue our kids from chaos'

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23443994-2702,00.html

INDIGENOUS people increasingly support the idea of removing children from the "chaos and confusion" of Aboriginal communities by placing them in boarding schools and hostels, says Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin.

Speaking at The Australian's New Agenda for Prosperity conference in Melbourne yesterday, she described Aurukun, in Cape York, which she has just visited, as a "broken community" and "as tragic a place as any of us can find anywhere in this country".

She said the strong message she received in Aurukun, where alcoholism, violence and pornography were rife, was "we have to get out of this chaos, we have to get our children out of this chaos".

Her comments came as veteran indigenous leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu called for mission-style dormitories to be re-established in the Northern Territory for Aboriginal communities to ensure Aboriginal children were fed, clothed and clean.

"The missionary days were good. The missionaries looked after the kids much better than the Government does today," hesaid.

His comments were strongly supported last night by indigenous academic Marcia Langton, who said dormitories or boarding schools could give children a "break from failure".

"Where you have unacceptably low attendance rates among children, boarding schools would provide an opportunity for parents who care about their children and want them to have an education to put them in an educational environment that is conducive to succeeding. Many Aboriginal parents do it already."

She said a number of outstanding Aboriginal leaders had emerged from boarding colleges. "I think we need a break from failure," she said. "Boarding schools, or community dormitories, were a way to get children into circumstances where they are safe and healthy."

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Canada apologizes for failing natives

http://news.smh.com.au/world/canada-apologizes-for-failing-natives-20080612-2pe9.html

Canada's prime minister officially apologized to natives for more than a century of abuses at boarding schools set up to assimilate its indigenous peoples.

"The government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in the House of Commons Wednesday.

"We are sorry."

Flanked by MPs, native leaders in traditional garments and Indian Residential School alumni, many holding back tears, Harper said: "The treatment of children in Indian Residential Schools is a sad chapter in our history."

He acknowledged "two primary objectives of the residential school system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their home, families, traditions, and cultures and to assimilate them in to the dominant culture.

"These objectives were based on the assumption that aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal," he said.

"The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian Residential Schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage, and language."

Beginning in 1874, 150,000 Indian, Inuit and Metis children in Canada were forcibly enrolled in the 132 boarding schools run by Christian churches on behalf of the federal government in an effort to integrate them into society.

Many survivors alleged abuse by headmasters and teachers, who stripped them of their culture and language.

As well, they say their education left them disconnected from their families, communities and feeling "ashamed" of being born native.

It was "the darkest chapter in Canada's history," said Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations. "They tried to kill the Indian in the child, to eradicate any sense of Indian-ness from Canada," he told AFP.

Wearing an Indian feather headdress, his voice cracking, Fontaine told the House, following Harper: "The attempts to erase our identities hurt us deeply. But it also hurt all Canadians and impoverished the character of this nation."

"The memories of residential schools sometimes cut like merciless knives at our souls," he said. "But this day will help us to put that pain behind us."

"For the generations that will follow us, we bear witness today in this House that our survival as First Nations peoples in this land is affirmed forever."

"We still have to struggle, but now we are in this together," Fontaine said.

The aborigines were probably amongst the worst treated peoples that england settled in.