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           Shipping Stevedoring Port Services Hydrocarbons Diving  Jul-Aug 2008        |
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Union funds memorial for stolen generationCall to campaign for Aboriginal Rights in parliamentBy MUA news
The Sydney Childrens' Hospital, Westmead, today opened a garden in memory of Aboriginal children taken from their families in one of the darker chapters in the nation's history. But the memorial would not have gone ahead without the union's financial support. MUA branch officials Jim Boyle, Newcastle, and Paul McAleer, Sydney, attended the opening ceremony of the garden this morning. "During the Stolen Generation years, when Aboriginal children were forceably taken from their parents and brought up in white households, hospitals too played a part, often inadvertantly handing children over to authorities," said Jim Boyle, MUA NNSW branch secretary. "When the hospital ran out of funds to complete the garden,the MUA stepped forward to ensure it was finished," he said. The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Paul Lynch acknowledged the MUA's role during the official opening this morning. The garden design is the hospital's apology plaque to Aboriginal families and is dedicated to Aborginal children who died at both Camperdown and Westmead hospitals as well as those who were taken from their families and communities. Howard Government's Stolen Generation Meanwhile ACOSS have a email campaign set up to send messages to MPs (see link below) on the need for child protection legislation to involve proper consultation with indigenous peoples and indigenous communities. The campaign is calling for effective and proven strategies to stop Aboriginal child abuse and to end indigenous disadvantage. The Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the NT (CAO), representing over 40 Aboriginal organisations, encourage Australians to support them by sending a message to their Federal Member of Parliament. Please click through to send a message to your MP. Visit http://www.acoss.org.au/Action.aspx
For further information
Public Campaigns: You can view MUA's publicly available campaign information in a variety of ways. Please select one of our public campaigns indexes. |
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This page: http://mua.org.au/campaigns/general/aboriginalchildren.html Site proudly designed and engineered by Social Change Online |
© 2001 Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) |
