Calls for billion-dollar Indigenous compensation fund
Australia can afford to set up a billion-dollar compensation fund for members of the Stolen Generation, says an independent candidate from the last federal election.
Maurie Japarta Ryan, who ran as an independent in the Northern Territory seat of Lingiari, says he was removed from his family when he was a child and was taken to a church run institution. He says he's lost his identity, culture and language as a result.
He has described Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as a "shallow person" for promising an apology while refusing to offer compensation.
"When something is committed against you, you get paid restitution," he said.
"Australia can afford it. It will go through the process of healing because most of that money will go through to the children and grandchildren.
"This country's wealth comes off the back of blacks - their land and the sea, the minerals inside it.
"This country is worth literally billions and billions, gazillions of dollars. But what have Aboriginal people got out of it? What has the Stolen Generation mob got out of it?
"This is about human life, about people being taken away for only one reason - they were born brown."
Mr Ryan wants the Territory's Indigenous politicians - including acting Chief Minister Marion Scrymgour - to take the issue to their federal counterparts.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/080110/21/15hc6.html
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