A visit from Joan Kerry Joan Kerry was a very welcome visitor when she called by in April this year during a trip abroad from England with her husband Nigel. Joan was Project Manager of the Australian Child Migrant Project and is well known to many UK former child migrants for her family tracing and reunification work. Joan said she was really pleased to catch up with some of the people she had worked with and see how their lives have changed over the years. Dennis McNerney is one of the many former child migrants for whom Joan located family and assisted with reunification. Dennis writes: “I first met Joan early in 2005 at the CBERS office, which at that time was in Subiaco. Pip had just started working there, and observed my meeting with Joan. Joan had access to my records from Father Hudson’s Homes, the former orphanage near Birmingham in England, and home to me for the first seven years of my life, before sailing to Fremantle in January 1955. Once back in the UK, Joan worked tirelessly to locate my mother’s family (four brothers and six sisters) who I met for the first time in August 2005, when I travelled to England to celebrate my mother’s 80th birthday. Joan has had a huge impact in my life and without Joan’s connection I would be still be experiencing the
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Survivors and advocates have successfully lobbied for improvements to proposed legislation on redress in Northern Ireland, including an increase in the minimum payment from UK£7,500 to UK£10,000. Pressure is also building for a redress scheme to be established without further delay. Survivors have been frustrated by a lack of progress since the NI Government collapsed in March 2017, shortly after the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI) published its recommendations. In a letter of 23 July 2019, NI Secretary of State Karen Bradley advised of the UK Government’s ‘clear commitment’ to introduce redress legislation by the end of the year, should the NI Government not be restored by that time. On 2 July 2019, an Interim Advocate for Survivors of Institutional Childhood Abuse was appointed, and will act as a ‘voice for victims and survivors’ until a statutory Commissioner is established, in line with HIAI recommendations. We are grateful to Prof Patricia Lundy and Gerry McCann, Chair of the Rosetta Trust survivors’ group in Belfast, for keeping us informed of developments. Although former child migrants comprised 12% of witnesses in the HIA Inquiry, they were not consulted about redress until links were established between Tuart Place and the survivor-led ‘Panel of Experts on Redress’ in Northern Ireland. Since then, former child migrants have played an active role in the ongoing consultations and surveys on redress.
‘unknown factor’. My goal of finding family is gaining further pace with the discovery of my father’s family 12 months ago. This part of the journey has been greatly assisted by Lesley Silvester of the WA Genealogical Society. My wife Nicky and I will be travelling to Europe in August 2019 with the specific aim of consolidating my father’s side of the family. The main highlight will be meeting my father’s daughter for the first time in Portugal”.
News from Northern Ireland In October 2018, FACT Board member and former child migrant Ann McVeigh met with Gerry and Patricia in Belfast to receive a briefing on the proposed redress legislation, and to provide feedback from Australia.
British ex-gratia update Applications to the British Government ex-gratia scheme for former child migrants from the UK will remain open until the end of 2020. Former child migrants from England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland who travelled unaccompanied to Australia under government schemes are eligible for the flat-rate ‘common experience’ payment of UK£20,000. For further information, see https://www. childmigrantstrust.com/news or contact the Child Migrants Trust on Freecall 1800 040 509.
