Two years ago the federal government promised $50 million dollars in compensation to the descendants of stolen generations survivors in recognition of their intergenerational trauma. They're yet to see a single cent with the firm Shine Lawyers still determining who is entitled to payments. They now say that process is adding to their trauma and leaving them in limbo. WARNING: This story contains images of people who have died.
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00:00 For ever a blight on Australian history, many stories from the Stoolen generations remain
00:07 untold.
00:08 They lost their culture, they lost language, they were abused.
00:12 If they wet the bed, they would be thrown down the well and left there for a day or
00:17 day and a night.
00:19 And the trauma left behind is still felt deeply by the children of survivors.
00:25 They were copying what the priests did to them, especially the old ones in our family,
00:32 we got a good flogging.
00:34 They didn't have much life skills, they didn't know how to love and to show love.
00:39 In 2022, the federal government promised $50 million in compensation through a class action
00:46 to 2,000 descendants in recognition of their intergenerational trauma.
00:51 But not a cent has yet been paid out by their legal firm Shine Lawyers, even though its
00:56 plan to divide up the money was agreed in court more than a year ago.
01:01 What our parents went through, I think it's come onto us as well and Shine is now making
01:07 it worse.
01:08 Well it's been over nearly 16 months now, I think we're all frustrated.
01:14 Shine Lawyers told the ABC four months ago, payments to claimants would start in early
01:20 2024, but now says it will be in late June or July.
01:25 The firm says it's continuing to determine the eligibility of a large number of registrations.
01:31 How much longer it's going to take and how many of us are going to pass away.
01:35 Many stolen generation survivors had died by the time the Commonwealth's territories
01:40 redress scheme was established in 2021.
01:44 Now some of their descendants also fear missing out in compensation from a class action settlement.
01:50 That they helped to win.
01:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]