Full article as reported by ABC news

For decades,
Lois Johnson lived in fear.
She struggled to have an intimate relationship, battled mental health issues and wasn’t capable of holding down a full-time job.
But now, the 62-year-old Widjabul/Wyabul woman from the Bundjalung Nation, finally feels safe to come forward with her story.
“When I turned 50, I decided to come out with what happened to me … because I want righteousness. I want people to know that this did happen,” she said.
Lois said she was forced to endure repeated sexual abuse as a young child until she was a teenager, by multiple perpetrators.
“I had to tell someone because I used to shower four times a day, I used to scrub my skin and scratch my face and draw blood sometimes.
“I have a lot of flashbacks and the flashbacks are really bad.”
The abuse allegedly occurred on a reserve where Lois lived with her large, extended family in northern New South Wales.
The reserve was controlled by the state government’s Aborigines Welfare Board, previously known as the Aborigines Protection Board.
Between 1963 and 1969, the Board had the legislative and requisite powers to inspect reserves — and among a host of other powers — provide for the care and custody of Aboriginal children.
But Lois said they turned a blind eye to the abuse she suffered.
Now, together with her lawyers, Lois is seeking recourse against the state of New South Wales for a civil claim.
“I believe the government failed us big time,” she said.
“They might have given us government rations. They might have given us their government blankets, but they never protected us. I hold the government accountable for what happened to me.”
Lois’s case is believed to the first of its kind in New South Wales because she wasn’t a ward of the state, but it also means she isn’t eligible for the national redress scheme – a response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
She witnessed family members being stripped from their mothers under past government policies which led to the Stolen Generations.
“So we never said nothing to the welfare because we didn’t trust the welfare, “she said.
“We were scared the welfare would take us away from our mum because I saw my cousins being taken and screaming in the back of a car.”
Lois’s mother didn’t know about the abuse but expressed concern about remaining on the reserve in a letter she wrote to the Aborigines Welfare Board.
In the handwritten letter, she wrote of people breaking into her home, saying she was “fed up with everything” and requested a new home be built for her and her children.
The trauma from Lois’s abuse was so profound she’s attempted suicide on several occasions, has trouble sleeping and receives counselling on a regular basis.
Lois’s mother was unware of the abuse, but in a letter to the Aborigines Welfare Board spoke of “being fed up with everything”.(Supplied)
Special counsel Danielle De Paoli from Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, who is acting on behalf of Lois, said the State of New South Wales was liable.
“We’re seeking compensation for her loss of income and for treatment expenses for the future, because as Lois will say, it doesn’t go away, it’s still there,” she said.
“They knew or at least they ought to have known what was happening on the reserve. They were certainly on notice when Lois’s mum had written to the department.
“And yet nothing was done. So you have a mother who’s reaching out and crying for help, and totally ignored, trying to take care of her children.”
Special counsel Danielle De Paoli says the government knew or at least they ought to have known what was happening on the reserve.
The Aborigines Welfare Board held its last meeting in April 1969. It was replaced by the Aborigines Welfare Directorate within the Department of Child Welfare and Social Welfare.
Today, the responsibility falls with the Department of Communities and Justice.
A spokesperson from the Department said it “cannot comment on individual child protection matters for privacy reasons.”
“As this matter is the subject of legal proceedings, there will be no further comment,” the spokesperson said.
Lois said her husband Gordon Johnson helped her through some of her toughest times.
Together they help other abuse survivors through their charity organisation, Arising Indigenous Community Development Aid.
Much of the funds are self-donated by the couple.
“We feed them, we look after them. We advocate on their behalf. We help them with their housing, domestic violence, abuse,” Lois said.
She said she’ll continue fighting for justice and for others who hope to come forward like she did.
“I’ll fight this to the day I die and I’ll continue to help whoever is out there that needs our help … I’m not gonna give up.”

(ABC News: Nakari Thorpe)