The funding package, announced during NAIDOC Week, will go towards programs offering rehabilitation, counselling and advocacy for members of the Aboriginal community with:

• $100,000 allocated to the South Australian Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation to strengthen advocacy for members of the Aboriginal community.
• $140,000 to the South Australian Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation Network (SAACCON) to co-design a new support service for female Aboriginal victims of crime.
• $945,000 for the Department for Correctional Services (DCS) to design, develop and deliver cultural programs for Aboriginal people in prison and under community supervision to support rehabilitation.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Kyam Maher MLC

The State Government is committed to working in partnership with Aboriginal communities on programs and policies that affect them. Accordingly, each of these initiatives will be delivered either by Aboriginal community groups or in partnership with them.

Funding for the South Australian Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation will help strengthen their advocacy for survivors, and boost their capacity to advise Government and other organisations on culturally appropriate policy and resource development.

Aboriginal women are one of the fastest growing cohorts in the prison population. The specialist victim support service for Aboriginal victims of crime, to be co-designed by SAACCON, is being implemented in response to a Government-commissioned advisory group, which warned that Aboriginal women who came into contact with the criminal justice system experienced multiple forms of discrimination, victimisation, trauma and disadvantage.

The culturally appropriate service will help women break the cycle and also support Aboriginal women who have been victims of demostic and family violence.

And importantly, DCS will work in conjunction with senior members of Aboriginal communities to deliver cultural programs for Aboriginal men and women who are either in prison or under community supervision aimed at helping support their connection to their culture, and promote successful rehabilitation and employment.

These programs are separate from the measures announced in the State Budget, and again demonstrate our commitment to Closing the Gap, addressing Aboriginal incarceration rates and giving our Aboriginal communities a stronger voice.

Quotes attributable to Chair of South Australian Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, Dr Jenni Caruso

SASGAC welcomes this funding as we progress our work as a volunteer Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation responding to the identified needs of South Australian Stolen Generations and their descendants.

The 2018 Aboriginal population data provided by AIHW and the Healing Foundation reports that there are 2,100 Stolen Generation survivors in South Australia, and Stolen Generations survivors and their descendants account for 46% of the state's Aboriginal population.

The report also identifies that Stolen Generations and their descendants experience higher levels of disadvantage across all social and economic indicators than the Aboriginal population as a whole.

It is well known that the best people to find the solutions to problems are those who are experiencing or have experienced the issues.

SASGAC will seek to utilise the funding from the Government to examine and provide information to the Government on the ways in which these and other experiences of the South Australian Stolen Generations cohort, and their descendants, are impacted by contact with the justice system and, where possible, identify mechanisms to reduce further trauma for this most vulnerable of the South Australian Aboriginal population.