Yuin and Monaroo elder Benjamin “BJ” Cruse says he has lived with lifelong trauma after allegedly being abused as a child at Macleay District Hospital, now Kempsey District Hospital, on the New South Wales Mid North Coast. He told ABC News that he and his siblings were treated for dysentery and placed on a verandah, where rooms were divided by hessian material and Aboriginal patients were kept apart from non-Aboriginal children.
Mr Cruse, now 72, alleges that a nurse slapped him, made him kneel with books balanced on his head and required him to hold apron strings while following her around the ward. He said the ordeal lasted almost a week and contributed to ongoing psychological problems. His sister, Rhonda Cruse-Rawiri, separately recalled being kept in a dark room away from other patients, while their father remembered taking the children home without speaking to hospital staff.
Mr Cruse is seeking an apology and what he describes as “proper and just” compensation from the NSW government. He said authorities had previously referred him to the NSW Stolen Generations Reparation Scheme and the National Redress Scheme, but that he was ineligible for both. After he engaged lawyers, he said the local health district offered him $30,000, an amount he considers insulting and insufficient to address the alleged abuse.
A Mid North Coast Local Health District spokesperson told ABC News the district did not comment on matters subject to legal proceedings. The spokesperson said the NSW government acknowledged survivors of historical abuse and past institutional failures, remained committed to appropriate support and justice, and required agencies handling civil claims involving child abuse to follow principles intended to make litigation less traumatic.
Mr Cruse said he was about five when he attended the hospital, placing the events in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The Macleay River Historical Society says segregation at the hospital ended in July 1964. Odette Best, a former nurse and historian, described the period as a “thick and murky era” and said historical abuse and neglect had left deep scars for many Indigenous people. National Justice Project chief executive George Newhouse said remnants of past policies continued to affect healthcare, including through lower standards of care for First Nations people.