What were the findings of “Bringing Them Home”?
The report is 689 pages long. It concluded: ‘Indigenous children have been forcibly removed from their families and communities since the very first days of the European occupation of Australia. In that time, not one Indigenous family has escaped the effects.’ It also concluded that forcible removal was an act of genocide contrary to the Convention on Genocide ratified by Australia in 1949. This Convention specifically includes ‘forcibly transferring children of (a) group to another group with the intention of destroying the group.’ To overcome the continuing harmful consequences of these policies, the report made 54 recommendations. These included apologies by State and Federal authorities, and measures for restitution, rehabilitation and monetary compensation. It proposed the establishment of centres for the study and preservation of Indigenous languages, culture and history, and for family tracing/reunion services and the protection of records. Rehabilitation measures included couns
