As ARIA award winning artist Archie Roach played to the assembled crowd in Sydney's Redfern, with his iconic hit "Took the Children Away," Auntie Lorraine Peeters wiped her eyes.
Aunty Lorraine was taken from her parents as a child, along with her seven siblings, and removed to the Cootamundra Children's Home.
The now mother-of-two can't fathom her own children being taken away, and told SBS news her own experience has made her all the more protective as a parent.
"We remember the abuse: the verbal abuse, the physical abuse, the sexual abuse and the loss of culture that comes with that,” she said. “The effect is massive.”
Aunty Lorraine is one of close to 4000 members of the Stolen Generation who have been engaged in the Healing Foundation, designed to break an intergenerational cycle of trauma and help the community heal after loss.
The Healing Foundation was launched to provide a community-centric approach to repairing the physical and psychological wounds inflicted by the practice of assimilation, which was the motive behind authorities' removal of children from indigenous families until the late 1960's.
The foundation was established as one of 54 recommendations to come from the "Bringing them Home Report," published in 1997.
Healing Foundation Chair, Professor Steve Larkin, told SBS the issue required more federal funding - not solely a moral imperative but an economic priority.
"We're seeing it now with the level of disadvantage across a range of socio-economic indicators,” he said. “There is a disproportionate burden carried by the Aboriginal community. There is a cost to governments, a cost to our community and a cost to the quality of life. I think we need to turn that around and turn that around quickly.”
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The foundation has released a report outlining the positive outcomes that have come from providing culturally-specific counselling and group-based activities to members of the Stolen Generation in the past year.
The report has addressed the need for ongoing support into the issue, with reference to Indigenous children representing 35 per cent of children living in care.
"The current generation of Indigenous children aren't being taken from their homes for the same reasons - say for assimilation, as in the old days - but it is still a result of that past trauma," Mr Larkin said.
On Thursday, a procession marched across the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra, wielding placards and chanting, "Bring our children home".
Members of the Lakemba-based Lebanese Muslim Association joined in solidarity, showing their support.
LMA president Samier Dandan said it was vital for all Muslim Australians to take action where children were involved.
"We must work towards understanding and respecting their history. Our work must be translated into action and we must support their causes for justice, fairness and equality," he said.
Some findings paint a similar picture to the recently released Closing the Gap report, which identified vast over representation of Indigenous Australians in the prison system and in foster care.
