Local woman Aunty Mary Hooker was among those in Parliament when Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivered the national apology to survivors and victims of institutional child sexual abuse, which she said needs to be backed up by action.
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Her story also formed the basis of Member for Calare Andrew Gee’s speech to Parliament in the days following.
“At the apology I was given accounts of abuse so cruel and degrading that they are difficult to comprehend,” he said. “I was privileged to spend time with Aunty Mary Hooker, a proud Bundjalung woman who lives just outside Mudgee. One of the stolen generations, at age 12 Aunty Mary was told that she was going on a two-week holiday, she was in fact forcibly removed from her family.
“During that time, aged just 13 years, she was sent to the now infamous Parramatta Girls Training School. What went on at that place was revealed during the royal commission, at which Aunty Mary gave evidence, the horrific nature of those crimes appalled the nation. She also gave evidence of the abuse she suffered at Ormond Training School, Thornleigh, in 1971, prior to being sent to Parramatta. The evidence of the royal commission told a story of abject cruelty, degradation, criminality and a total abrogation of the state's duty of care to these vulnerable young children.
“I asked her how, having been through those experiences, she was able to carry on. She replied that, as a Christian, she was able to look into her heart and find forgiveness. 'The hatred that you have inside you can eat you up and destroy you,' she said. 'Forgiveness was like a weight lifting from my shoulders.' She has a generosity of spirit that is very rare, she's an inspiration.”
This apology wasn’t Aunty Mary’s first, indeed a decade ago was there for the apology to the stolen generations, and she hopes it wasn’t just words she heard. “It was very overwhelming, as you can imagine, but I’ve been to four apologies now and how long does the Government need to keep apologising to us. What needs to happen now is they need to put the words that they spoke about into action,” she said.
And she used her opportunity with the Prime Minister to talk about for the need for all states to join the National Redress Scheme. “The good thing that came out of it is that in 12 months the states will have to report back to the Parliament on progress and how many people have been compensated, so they will have to be accountable,” she said.
