INTRODUCTION

There are numerous examples that may be drawn from around the globe that attest to the desirability, indeed the necessity, for nations to take responsibility for injustices which form part of their history. Although Thompson affirms that ‘historical obligations and entitlements do exist and are of considerable moral importance’, there continues to be ambiguity and uncertainty as to why certain past actions are deemed to be worthy of reparations while others are not. Within Australia, the issue which has been aligned most consistently with the international move towards reparations, is that of the ‘stolen generations’. The phrase itself was first coined by historian Peter Read in 1970 and is used to describe those Indigenous children who were removed from their families throughout Australia in the period between 1910 and 1970, in terms of government policies. During this time the various State legislatures were implementing a policy of assimilation, that was intended to remove any trace of the Indigenous Australian population. While there were explicit legislative provisions that allowed government authorities to exercise control over Aboriginal children, Chesterman makes the point that the policy was implemented also through the application of existing child welfare provisions that were not explicitly racially based.

Without in any way diminishing the enduring horror of these government policies for Indigenous Australians, it is important to reflect that this is but one example of many historical injustices perpetrated against Indigenous Australians following white settlement. While the impact of this particular atrocity upon somewhere in the vicinity of 50 000 individuals and their extended families was profound, it is only part of a broader story of dispossession and appropriation. Despite limited ameliorative measures such as the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth), that followed the Mabo judgment, there has not been any comprehensive redress for the injustices that followed the dispossession of traditional lands from Indigenous Australians. The destruction of aspects of Indigenous culture that commenced in the colonial period and continues to this day, has similarly remained unaddressed, with only limited protection afforded to Aboriginal cultural property, sites and objects While these claims are no less valid, it has been the removal of the ‘stolen generations’ that has assumed particular significance. This atrocity has become the embodiment of the dispossession and abuse suffered by Indigenous Australians.