Aboriginal wins Australia lawsuit

Aboriginal activists renewed demands for an official government apology to Australia's "stolen generation" on Thursday, the day after a court handed down a massive award to an Aboriginal man taken from his family as a baby.

The South Australian Supreme Court ordered its own state government on Wednesday to pay Bruce Trevorrow $448,000 for damages caused when he was taken from his parents without their knowledge 50 years ago. He is the first Aborigine to be compensated by a court.

From 1910 until the 1970s, around 100,000 mostly mixed-blood Aboriginal children were taken from their parents under state and federal laws based on a premise that Aborigines were a doomed race and saving the children was a humane alternative.

A 1997 national inquiry into the stolen generation found that many children taken from their families suffered long-term psychological effects stemming from the loss of family and culture. It recommended that state and federal authorities apologize and pay compensation to those removed from their families.

Prime Minister John Howard, however, has steadfastly refused to do both, saying the current government should not have to apologize for the policies of former officials.

Only Tasmania state has set up a fund to compensate Aborigines taken from their families.

Reconciliation Australia, an advocacy group that aims to bridge the gap between Aborigines and white Australians, said governments should recognize their past mistakes and set up compensation funds to keep future claims out of the courts.

"Whatever the motivation, it is clear that all governments acted improperly and inflicted great, intergenerational damage," Barbara Livesey, the group's leader, said in a statement. "It is preferable, both morally and financially, to face up to mistakes as a nation rather than watching from the sidelines as they're tossed around in costly, adversarial court proceedings."

But Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has ruled out federal payments, saying most of the cases involved state governments and church organizations.

Trevorrow, now 50, was 13 months old when, on Christmas Day 1957, he was taken to an Adelaide hospital after complaining of stomach aches.

Hospital staff falsely recorded that Trevorrow had no parents, and two weeks later he was handed to a woman who later became his foster parent. Trevorrow never saw his father again and 10 years passed before he saw other family members.

South Australian state Premier Mike Rann said the government would not appeal the court's decision because Trevorrow had "been through enough."

"The compassionate thing to do is end any further uncertainty for him," Rann told reporters. "This is an appalling case of dispossession; it's an appalling treatment of a family and of a baby, and this is a time for justice to be done."