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Over 1996-2001, there was an estimated difference of approximately 17 years between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous life expectation.[2]

Following the founding of the Swan River Colony in 1829 relations between the British settlers and local Indigenous peoples in Western Australia became characterised by conflict. As a result of fierce fighting,

I was born in May 1964. My Mother and I lived together within an inner suburb of Melbourne. At the age of five and a half months, both my Mother and I became ill. My Mother took me to the Royal Children's Hospital, where I was admitted.

The colony of Moreton Bay was established as a penal outpost of New South Wales in 1825. Extreme violence accompanied the rapid expansion of European settlers, particularly in the north. This violence and the spread of introduced diseases resulted in a rapid decrease in the Indigenous population. Kidnapping Indigenous women and children for economic and sexual exploitation was common.

We always lived by ourselves. Not that we thought we were better than any other Koori family. It's just that the white welfare, if they seen a group of Koori families together, they would step in and take their children away never to be seen again.

‘Finding my Family’, Rooth Wilay Robertson My painting depicts each family member, with all the different skin colours, as puzzle pieces finally all joined up to complete our story.

Copyright © Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Copying is permissible provided acknowledgment is made to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney, April 1999.

The year 2001 marked the tenth anniversary of the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The 5 volumes and 339 recommendations that comprise the national report of Commissioner Johnston remain among the most extensive, frank and devastating examinations of the impact of colonialism on the Indigenous peoples of this country.

My family went to Cherbourg. They volunteered to go there during the Depression. So I would have been about 6 months old when grandfather, who was, I mean, he was independent. He had eight kids all birthed out in the trees you know, under the stars. My mother spoke her own language. She had me with the promise to marry my father. And then when the Depression came they talked to the policeman. He…

Carol's grandmother was removed to Beagle Bay at the age of 10. She and her husband had 10 children. When her husband was transferred to the Derby leprosarium, all ten children were placed in the Beagle Bay dormitories. Carol's mother was 8 years old when she was removed. Carol was born in Broome in the mid-1950s. When she was three, her mother died leaving four children. Although her grandmother…

One is irresistibly reminded of the likening of bureaucratic activity to  the sex life of elephants: much trumpeting, a lot of activity at high level  and no outcome for three years.

When I accessed my file, I found out that the police and the station people at B... Station felt that my mother was looking after me. And they were unsure of why I was being taken away. They actually asked if I could stay there. But because I was light-skinned with a white father, their policy was that I had to be taken away. I was then the third child in a family of, as it turned out to be, 13…

This guide has been produced by the Australian Human Rights Commission to help you participate in the Australian Government’s National Human Rights Consultation.