Stolen Generations survivors and their descendants continue to experience poorer health, wellbeing and financial outcomes than other Indigenous Australians, almost thirty years since the Bringing Them Home report.
The analysis from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) indicates 23,300 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50 and over were Stolen Generations survivors in 2022-23, equivalent to one in seven Indigenous Australians in that age group.
Survivors are also an ageing population, with about one-third aged 65 or over.
Professor Steve Larkin, Board Chair of the Healing Foundation, an organisation amplifying the voices of Stolen Generations survivors and their families, says the analysis added to existing evidence about the ongoing impacts of forced removal policies.
"Stolen Generations survivors, like all Australians, want healthy and happy futures for themselves and their families," the Kungarakan man said.
"But as this data shows, they continue to experience significantly poorer health, wellbeing and socioeconomic outcomes, and descendants are living with very clear intergenerational effects."
Gap within a Gap
The report, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations survivors and descendants: updated analyses for 2022-23, was commissioned by the Healing Foundation and is the latest in a series examining the circumstances faced by survivors and descendants.
Often described as a "Gap within the Gap", it shows survivors face significant health disparities.
Compared with other Indigenous Australians, survivors were 2.7 times as likely to have a severe or profound disability, 1.7 times as likely to have been admitted to hospital in the previous year, 1.9 times as likely to report high psychological distress and 1.6 times as likely to have a mental or behavioural condition.
The disparities were also pronounced when survivors were compared with non-Indigenous Australians.
Survivors 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.
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"Many survivors and descendants of the Stolen Generations continue to experience significant challenges across multiple aspects of life including health, disability, psychological wellbeing and financial security," said AIHW spokesperson Dr Martin Edvardsson.
The AIHW cautioned that measuring the circumstances of survivors through existing data sources could become increasingly difficult as the population ages.
"Understanding the needs of Stolen Generations survivors through the existing data sources will be increasingly challenging as survivors grow older and become less well represented in household surveys," Dr Edvardsson said.
"Data development work involving administrative data may be needed to inform service delivery and policy programs."
It mirrors the comments from former Healing Foundation CEO Shannan Dodson, who told National Indigenous Times earlier this year that many survivors are growing older and are moving into aged care.
"We know that most survivors are now eligible for aged care and are aging, and there's some real risk of re-traumatisation through the aged care system, as well as what that sort of holistic support looks like in terms of social-emotional well-being and health," she said.
Descendants experiencing intergenerational effects
The AIHW analysis also found poorer outcomes among descendants of Stolen Generations survivors.
About half of Indigenous Australians aged 18 and over were descendants of the Stolen Generations in 2022-23.
Compared with other Indigenous Australians, descendants were 1.3 times as likely to report high psychological distress, 1.2 times as likely to have experienced days without money for basic living expenses and 1.3 times as likely to have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.
Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, descendants were 2.6 times as likely to have a severe or profound disability, 2.5 times as likely to report high psychological distress and twice as likely to not currently be employed.
"The data tells us that this is a contemporary policy issue, not a historical one," Professor Larkin said.
"Survivors are still with us; they are ageing and require urgent access to culturally safe support in aged care, social services, health and wellbeing."
Still a lack of progress
There has been criticism over the lack of progress made by successive governments for survivors.
Released in 1997, the 680-page Bringing Them Home report traced the laws and policies that led to the forced removal of Aboriginal children, finding that between one in three and one in 10 Indigenous children were taken from their families and communities between 1910 and 1970.
The report made 83 recommendations aimed at supporting healing and reconciliation for the Stolen Generations, their families and the broader Australian community.
Twenty-nine years after the landmark inquiry, only five recommendations have been fully implemented.
Earlier this year, [Healing Foundation launched] Sorry to Action: A Plan to Act on Bringing Them Home (2026-2028), aimed at holding governments and departments accountable for failing to implement the Bringing Them Home recommendations.
"This is not the responsibility of one or of [the] current government," Ms Dodson said at the time. "It's also the responsibility of successive governments and past governments that haven't acted in the last 30 years."
