Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement
The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) is an agreement between the Government of Canada and approximately 86,000 Native Canadians who at some point were enrolled as children in the Canadian Indian residential school system, a system which was in place between 1879 and 1996. The IRSSA recognized the damage inflicted by the residential schools and established a $2 billion compensation package for all former IRS students and, in particular, those who had been abused or otherwise harmed. The agreement, announced in 2006, was the largest class action settlement in Canadian history. As of December 2012 a total of $1.62 billion has been paid to 78,750 former students.
Forgotten Australians
Since the early days of the British colony in Australia placing 'at risk' children into orphanages and children's homes was normal policy. During the first half of the 20th century, residential institutions were still the standard form of out-of-home care.
Institutions were run by state governments, charities, welfare and religious organisations or private individuals. They included orphanages and children's homes, as well as industrial or training schools. There were at least 800 of these institutions operating between the 1920s and the 1980s. They varied in size from large institutions housing several hundred children to 'cottages' within the grounds of an institution where smaller groups of children were cared for by 'cottage parents'.