00:00Behind each of these faces is a harrowing story.
00:07I was 17. You don't know where your baby is, you haven't seen your baby. No one comes to visit you. No flowers.
00:16I was 50 years old when I received a phone call to tell me that, along with my brother, I was also adopted.
00:24I only found out four years ago that I was Aboriginal.
00:28From the late 1930s to the early 80s, tens of thousands of babies were removed from their mainly unmarried young mothers.
00:36Now in the WA Parliament, some recognition of their trauma.
00:40Consent was not freely given because women were isolated, disempowered, pressured, coerced and threatened.
00:48The landmark WA Parliamentary Inquiry received more than 200 submissions.
00:54Its final report makes 39 recommendations, including financial redress and specialised counselling for mothers, adopted people and some fathers.
01:04I'm very pleased for the suggestion that he would like to see redress for adoptees.
01:10It's just such an amazing feeling. I feel like everything that I've gone through has been worth it.
01:19If all of the recommendations in this report are enacted, Western Australia will have the strongest compensation in the country for people affected by forced adoption.
01:29Victoria has the first redress scheme, but there, only mothers are eligible.
01:33Whatever we can do as a community to continue to support those mothers who have relinquished their children under very complex and difficult circumstances, I think we should take the opportunities to support them.
01:44Survivors don't want to see the report gather dust.
01:48We need to move quickly, otherwise people are not going to see justice in their lifetime and they deserve justice after the cruelties they've experienced.
01:58The Government is expected to respond to the inquiry within two months.
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