Maxine Kunde still has nightmares about what she endured as a child at the Garden Point mission on Melville Island, north of Darwin.

"Some nights when you're sleeping, it'll just all come back," she said.

Key points: Siblings have come forward to speak out on being sexually and physically abused at Garden Point mission

Siblings have come forward to speak out on being sexually and physically abused at Garden Point mission Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are not yet part of National Redress Scheme

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are not yet part of National Redress Scheme There are fears that legal processes are too slow for survivors who are dying

"And you get up, crying and upset, and I stop and say, 'well, what are you crying for?' But that's how it is."

Ms Kunde was just six years old when she was stolen from her mother, along with her siblings, and interned by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart under the auspices of Federal Government policy.

Two of her siblings, Alfie and Josie Calma, were molested by older children and a priest, while Ms Kunde was physically abused by nuns.

Maxine Kunde survived abuse at the Garden Point mission and is now seeking redress. ( Photo: Matthew Sherwood )

"I bottled it all up, and that saved my life," Josie Calma said.

"I didn't even tell my brothers and sisters, or my kids about it. I kept it all inside."

Ms Calma only revealed the full extent of the sexual abuse she suffered this year, when she and her siblings joined a group of more than 30 survivors of the Garden Point mission to investigate legal options.

She remembers seeking out her brother from the boys' dormitory and hiding in the vast bushland surrounding the mission.

"We'd stay in the bush all day, until late in the evening, then we'd come back to the mission.

"That was a way of keeping me and my brother safe from the nuns and priests."

Ms Calma now looks back on her life as one of many missed opportunities.

"I was lucky that I was educated, but because I hated what was done to me and my family, I rebelled," she said.

"I didn't want to achieve nothing, you know, I could have done lots of things in my life, but I just didn't want to because of what happened to me."

This plaque on Melville Island is the only formal reminder of Garden Point's history as a mission for stolen children. ( ABC News: Stephanie Zillman )

A life gone without justice

It was only after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that Alfie Calma finally felt able to talk about his experiences at Garden Point and seek justice.

But he died on August 5, 2019, shortly after this interview with the ABC.

"I just want to get the weight off my shoulders, it's been with me all these years. Over 40 years or more," he said.

Mr Calma said he never felt able to tell anyone about the abuse when he was a child at Garden Point.

"They wouldn't have believed me anyway. And I was scared to tell anyone about it, for fear of a beating," he said.

Alfie Calma passed away in August 2019. ( Photo: Matthew Sherwood )

The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are not yet part of the National Redress Scheme.

Slater and Gordon lawyer Nick Hart is working with survivors of Garden Point, and said the legal process for victims of abuse, including the redress scheme, was far too slow.

He fears more of his clients will never get their day in court.

"It's quite worrying that perhaps not all of these applications are going to be heard in time — in each person's lifetime," he said.

"And unfortunately in Alfred's instance, that is the case. He's never going to get that acknowledgement for what he experienced."

The Catholic faith is very much a part of Tiwi Islands culture, having been cemented during the days of the mission. ( ABC News: Stephanie Zillman )

Redress scheme has paid out 313 people nationally

In a statement, the Department of Social Services refused to say how many people in the Northern Territory had been paid out from the institutions that are in the scheme.

They said they had received 55 applications for redress, while nationally, just 313 people have been paid out.

For that reason, survivors of Garden Point are intending to pursue a separate civil action in Darwin Supreme Court.

Ms Kunde said she was helping lead the charge on legal action because she feared their suffering would never be formally acknowledged.

Alfie Calma, Maxine Kunde and Josie Calma. ( ABC News: Stephanie Zillman )

"Just looking at my younger brother and sister, and seeing how they suffered, it broke my heart. I thought nup, I'm going to do this," Ms Kunde said.

"I would like them [Missionaries of the Sacred Heart] to correct their mistakes, and apologise to us, personally.

"A lot of them are dead now, but the order is still there, so I thought — we'll go the order."

In a statement, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart said they were awaiting ministerial approval to enter the redress scheme.

They also said they continued to openly acknowledge that some children were harmed in their care.

"We are sorry for the hurt and suffering that such actions have caused," the statement said.