SGV Newsletter Edition FOUR

8
outh Australia’s Supreme Court has made a landmark decision to award compensation totalling
$525,000 to Stolen Generations member Mr Bruce
Trevorrow.
Mr Trevorrow, 50, took legal action in South Australia’s Supreme Court claiming that his removal
from his family as a baby lead to his depression, alcoholism and severing his connection to his family,
community and cultural identity.
Justice Tom Gray found the state had breached its
duty of care to Mr Trevorrow and that it had dealt
with him `’without lawful authority’'.
Congratulations, Bruce, on this groundbreaking
win!
S
Landmark Compensation Case
Helps Restore the Balance
In South Australia
Artwork Credit: Our beautiful border artwork has been supplied to us by
Howard ‘Chocko’ Edwards. Thanks
Chock! Too deadly!
Image Credits: All pictures in this
publication were taken by Bryan Andy
and Simone Andy, and Peter Ellis at the
Carnival in Shepparton.
www.stolengenerationsvictoria.org.au
34 Wurruk Avenue
PRESTON Victoria
Phone: (03) 9470 4377
Fax: (03) 9470 3499
Victoria Ltd
Stolen Generations
The next edition of our Newsletter will be released in the New
Year. If you would like to offer an
article or perhaps some pictures
for our next edition please call our
office on the number below.
Contributions to this newsletter
by members of the Stolen Generations are most welcome.
WELCOMED
CONTRIBUTIONS
W
hat a busy time we
have had since our
last newsletter of late June!
This fourth edition of our
newsletter is the first that
comes direct from our new
premises in Preston!
SGV has been fortunate
enough to secure the former
VACCA building at 34
Wurruk Avenue, Preston.
We now have more space
to engage with our clients
and to expand on our services. Moving is never an
easy thing to do and I must
take this opportunity to
sincerely thank the Ellis
mob who helped make our
shift a much easier experience. They did a fantastic
job.
We encourage all members and friends to pop into
the office for a cup of tea to
SGV Chairperson Lyn Austin
A Message from the
Chair
www.stolengenerationsvictoria.org.au
Stolen Generations
Victoria Ltd
•
•
•
Continued on page 2…
envisaged that an Indigenous person could then be
mentored into this role over
the twelve month period.
Since our last newsletter,
and while we have been reviewing and re-establishing
the SGV organisation, we
have been using a number
of casual staff to assist in
the smooth running of our
office and board meetings. I
would therefore like to
thank Peter Ellis, Ann
Wright, Graeme Kelly, Rebekah Ellis, Jade Johnson
and Nathaniel Ellis (better
known as ‘Fin’) who have
worked with us over the
past months.
In this edition is a report
from our NAIDOC Event
along with a few pictures
from other NAIDOC events
that our staff attended as
Landmark Stolen Generations Compensation result in SA
SGV’s NAIDOC Event
2007 Indigenous Sports Carnival
…and plenty more!
In this edition…
see our ‘new’ space.
We have been excited by
the news that Stolen Generations member Mr Bruce
Trevorrow was awarded
compensation from South
Australia’s Supreme Court.
As many of you are aware,
we have been without a
CEO since June this year.
The SGV Board agreed at
its November Board meeting, to accept an offer from
Aboriginal Affairs Victoria
for an experienced general
manager from the public
service to be seconded to
act as CEO for Stolen Generations. This person would
work closely with a community staff member and
the community as a whole
to ensure that SGV provides services and support
to the community. It was
Issue Four
December 2007
‘Restoring to us
what is rightfully ours’
2
part of the week as well as
information from Aboriginal Affairs Victoria about
the allocation of funds to
Stolen Generations services
and support.
On the 9 November SGV
held a joint BBQ with Link
Up at Edwards Lake. It was
a good day thanks especially to our elders Aunty
Alice Thomas, Aunty Winnie Green, Aunty Maria
Starcevic , Aunty Shirley,
and Ian Hamm from Aboriginal Affairs Victoria
(AAV) who attended, and
also to Buster and Bear for
providing music and entertainment. Thanks too to the
Link Up and SGV staff who
attended and organised the
day. Although attendance
numbers were relatively
small, those who did attend
had an enjoyable time. We
look forward to further
community events in the
New Year.
On 5 December three SGV
Board members, Lyn Austin, Daphne Milward and
Jim Kennan, met with the
Victorian Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, The Honourable Richard Wynne. We
were pleased to have the
opportunity to raise a number of issues with him and
the meeting began with
Daphne giving an overview
of current status of the organisation and Lyn reporting on feedback from SGV
members and the community. The following points
were taken from the meeting:
• Minister
strongly supports SGV and the actions
being taken to strengthen
the organisation over the
next twelve months. He
stated that we will need to
achieve positive outcomes
in this time for Stolen
Generation members.
