For over fifty years Aboriginal families faced an ongoing battle of being unable to keep their families together. Stripped of their respect, families were torn apart. The bringing them home report signified a drastic change for the Aboriginal community as it meant that they were finally given the opportunity to reunite with their loved ones. The bringing back of the stolen generation to their friends and family was an imperative event for the citizens of the Aboriginal people. It signified that they were once again treated as a human beings rather than being treated as moveable property. Many Aboriginals who could not forget the gruelling torture faced by them would live with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for the rest of their lives. This …show more content…
Many of the women who faced the stolen generation were raped by their supposed guardians. They were also told that their parents had either passed away or had encountered significant injury, hereby meaning that they were unfit to look after their children. On their 18th birthday, stolen generation individuals were allowed to be released by government control and sent into regular society. This for many brought ongoing anxiety and stress. Some were able to trace themselves back to where they came from, but many are still left …show more content…
The three movies also explain how wrong it was within humanity. In the Sapphires Gail explains how it was her responsibility to look after Kay, but due to Kay’s skin colour Gail couldn’t save her because she was taken away at the hospital. The Rabbit Proof Fence is about how Molly, Daisy and Grace try and get themselves back home because it was a horrible environment for them to stay in. With no one really caring about them, they felt as though they needed to get out there as soon as possible so they followed the Rabbit Prof Fence. In Australia, that film is about the romance between a half caste and a widowed lady trying to save her business. The two end up being a couple and face all the hate with the relationship and the
The Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW) was a law that changed Indigenous Australian lives forever. The act enabled the New South Wales Board for the Protection of Aborigines to essentially control the lives of Aboriginal people. It was the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW) that had major provisions that resulted in the containment and suffering that Aboriginal people endured. This suffering included the practice of forcible removing Indigenous children from their families. These major provisions help us understand what the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW) involved and the impact it has had on the daily lives and cultures of Indigenous Australian peoples today.
At the turn of the twentieth century the systematic forced removal of Aboriginal children from their mothers, families and cultural heritage was commonplace. There were several reasons that the government and white society used to justify the separation but the prevailing ideology of nationalism and maintaining Australia for the ‘whites’ was the over-riding motivation and justification for their actions[1]. Progressive sciences such as anthropology espoused such theories as eugenics, miscegenation, biological absorption and assimilation which legitimated governmental policies relating to Aboriginal affairs[2]. It was
Only in recent years have we seen the recognition that the stolen generation deserves and the essential part it has play in the struggle of Aboriginal rights. Since the end of the stolen generation, numerous organisations and government agency has come out and said sorry for what happened for seventy years and as a result Aboriginal rights are becoming more apparent. The famous “I’m sorry” speech said by Kevin Rudd was the first Parliament apology to the Stolen Generation and was seen as a huge leap forward in the recognition of the Stolen Generation. The Bringing Them Home Report in 1997 was a strong campaign for The
The Stolen Generation has left devastating impacts upon the Aboriginal culture and heritage, Australian history and the presence of equality experienced today. The ‘Stolen Generation’ refers to the children of Aboriginal descent being forcefully abducted by government officials of Australia and placed within institutions and catholic orphanages, being forced to assimilate into ‘white society’. These dehumanising acts placed these stolen children to experience desecration of culture, loss of identity and the extinction of their race. The destructive consequences that followed were effects of corruption including attempted suicide, depression and drug and alcohol abuse. The indigenous peoples affected by this have endured solitude for many
A perfect example of separation and dispossession is the stolen generation. The stolen generation is a term used to describe the indigenous children that were taken away from their families and their land by the Australian federal government. The stolen generation has grown up without any family ties or cultural identity. This may create social and financial disadvantages, feelings and insecurity, low self-esteem, depression, violence, suicide, abuse of alcohol and other drugs, crime and a general lack of trust.
500, 000 children were believed to have been taken away from their parents in institutions, they are known as the stolen generation.
