The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival will open with the ground-breaking documentary After the Apology, which explores the skyrocketing rates of Aboriginal child removal today. After the Apology follows the story of four grandmothers challenging government policies to bring their grandkids home. Their grassroots actions spearhead a national conversation to curb the skyrocketing rates of child removal. Larissa Behrendt directed After the Apology. Behrendt is an Aboriginal (Eualeyai/Gammilaroi) filmmaker, novelist, lawyer and academic. She is a Professor of Indigenous Research and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney.
“I come to this subject matter with a very personal passion for it. My grandmother was a stolen generations woman and my father grew up in an orphanage” Berendt commented. “Like many Aboriginal people, I was touched by Kevin Rudd’s apology speech and believed it would be a turning point on how child welfare matters were dealt with. It is shocking to me that the number of Aboriginal children being removed today by welfare agencies is higher than during the time of the Stolen Generations.”
Behrendt explained that the film brings to life statistics on Aboriginal child removal today. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people are significantly over-represented in the out of home care system. They are only 5.5 per cent of all Australian children, yet comprise over 35 per cent of the children in care. Behrendt went on to comment that After the Apology also reveals that Indigenous children are ten times more likely to be placed in out of home care than non-Indigenous children and that 69.8% of Aboriginal children in out of home care are placed away from their Aboriginal families.
The Human Rights Arts & Film Festival (HRAFF) opens with After the Apology in Melbourne on Thursday May 3. This screening will be followed by a post film Q&A with Director Larissa Behrendt and Producer Kiki Dillon and an After-Party at ACMI’s Lightwell. This will be followed by a screening in Canberra on May 29.