Healing the trauma of the Stolen GenerationsHealing the trauma of the Stolen Generations
All In The Mind
In Australia there are an estimated 17,000 Stolen Generations survivors, and a lack of culturally relevant mental health services is a major barrier to healing for many of them. Now programs led by Indigenous communities themselves are helping people to confront and move past their trauma. We talk with Stolen Generations survivor Aunty Lorraine Peeters, whose life experience led to a pioneering healing program, and became part of a groundswell of Indigenous-led solutions to address trauma. And Indigenous psychologist Kelleigh Ryan describes the challenges to supporting culturally appropriate healing. Presented as part of Reconciliation Week 2020, and the ABC's Walking Together initiative.
29:07•31 May 2020
Healing Stolen Generations Trauma Through Culture and Community
Episode Overview
- Trauma from forced child removal can surface decades later and is often numbed with alcohol or other addictions, rather than recognised and treated at its roots.
- Mainstream mental health services frequently focus on visible behaviours and symptoms while ignoring story, history and the impact of colonisation.
- The Maramali program uses a structured, culturally grounded, seven-stage process to help Aboriginal people reconnect with identity, country, family and spirit.
- Group-based healing, yarning circles and community leadership are presented as more effective for complex, intergenerational trauma than brief, one-on-one clinical interventions.
- Short-term funding, Western-style evaluation and a lack of cultural safety undermine efforts to provide consistent, trusting, long-term support for Indigenous communities.
“Addictions are actually normally the coping behaviour of deep pain, of usually trauma.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol, violence and buried pain, when trauma has been handed down for generations? This episode of All In The Mind follows that question through the lived experience of Stolen Generations survivor Aunty Lorraine Peters and the work of Indigenous psychologist Kelleigh Ryan.
You’ll hear how Aunty Lorraine was taken from her family at four years old, stripped of language, culture and even her name: “For the next 14 years of my life there, we were brainwashed to act, speak, dress and think white.” Decades later, a reunion with other former residents triggered “grief on top of grief”, a weekend lost to the bottle, and a turning point that pushed her towards healing rather than further self-destruction.
Her response was the Maramali program, a seven-stage healing journey grounded in Aboriginal culture, collective storytelling and spiritual connection. Workshops are run in communities and prisons, focusing on reconnecting people with identity, country, family and spirit. As she explains, “the ultimate in healing is to be reconnected to everything that you’ve lost.” Kelleigh Ryan adds a clinical and cultural lens, calling out mainstream mental health systems that focus on “symptoms” like addiction while ignoring the deep pain underneath.
She explains how standard assessments “weren’t made for us” and can misinterpret spiritual and grief experiences as mental illness, causing further harm and mistrust. The episode is aimed at anyone interested in trauma, addiction, mental health or justice for First Nations peoples, and especially those working in care, policy or services.
You’ll get a clear sense of why community-led, culturally grounded programs are crucial, why short-term funding doesn’t match long-term trauma, and how healing spreads through families and communities rather than quick clinical fixes. It’s a tough listen at times, but deeply hopeful — raising the question: what might change if every service treated culture and story as central, rather than an afterthought?
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