Stolen Generations survivors are experiencing significantly worse health, wellbeing and financial outcomes than other First Nations people, with a new report warning of the continuing impact of forced removal on survivors and their descendants.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) analysis, commissioned by the Healing Foundation and released on Tuesday, found survivors were 2.7 times as likely as other First Nations people of the same age to have a severe or profound disability and 1.7 times as likely to have been admitted to hospital in the previous 12 months.
The report found survivors were also 1.5 times as likely to report going without money for basic living expenses and 1.5 times as likely to say they could not raise $2,000 in an emergency.
The disparity was even greater when survivors were compared with non-Indigenous Australians.
They were six times as likely to have kidney disease, 4.8 times as likely to have a severe or profound disability, 3.9 times as likely to report high psychological distress and three times as likely to report poor or fair self-assessed health.
The AIHW found survivors were also 2.1 times as likely to be in the bottom three income deciles and 4.6 times as likely to live in overcrowded housing.
The report comes as the survivor population ages. All identified survivors in the latest analysis are aged 50 and over, while around one-third are aged 65 and over. About 23,300 First Nations people aged 50 and over were estimated to have been removed from their families as children in 2022–23.
Acting CEO of the Healing Foundation, Leonie Williamson, a Gubbi Gubbi, Gamilaroi and Butchulla woman also descended from North West Queensland, said the findings added to decades of evidence about the consequences of forced removal.
“The AIHW analysis is the most recent evidence about the socioeconomic outcomes of Stolen Generations survivors and descendants,” she said.
“It reinforces that what resulted from these forced removals from family, community, culture, and in many cases, the resulting abuse and neglect has a deep, long and lifelong effect.”
Williamson said the ageing survivor population had an urgent need for support, including culturally appropriate aged care and mental health services.
“Survivors need better aged care, they need better social services, they need social and emotional wellbeing and mental health supports, including localised culturally based healing support offered by Stolen Generations organisations,” she said.
The report also highlights the continuing impact on descendants.
Almost 200,000 First Nations adults were estimated to have a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, aunt or uncle who was removed from their family as a child.
Compared with other First Nations people, descendants were 1.3 times as likely to report high psychological distress and 1.3 times as likely to have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. They were also 1.5 times as likely to report difficulties accessing government services and 1.2 times as likely to have days without enough money for basic living expenses.
Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, the gaps were larger still, with descendants 4.5 times as likely to have kidney disease, three times as likely to have diabetes and 2.5 times as likely to experience high psychological distress.
Williamson said the effects of removal could not be considered solely in terms of the people who were taken from their families.
“The report tells us that nearly half of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population are descendants. That's around 200,000 people from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population,” she said.
“What we see there are continuing experiences of psychological distress and areas like financial hardship continue through the generations.”
She said governments needed to consider Stolen Generations survivors and descendants in areas including social and emotional wellbeing, suicide prevention and economic prosperity.
The findings come almost 30 years after the 1997 Bringing Them Home report, which documented the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and made 54 recommendations aimed at addressing the harm caused by the policies.
The Healing Foundation has repeatedly called for those recommendations to be acted on.
Its 2025 report, Are You Waiting for Us to Die? The unfinished business of Bringing them home, found just six per cent of the recommendations had been clearly implemented.
The report called for a National Healing Package, including culturally safe and trauma-informed aged care and health services, equitable redress, prioritised access to records and greater investment in Stolen Generations organisations.
This year, the organisation released From Sorry to Action, a two-year plan setting out practical steps for governments and services across health and ageing, records and redress, education and research, sector support, and governance and accountability.
Williamson said the plan was intended to provide immediate action while recognising that healing from the effects of forced removal would take much longer.
“Intergenerational healing will take much more,” she said.
The Healing Foundation has written to the Australian Government and state and territory governments calling for them to work with the organisation on change ahead of the 30th anniversary of Bringing Them Home in May 2027.
“We believe that governments are listening, but we're coming very quickly, you know, to the time for action,” Williamson said.
The AIHW said the latest findings showed the need for culturally safe and trauma-informed health, aged care and social services, alongside stronger mental health and social and emotional wellbeing support for survivors.
For descendants, it said the findings supported accessible, culturally safe and trauma-informed services that could help people navigate health, disability, community and government services.
For the Healing Foundation, the latest evidence adds to a body of research and testimony that has been warning of the same problems for decades.
Williamson said the evidence was now clear about the need for action.
“There's a huge need there and this is a need that we've known about for years,” she said.
