Stolen Generations survivors in the Northern Territory are suing the federal government for their forcible removal from family over more than 60 years.
Shine Lawyers on Wednesday said in a statement it would take on the case, with up to 6,000 Indigenous Australians eligible to join the class action, which has been filed in the NSW Supreme Court.
Special counsel Tristan Gaven, who will legally represent the group, said most states had taken steps to compensate stolen generation survivors but no such action had occurred in NT.
Compensation will be sought for the forced removal of Indigenous Australians from their families between 1910 and the 1970s.
"It's impossible to improve the future without acknowledging the past," Mr Gaven said.
"The Commonwealth was responsible for tearing apart Indigenous families in the Territory and it's up to the Commonwealth to make amends."
Litigation Lending Services, who are financing the class action, said the injustice of the NT stolen generations has yet to be resolved.
LLS director Warren Mundine, who is also on the SBS board, said in a statement: “If this was to happen today, there would be serious public global outrage and criminal charges laid on all involved for these barbaric acts.”
“The government needs to acknowledge that First Nations People will never know what life might have been like if this tragic theft of innocence and identity didn’t occur.”
The case follows consultation with affected NT community members and the resolution of another First Nations class action against the Queensland Government in 2019 on behalf of affected Indigenous people in QLD, which LLS also supported.
'Our stories have to be told'
Eighty-four-year-old Heather Alley is part of the class action.
She was nine years old when she was forcibly removed from her mother.
“I loved my mother and when she passed away, it took me 30 years to find the strength to even say her name. That’s how much the loss of her shook me,” she said.
“In my 84 years, I think I only ever got to spend eight with her, and she was a good woman who loved me dearly.”
Ms Alley was born at Roper River Mission, near Mataranka in the NT, and was taken in 1924 to Mulgoa, west of Sydney.
She eventually found her way back to the NT and was placed into a hostel in Alice Springs. While there, Ms Alley said she was flogged for no reason.
“I couldn’t understand why this was allowed to happen and I was very broken for many years,” she said.
Ms Alley and her daughter have tried to trace her ancestry without any luck. She said she joined the class action because “our stories have to be told”.
“My mother never knew her mother. [Governments have] wiped away entire generations, like they never existed,” she said.
A spokesperson for Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on a legal matter before the courts.
Additional reporting by Evan Young.
