Stolen Generations

(This article provided the history of indigenous children removal in Australia. In addition, it also indicated that the development of related legislations in different states. The development of this history and the attitude of European were well expressed, therefore, it showed that why and how the indigenous children were removed from their family.)

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

Kevin Rudd’s apology was to the Aboriginals; but in particular, to the Stolen Generations. From 1909-1969, the Australian Government forced a policy know as assimilation upon the Aboriginals. Assimilation is the forced integration of minority groups onto the dominant society. Inhumane acts were inflicted upon these proud people because of the ‘Aborigines Protection Board’ which entailed that the Australian Government had full rights to forcibly remove half-caste children from Aboriginal care without parental consent nor a court order.

The stolen generation is a term to describe aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from families by federal and state governments and by church missions. The aim of this was to bring aboriginal children up in white families and teach them to reject their original culture, therefore if they continued successfully there would eventually be no indigenous people remaining.

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

Knockwood explains the enforcement of residential ideologies as a “combination of physical intimidation and psychological manipulation which produced terror and confusion” (12). The premise of residential schools was to strip Indigenous children from their culture and Indigenous identity, forcing them to only speak English, or face severe consequences. Despite the government and churches best efforts, many Indigenous children still maintained their cultural roots and kept their language while at home. This governmental need for assimilation has had lasting impacts far beyond the scope of active residential schools. Neeganagwedgin notes, “while the schools may be physically closed, the legacy lingers” (34). Beyond this, she urges, present-day institutions still function in a way that continues to undermine and systematically deny, “Indigenous peoples their inherent rights as First Peoples” (Neeganagwedgin 34); such as the justice system, child welfare and the education systems.

The National Inquiry into the separation of the children concluded that 'between one-in-three and one-in-ten Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities in the period from approximately 1910 until 1970' (Wilkie, 1997). It was the 1960s, at the earliest, when the various 'protection' Acts were either abolished or discontinued.

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

Reconciliation is the process of building respectful relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and the wider Australian community. It is about understanding and respecting their culture and heritage and signifies ‘coming together’ to become one nation without racism and with equality for all. There are still vast differences in health, education, employment, and standards of living of the Indigenous peoples as compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Even today Indigenous peoples have a significantly lower life expectancy, up to 11.5 years for men and 9.7 years for women . The infant mortality rate for the Indigenous peoples is double the rate for non-Aboriginal Australians. Understanding these inequalities is the first step to reconciling the differences. Policies such as the stolen generation and assimilation policy destroyed Indigenous identity and culture and justified the dispossession of Indigenous people and the removal of Indigenous children from their parents. We can’t change the past but we can make a better future by understanding and learning from the mistakes of the past, reconciliation is about that. Many practical and symbolic strategies have been implemented over the last 50 years to achieve reconciliation such as ATSIC, Northern Territory Intervention and the Mabo decision. However, the most significant ones are the 1967 Referendum, Closing the Gap framework in 2008 and the ‘Sorry speech’. The aim is to improve the five dimensions of reconciliation: race relations, equality and equity, institutional integrity, unity, and historical acceptance.

This trauma still causes distress on individuals all over the world. Most children in the care of the child welfare authorities are aboriginals, a shocking and sad reality that needs to be faced. What it's being said throughout this essay is showing that if aboriginals never had to face the trauma of residential schools, the sixties scoop and the loss of child-rearing duties, then one may be able to say that the majority of children in care are not aboriginal. But this is not the situation and the whether the statement is true or not one will never

The play ‘Stolen’ by Jane Harrison is a play written about the Stolen Generation. The Stolen Generation are generations of Aboriginal children being taken from their families by governments, churches and welfare bodies to be brought up in institutions or fostered out to white families. The stolen generation went for around seventy years, and the government’s plain was to take the aboriginal away from their community and have aboriginal girls having children to white men so that eventually the aboriginals would die out. The government was hoping this would only take three generations for this to happen. Jimmy, Ruby, Ann, Sandy and Shirley where all children of the stolen generation all taken from there families and all suffering in their own

Anna Haebich states in her article that the government believed that the removal policies were in the best interests of the Aboriginal children, particularly of mixed race. However, ‘Millicent’s Story’ and the confidential submissions from the ‘National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from their Families’ contrasts this view. The children removed from their families suffered physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse that affected them for life. They were placed in institutions or white households that were and had poor conditions; however, some were placed into loving households. The girl in ‘Millicent’s Story’ was forbidden to see her family, and told they no longer wanted her. Other children were told

Within a week of the report’s release in 2007, the Federal Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, had acted upon the first part of the recommendation (Johns, 2008). On the 21st of June 2007, he announced a series of measures to be introduced to Aboriginal communities across the Northern Territory (Hunter, 2008). The measures constituted what the Minister called a reform package (Johns, 2008), and went well beyond the recommendations of the ‘Little Children are Sacred’ report (Altman, 2007). The legislation received bipartisan support in the Commonwealth parliament, and outlined a package of changes to welfare provision, law