Sorry Day calls for First Nations children to stay with family

May 28, 2024
Issue 
Outside NSW Parliament to mark Sorry Day. Photo: Zebedee Parkes

Calls to end the removal of Aboriginal children from their families were made at rallies around the country on May 27 to mark Sorry Day and the beginning of Reconciliation Week.

Protesters assembled outside the Western Australian Department of Child Protection (DCP) in Walyup/Fremantle.

The protest was addressed by First Nations leaders including Menang woman of the Noongar Nation Megan Krakouer, Yoorgabilya woman from the Whadjuk Noongar Nation聽Marianne McKay, social justice campaigner Gerry Georgatos and family members of children taken away by DCP.

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Outside the Western Australian Department of Child Protection. Photo: Alex Salmon

In Gadigal Country/Sydney, John Janson-Moore reported that around 100 people assembled outside NSW Parliament.

Speakers included Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, representatives from Grandmothers Against Removals, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Uncle Widdy from the Kinchela Boys Home, Dr Paul Gray from UTS鈥 Jumbunna Research and Elizabeth Jarrett from the Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung, Dunghutti clans.

Children are still being removed, 27 years after the report into the Stolen Generations made more than 50 recommendations that this practice must end.

That report urged policy makers to ensure the laws enforce an understanding that 鈥渃hildren of Indigenous origins have a right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, profess and practice their own religion, and use their own language鈥.

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Gadigal Country/Sydney. Photo: Zebedee Parkes

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Gadigal Country/Sydney. Photo: Zebedee Parkes

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Gadigal Country/Sydney. Photo: Zebedee Parkes

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