The State Government’s announcement that it will provide reparations to recognize the suffering caused by the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families has been welcomed in East Gippsland.
Gippsland Greens Party candidate, Marjorie Thorpe, said a national inquiry into the ‘Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’ 16 years ago had identified the Lakes Tyers mission as a ‘baby farm’ for agencies.
Chief executive officer of the Lakes Tyers Aboriginal Trust, Terylene Hood, said she expects about 50 Aboriginal people in East Gippsland could be eligible for access to the reparations package, which includes a personal apology from the government, and access to healing.
Ms Thorpe believes that government has waited too long before announcing the reparations ‘because it knew it would not have to pay so many people’.
Image: Uncle Murray Bull, now in his 70s, was removed from his parents at the Lake Tyers mission in the 1950s.