• Minister supports restructuring SGV and considering re-registering it as a
cooperative. This was supported by the board members as it would enable
more Indigenous people to
come onto the board
• The Minister advised that
he has had talks with the
Minister for Families,
Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, in
relation to an apology to
Stolen Generations members.
• Minister indicated that he
would like to see as many
SGV members as possible
attend the apology in Parliament in Canberra. SGV
will need to come up with
…Message from the Chair continued from page 1
some recommendations as
to how we could do this.
• Minister advised that the
Victorian Government
supported practical responses to Stolen Generation members’ needs as
advised by the Victorian
Indigenous Stolen Generations Taskforce Report.
I look forward to keeping
you informed of further
progress. The apology will
be a historic occasion for
this country and internationally. We hope and will
work hard to ensure that
SGV has a strong presence.
I sincerely hope that you
enjoy this edition of the
newsletter. If you have any
contributions (stories, pictures, artwork) that you
would like to offer our future publications please
contact our office.
The SGV office will be
closed from Friday 14 December 2007 until Monday
14 January next year. We
hope that all SGV members
and supporting members
have a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year.
Best wishes to all for the
holiday season from myself,
the Board of Directors, and
staff.
Happy reading!
Blue skies, banners and Blackfullas
at the 2007 Melbourne NAIDOC
March.
The super-talented Nikki
Ashby from the Hip-Hop
Movement Crew dances up
at storm and shares her
deadly skills at the Victorian
Indigenous Youth Advisory
Council’s Art Exhibition at
the Aborigines Advancement
League.
3KND’s Rio Ellis and Lionel Austin broadcasting
LIVE from the ACES Elders Breakfast.
Dancer John
wows the crowd
At Fed Square.
Victoria Celebrates!
Looking Forward, Looking Black
NAIDOC 2007
7
SGV’s Policy & Education Officer
Bryan Andy with Ms NAIDOC Jolene
Ryan and Mr NAIDOC Mali Ingram
at the front of the Victorian
Aboriginal Health Service, getting
ready to walk the streets as part of
the 2007 Melbourne NAIDOC
March.
Serving up smiles and breakfast,
Jaynaya Charles and Jason Tamiru
at the ACES Elders Breakfast.
St Paul’s decorated with a ‘Make
Indigenous Poverty History’ banner.
N
6
AIDOC Week 2007
saw thousands of people from across the country
pay respect to the vibrancy
and survival of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islanders
in our country. Under the
national theme ‘Looking
Forward, Looking Black’,
Victoria celebrated NAIDOC 2007 with over sixty
events throughout the state.
Stolen Generations Victoria teamed up with the folks
at the Public Record Office
Victoria, the State Library of
Victoria, National Archives
Australia, Link Up Victoria
and the Koorie Heritage
Trust to run a half-day forum on the importance of
records and archives to Aboriginal communities.
The event was attended by
over sixty people and gave
useful tips on researching
resources in each of the
represented institutions.
Eva Jo Edwards from SGV
gave a fantastic presentation
about the importance of
archival records to members
of the Stolen Generations.
She also spoke of how SGV
assists its members in
tracing family and accessing
records with the help of
agencies like the Koorie
Heritage Trust and PROV.
Congratulations must go
to Simon Flagg from the
Public Record Office Victoria for spearheading such a
successful, informative and
well-attended event.
SGV Client Support Officer Eva Jo
Edwards talks about SGV’s role at
the workshop .
PROV’s Simon Flagg welcomes the workshop participants and talks about
the types of archival resources and searching assistance available through
PROV.
SGV Chair Lyn Austin opens the SGV
workshop presentation and .
Discovering Your Past
Through Records
NAIDOC 2007
S
tolen Generations Victoria (SGV) was the first
organisation of its kind to be
set up in Australia. The organisation was established in
response to the Human
Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Report,
Bringing Them Home and as
part of the Victorian Government’s A Fairer Victoria social
policy statement.
Since May 2006 when the
organisation became fully
operational, SGV has provided the community with a
range of services to help raise
awareness about the stolen
generation and to provide
healing and support to stolen
generation members and
their families.
SGV has an important formal partnership with Link
Up.
SGV has also worked in
partnership with AAV and
the Public Record Office of
Victoria to improve access to
Indigenous Victorian Records. Specifically, the Records Office was provided
with $200,000 to:
• finalise guidelines to Indigenous Victorian personal,
family and community records;
• assist Government and
non Government organisations preserve and index stolen generation records; and
cultural awareness training for record management staff.
