Uncle Benjamin 'BJ' Cruse says he has lived with a lifetime of trauma stemming from a few days in hospital.
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names and images of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of family.
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Warning: This story contains details that may be distressing for some readers.
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As a young boy, he was treated for dysentery, an intestinal infection which causes severe diarrhoea, with his siblings at Macleay District Hospital on the New South Wales Mid North Coast.
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The Yuin and Monaroo elder remembers being placed on a verandah with his brother and sister at the health facility now known as Kempsey District Hospital, and the rooms being partitioned with "hessian bag material".
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"That's where Aboriginal people were kept," he said.
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It was here Mr Cruse alleges he was physically and emotionally abused, including being slapped multiple times on the face by a nurse.
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He said he was told to kneel on the bed with his back straight, as books were stacked on his head.
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"When the nurse heard the books fall on the floor … she yanked me off the bed and slapped me on both sides of the face,"he said.
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The now 72-year-old also claimed being given apron strings to hold in each hand and forced to follow the nurse around the ward as she treated other patients.
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"If she walked too fast, I'd pull both apron strings undone and she'd turn around and slap me on both sides of the face," he said.
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The almost-week long ordeal left Mr Cruse with psychological issues, he said.
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His sister, Aunty Rhonda Cruse-Rawiri, recalled being kept in a dark, separate room away from other patients.
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"I could see out of that room where they had all the non-Aboriginal kids and it was really bright in there, all the toys and a big rocking horse," she said.
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"I remember standing at the door waiting to go out and the nurse came … shooing us back in the room.
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"And the [hospital] gown we had [on] had A-B-O across the back."
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Their father, Uncle Ossie Cruse, who is now in his early 90s, also remembered the gowns from when he picked his children up from the hospital.
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"And I thought, 'Wow, we're out of here'," he told Australian Story in 2017.
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"I just grabbed the kids, and we never even went to see the people.
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We just took them out and went home."
'An insult'
Now, Mr Cruse is calling for an apology and "proper and just" compensation for his alleged abuse, taking his demands to the state government, as well as the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
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But he said on multiple occasions the government referred him to existing schemes, including the NSW Stolen Generations Reparation Scheme, and the National Redress Scheme created following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse schemes, both of which he is not eligible for.
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"This is something that has gone under the radar, it's fallen through the cracks and just because it [the alleged abuse] doesn't meet that criteria," Mr Cruse said.
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"I believe it shouldn't give the government the option to opt out of their responsibility.
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However, since engaging lawyers, Mr Cruse said the local health district had now offered him compensation.
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Though for him, he said it was not enough to make it right.
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"I would receive a payment of $30,000 in the hand and to me that is an insult," he said.
"
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The government is holding me at ransom … knowing I can't fight the matter in court and that's why I wanted to bring the matter to the nation."
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A Mid North Coast Local Health District spokesperson said in a statement it "does not comment on matters that are the subject of legal proceedings".
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"The NSW government acknowledges and remembers the survivors of historical abuse and the past failures of governments and institutions to protect them," they said.
"
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The NSW government remains committed to ensuring survivors of historical abuse receive appropriate support and justice.
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It also said all government agencies dealing with civil claims of child abuse followed guiding principles to make "litigation a less traumatic experience for victims".
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'Deemed the right thing to do'
Mr Cruse said he and his siblings were taken to the Macleay District Hospital when he was about five years old, making it the late 1950s or early 1960s.
According to the Macleay River Historical Society, segregation ended at the hospital in July 1964.
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Former nurse, scholar and labour historian, Odette Best, said this was "a very thick and murky era" for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and patients.
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"It was deemed the right thing to do that Indigenous people were not allowed to be nursed in the same ward as non-Indigenous people," Dr Best, a Gorreng Gorreng, Boonthamurra and Yugambeh woman said.
"
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The contested care that has actually been inflicted upon Aboriginal people has been full of abuse and neglect … [and] has left very deep ongoing scars for many, many Indigenous people."
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Dr Best acknowledged while many nurses "do absolutely amazing work and do care for our communities", there were historical aspects that needed to be reconciled.
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"Nursing has really got this huge history of this contested care that has really never been spoken about, talked about or addressed as a profession … that we actually participated in some pretty horrendous acts against Indigenous people,"she said.
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National Justice Project CEO George Newhouse said there were still remnants of past policies within the healthcare system.
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"People can die as a result of a doctor, or a nurse, or a clinician having a closed mind," he said.
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"So even today we see hangovers of the segregation in the past and the low standard of healthcare provided to First Nations people.
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…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia