Speakers at a breakfast commemorating the anniversary of Kevin Rudd's apology to the stolen generations have lamented the lack of action on the bringing them home report, 28 years onward.
Over 60 survivors attended Parliament House on Thursday to commemorate the 17th anniversary of then-Prime Minister Rudd's apology, to continue to "expose the poison" and begin to heal.
Survivor and Kokatha/Mirning woman Yvonne Mills said when the Bringing Them Home report was handed down in 1997, her thoughts turned to what she was told as a child: "Your mother did not want you, so she gave you away."
"Those words haunted me and compounded the trauma I had already experienced."
Ms Mills told the crowd that through the reparation scheme, she only learned the truth about her family in 2018.
"I did not inflict the trauma of separation on myself; and without the immediate and necessary care, meant the trauma was left to take over my life," she said.
"It's just not so easy to simply forget."
The 1997 Bringing Them Home inquiry found "Indigenous families and communities have endured gross violations of their human rights. These violations continue to affect Indigenous people's daily lives."
This week, the Healing Foundation released the Are you waiting for us to die? report, calling for a package of urgent changes to allow the remaining elderly survivors to "live out their days with dignity".
It found only five of the 83 recommendations from the Bringing Them Home inquiry had been implemented, whilst 54 per cent (45) of the recommendations had failed to be implemented.
"Stolen Generation survivors are still waiting for action to be taken," Ms Mills lamented.
Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, said the Healing Foundation reminded everyone that children were still being removed, noting: "I don't like seeing that."
The latest data from the Productivity Commission revealed the number of Indigenous children being removed from homes across the country has continued to rise, which Indigenous experts have previously said is leading Australia down the "path of another Stolen Generation".
"That is important for me in my role," Minister McCarthy said.
"But it is important for me as a Yanyuwa Garrawa woman."
The Senator added her family raised "so many children," because "we know what it is like to when they're raised in a system that we know hurts our families."
Uncle Michael 'Widdy' Welsh was separated from his mother and taken to the notorious Kinchela Boys Home in northern New South Wales at eight-years-old.
He said he wanted everyone to "help us move forward; help up hold this pain in a place where it can no longer function out into the world".
"It will never go away."
He told the attendees, through tears, that he had a grin on his face.
"Thank you for letting me heal myself here today a little bit more," he said.
Speaking to the crowd, Prime Minister and then leader of the house, Anthony Albanese, called the 2008 apology the proudest moment in his parliamentary career.
He said his government was guided by the "instinct to ensure all Australians get the same chance in life. To work towards the reality in which all Australians have power over their destiny".
"And this all began when you – and all survivors – through patience, persistence, and grace at last found your nation was ready to hear your hard truths," Mr Albanese added.
