Stolen Generations survivor shares her story on National Sorry Day, calls for WA and Queensland to compensate

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Today is National Sorry Day. A day to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly removed from their communities, now known as the Stolen Generations. Warlpiri woman Angelique Wittwer was taken from her family in the remote Northern Territory community of Lajamanu. She was only able to travel to meet them later in life, thanks to a compensation payment from the territory's redress scheme. The Healing Foundation is urging the only two states without a redress scheme - WA and Queensland - to also compensate survivors.

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00:00Not having that knowledge meant that I was unable to connect properly.

00:17It made me feel not right. What's the word? Opposite to genuine.

00:30Because yes, I'm Aboriginal, I can say that, but then you dig a bit deeper.

00:36I don't know where I'm from. I don't know my language.

00:40I don't know my family, my family tree. I know nothing.

00:45And now you know where you're from. Who are you?

00:48Yes, I do. I do know where I'm from now. I'm Jill. I'm also Angelique.

00:56And I'm also Atunjali, which means, you know, the first born.

01:04And incredibly, my mother never had children after me. That's how much she earned for me.

01:13And who did you meet when you went back to community and what did you do when you first got back?

01:19We went with Linkup for the first time. We met my cousin.

01:24My mother had another sister and another brother. Well, they passed on since then. But their children, that's who met us at the airport.

01:39And what was their reaction to having you guys there?

01:42Oh, well, they were just, they just absorbed us into themselves, you know. They just hugged us and cried and said,

01:54we've always heard about you, but we never knew where you were.

01:59We could have never have done it without that financial help because it's just so far.

02:05If my community was just up the coast, no problems. We'd go there all the time.

02:11But because it's so remote, it's just out in the sticks, you know. And so that financial help was a real great help. Yeah.

02:24I really appreciated that. Everyone should have some sort of financial help.

02:30Those organisations or schemes have their own prerequisites. And I'm grateful that I was one of the fortunate ones.

02:42And I feel so sad for those who have been missed out.

02:46Because, you know, one person is not as, is not more important than another.

02:52You know, they've all gone through pain and sorrow. Yeah.

03:00You know, they've all gone through pain.

03:16You know, we're all gone through pain.

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