The minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, has called for claims of possible clandestine burial sites at the former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys’ Training Home to be investigated.
Guardian Australia revealed on Thursday that multiple sites of possible secret or “clandestine” burials have been discovered on the grounds of Kinchela – one of the most violent and abusive institutions of the Stolen Generations era, on the New South Wales north coast.
“Claims of possible secret burial sites on the grounds of the former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys’ Training Home in NSW are deeply disturbing,” Burney said.
“These claims should be investigated.”
At least nine “suspicious” sites of possible graves have been identified by experts surveying the area using ground-penetrating radar.
The NSW government is aware of the discovery and received a report on the survey six months ago. The report highlighted “high priority anomalies” in the ground, with “signal patterns that in other contexts have proven to be human burials” and cannot be explained by other information sources.
It is understood the report’s authors urge caution about interpreting the results, as some of the anomalies could be archaeological as well as forensic. If forensic (less than 100 years old), police would need to be called in.
But the authors note that the only way to determine for sure if there are bodies buried on the site is to excavate.
The survivor organisation, Kinchela Boys’ Home Aboriginal Corporation (KBHAC), has called on the NSW and federal governments to urgently fund further searches of the entire property.
It also wants excavation at the high-priority areas to determine whether some may be children who died at Kinchela and were buried in secret.
“I’m hoping that there’s nothing there. Just as simple as that,” the KBHAC chairman, Uncle James Michael “Widdy” Welshm said.
“But with the way that those people were and the way that they flogged us, it wouldn’t surprise me at all.”
A spokesperson for the NSW minister for Aboriginal affairs and treaty, David Harris, said he has requested an update on this sensitive matter from his department.
“The minister has been advised that the issues raised by Kinchela Boys’ Home survivors and their representatives relate to highly sensitive and serious sorry business on which Aboriginal Affairs NSW is working in consultation with the Kinchela Boys’ Home Aboriginal Corporation and the Kempsey Local Aboriginal Land Council.”.
Burney said the discovery warranted further investigation.
“Fifteen years after the apology to the Stolen Generations we are still coming to grips with our history,” she said.