The Indigenous culture was viewed as inferior and unable to adequately provide for the needs of their children, which was fully fuelled by disproportionate poverty rates as well as the repercussion of residential schools (Russell, 2015). Due to not being able to maintain the standards of European child-rearing practices and common values, social services workers attempted to rescue these children from the conditions they were living in (O’Connor, 2010). These issues have detrimental effects on the families of survivors of the residential schools for generations, also known as multigenerational trauma. Instead of addressing this social policy concern the government was contributing and controlling it, where Indigenous people had little power to address
Throughout the early 20th century, the Australian public was led to believe that Aboriginal children were disadvantaged in their communities, and that there was a high risk of physical and sexual abuse. Aboriginal children were being removed in order to be exposed to ‘Anglo values’ and ‘work habits’ with a view to them being employed by colonial settlers, and to stop their parents, families and communities from passing on their culture, language and identity
Government policies authorising the removal of Aboriginal children have caused extensive and unrepairable damage to every aspect of Indigenous culture. It could be argued that the emotional turmoil which occurred as a result of this policy, is greater than any physical abused ever faced by the Australian Aboriginal people. The act of child removal would be a scarring experience for parents and children of any race or culture. This policy had a particularly damaging impact on the Indigenous people as their identity is based within a set of strong traditional guides and teachings. These lessons are not recorded, but can only be taught through speaking with elders and learning through a connection to others within the mob, connection to art forms
Aboriginal peoples of Canada have suffered exponentially throughout the entirety of history and proceed to do so in modern society. Much of the continued suffrage of aboriginal peoples is as a result of the Sixties Scoop and the Residential School System, as well as the lack of resources available to them. This has wreaked extensive havoc on the mental health of Aboriginal peoples, and has left excessive amounts of stigma and racism attached to Aboriginal Peoples, explicitly seen in the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
A huge part of the aboriginal culture and heritage was based on family relationships but many of the children grew up without knowing this. The loss of Aboriginality affected the children when they were grown up to be adults, if they tried to move back to their family’s community they were not welcome because they didn’t know how to settle back into an aboriginals life style.
The stolen children were brainwashed over a duration of time. They were exposed to a different culture and customs that they had to adapt to as they were raised in a different world. This threatened the Indigenous people, due to the fact once they die no other generation will keep their culture and beliefs alive for the future. Even though, the children were separated from the families some of them did not forget their foot step and continued to follow their cultural traditions privately. Due to the separation from their families and land, many aboriginal children started getting involved in gang activity and exposure to alcohol and
History has unveiled the early contacts of colonization from the Europeans that set motion to cultural oppression and exclusion of the Aboriginal communities (Kirmayer, Tait, Simpson & Simpson, 2009). The introduction of the residential school system was meant to eliminate the indigenous people’s cultural heritage and way of life, creating a historical trauma. As a result, survivors of the residential school system left the majority of the Aboriginal population without a sense of cultural heritage, lack of self-esteem, and depression (Gone, 2010). Aboriginal culture was suppressed, breaking the connection of traditional knowledge from parent to child (Kirmayer, Tait, Simpson & Simpson, 2009). Trans-generational trauma of the Aboriginal people has left psychologically and physically damage towards their own heritage (Gray & Nye, 2001).
As a result, illnesses such as tuberculosis, small pox, and measles went uncured which led to the death of many Indigenous students (The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2012). This was illustrated in Wenjack where it is mentioned how Chanie had developed a lung infection, tuberculosis, which he had failed to receive treatment for. It is noted by Boyden (2016) that “tuberculosis and similar diseases had taken thousands of Indian children’s lives” (p. 11). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2012) state how the high mortality rates of students caused devastation within families hoping their children would return home. As a result, they spent their lives grieving never knowing how their child died or where their body was placed. Thus, it is no surprise that the statistics demonstrate that the Aboriginal population has higher rates of premature death (Pederson et al., date). Unfortunately, neglect in Aboriginal’s health care still continues to occur to this day. In particular, Pederson et al. (date) mentions how poor economic and social conditions in the Indigenous community exist which contribute to these individuals viewing their health status as low. Additionally, the neglect in this population has resulted in a reduction in their social determinants of health. For instance, Pederson et al. (date) recognize how physical neglect has resulted in “poverty, poor housing and substance abuse” (p. 297). As a result of being neglected, the Aboriginal population is continuing to suffer which further leads to consequences in their health. Thus, Wenjack enables the reader to acknowledge how neglect continues to play a role in harming the lives on the Aboriginal
In conclusion the stolen generation was a traumatizing time for young indigenous children, as being a children were torn from families and forced to live with white people and forget their heritage and culture which lead to the aboriginal culture which would lead to the culture being forgotten. The policy assimilation was introduced by the government, individuals were traumatized by assiliamation. The stolen generation affected the whole indigenous