Stolen Generations Projects

QLD

Cherbourg Historical Precinct

The project Looking, listening, yarning brings together Stolen Generations survivors, Elders and the general Cherbourg community to engage and interact with filmed, photographic and audio testimonies of former Cherbourg Dormitory and other Stolen Generations children (e.g. interviews made for the Domo Boys and Domo Girls films). Cherbourg Historical Precinct hosts weekly gatherings in the Elders’ Room located in the Boys’ Dormitory Building. Ration Shed Museum facilitators use the visual and audio stories for discussions, reflection and healing.

QLD

Link-Up Qld Aboriginal Corporation

Link-Up (Qld) will hold a Mapoon healing camp near the site of Old Mapoon. The healing camp is for Stolen Generations members and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members who were removed from Old Mapoon by the Queensland Government. The camp will reconnect Stolen Generations with each other and the Mapoon Community. It will include therapeutic activates, singalongs and yarning circles.

NSW

Coota Girls Corporation

The Coota Girls Corporation will host a five-day meeting in Cootamundra to film a tour of the Cootamundra Girls Home to preserve their collective memories of the Home, so these can be shared with descendants and community members.

The Coota Girls Corporation is concerned that incorrect or incomplete accounts are being provided about their collective experiences in the Home and the human rights abuses they experienced under the Aborigines Protection Act 1909-1969. This is important, since full knowledge of human rights abuses is a form of reparations and helps to prevent future violations.

Directors of the Coota Girls Corporation will oversee the planning, filming and editing of the film to ensure it reflects the collective views of survivors.

NSW

Link-Up NSW Aboriginal Corporation

Link-Up NSW Aboriginal Corporation will facilitate a healing camp for up to 50 members of the Stolen Generations, including cultural activities and counselling. This will allow participants to share their stories and reach out to others who have had similar experiences. Participants will also receive free medical checks.

Video recording will also be available during the weekend for those participants who are ready to share their story with the world in the hope that their story could help others in similar situations.

NSW

Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation

This project will include two types of activities:

KBHAC Healing Gathering: A two or three day healing gathering to be held in October 2017 in Kempsey, NSW. This will be open to all KBHAC members and KBH Survivors’ descendants and family members who may not be members at the time of the gathering but who want to participate in the gathering. The purpose of this gathering is to link the KBHAC community to the sites where a KBHAC Healing Centre and KBH Museum will be located and to continue to build relationships with the local Kempsey Aboriginal and non-Indigenous communities.

KBHAC Descendants, Families and Community Healing Workshops: Four two-day healing workshops to be held in four regional areas of NSW. These will be held in communities where there are clusters of KBH Survivors’ descendants and extended family members who have expressed an interest in connecting with KBHAC but who have not had the ability to come to our recent healing gatherings and actively participate in our most recent projects.

WA

The Bringing Them Home Committee WA Inc (BTHCWA)

The project is a continuation of the BTHWA collective healing program staged in 2015-16. The original program stimulated leadership through collective healing in survivors from a range of SW WA missions, Wandering, Marribank, (Carrolup) and Roelands.

This program aims to reclaim the missions as places of healing for Aboriginal people, extend healing through self-leadership, knowledge of culture, history, language and the understanding of the impact of removal and transgenerational trauma to their families.

WA

Kimberly Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation

This program will support Stolen Generations members to come together for healing trips on country, one day excursions and participate in yarning circles. Participants will also have the option to either sell their products, keep them, or make donations to worthy causes. Members will also be encouraged to enter art exhibitions and competitions to promote their personal self-worth.

SA

Nunkuwarrin Yunti of South Australia Inc.

This project engages Stolen Generations community members and their families in the development of a volunteer network.

Stolen Generations members will come together to form strong peer relationships, undertake training, and identify activities in which they would like to influence including in important commemoration events (eg. Sorry Day, NAIDOC), healing camps, men’s and women’s groups, visits to schools and tertiary institutions, and other community events and activities. This will increase self-determination for our Stolen Generations community and ensure their knowledge is shared more broadly.