The Koorie Family History
Service was also provided
funding to assist clients find
out about their family tree
and to provide information
kits to community members.
SGV is continuing their
work in mapping the range
of existing services to support stolen generation members and their families with a
view to providing a comprehensive guide to services.
To better understand and
address the issues of separation across generations, SGV
has also started work on an
education program that will
inform policy development
and assist access to current
support services.
SGV will continue to work
in partnership with the community, Link Up, Bringing
them Home Workers and
Government to help and support members of the stolen
generation and their families.
To date specific Stolen
Generation initiatives funded
include:
• $125,000 available for a
range of one-off grants of up
to $25,000 per project to be
provided to BTH workers
and Link Up to manage a
Stolen Generations service
delivery oriented initiative;
• provide
Stolen Generations Victoria
The Organisation
A Proud Achievement
3
to Public Record
Office Victoria for the print
production of Footprints: The
Journey of Lucy and Percy Pepper’s Fascinating Life
• $50,000 to the Koorie
Heritage Trust for the Koorie
Family History Service and
Information Kit;
•$200,000 to the Public Record Office of Victoria;
• $30,000 to auspice Sorry
Day activities each year;
• $20,000 for a Link-up project;
• $30,000 to the Koorie
Heritage Trust for a digital
archiving project; and
• $30,000 to update the service mapping exercise undertaken by the Victorian Stolen
Generations Taskforce in
2003.
This financial year SGV will
be focussing on the follow
key activities:
• building Indigenous capacity by establishing and
supporting Stolen Generation support groups;
• identifying opportunities
for increasing access to
therapeutic services such as
group counselling;
• service co-ordination; and
• education
and public
awareness.
In addition, the Victorian
Government funds other services for members of the Stolen Generation, for example,
the Koorie Family History
Service at the Koorie Heritage Trust received funding
to assist community members to access family and cultural information.
• $25,000
4
ello Everyone
In October I was
asked to fill in for Lyn Austin, our Chairperson of SGV
at the 2007 Indigenous
Sports Carnival at Shepparton to talk to people about
the organisation, hand out
newsletters and membership forms, and to select the
best and fairest player of
the Melbourne Warriors
Football Team throughout
the carnival.
It was explained to me
that SGV supported the
H
though I don’t know that
much about the rules of the
game — but I’m a good barracker! Everything was going alright for the first game
and I had my eye on someone who I thought played
really well.
The Melbourne Warriors after their final match for the season
Melbourne Warriors as
quite a few of the team
members were either from
the stolen generation or
were children of stolen generation members.
I thought this would not
be too hard a task even
2007 Indigenous Sports Carnival
A Brilliant Event
Shepparton
The second game, however, presented some problems as there were not
enough guernseys for every
player, so as one player
came off he gave his guernsey to the player going on
in his place. This got a bit
confusing after a while, but
I found a new way of keeping on eye on the players
who I thought stood out.
They had different coloured shorts to the rest of
the team, so they couldn’t
change these!
In the end I couldn’t
make up my mind between
Eric Edwards and Ross
Dadds, so they both were
chosen as the Best and
Fairest of the Melbourne
Warriors team and received the trophy presented by the Stolen Generations Victoria Organisation for 2007.
Unfortunately the Melbourne Warriors just
missed out on getting into
the Grand Final. I thought
the team played really well
considering they were not
as well equipped as some
of the other teams. I hope
this can be rectified before
the next carnival.
Congratulations to Mick
Edwards and Rieo Ellis
and other members of the
organising team for their
efforts in getting the football team together. Well
done!
I was also privileged to
The carnival gives Indigenous people from
across the state the opportunity to meet, compete
and especially to catch up
with family and friends. It
gave me the opportunity to
do this and to talk to everyone about the Stolen Generations Organisation.
I hope that SGV will
continue to be involved in
the carnival as it is one way
of contributing to the
health and wellbeing of our
members and all people
from the stolen generations.
Daphne Milward
5
Daphne Milward, selector of Best and Fairest and Rieo Ellis, manager
of the Melbourne Warriors
be asked to present the trophies to the winning teams
in both sections of the carnival and some other trophies as well. One of these
was presented to Eric Edwards for overall best
player for his section, so my
choice of Eric as one of the
recipients of the SGV trophy was endorsed.
This was my first Indigenous Sports Carnival, so I
did not know what to expect. I was pleasantly impressed at how well organised the whole carnival was
over the two days and congratulate the organisers.