Video Analysis: Stolen Generations

From the year eighteen sixty nine to the year nineteen sixty nine Aboriginal children were taken from their homes. The play ‘Stolen’ by Jane Harrison tells the story of five Aboriginal children who were forcibly extracted form their families. The children: Anne, Jimmy, Ruby, Sandy and Shirley all demonstrated the devastating impact that the removal from their families and subsequent institutionalisation had on each of their lives. Furthermore, some of the main characters maintained their hopes and dreams under different circumstances whilst a few displayed a lack of hope.

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

‘The Sapphires’ by Wayne Blair was the trigger that led my research into the effects of the Stolen Generation on Aboriginals in Australia. This film is about an Aboriginal singing group who want to make a name for themselves, but find it difficult because of the racism against them. This film also tells the stories of their cousin Kay, who was a half-caste and was stolen from her Aboriginal family at a young age to be taught the ways of white people, and forget her culture. This film made me realise that I am lucky to live in a country where racism of such an extent in which children are stolen from their indigenous families, isn’t part of our history, and has not affected me personally. From my research, I have found six main sources that have helped me to understand how large this problem was and continues to be. My sources: ‘The Sapphires’ by Wayne Blair; a film about a group of Aboriginal singers who are affected by racism which is based on a real life singing group; ‘The Sorry Speech’, by Kevin Rudd who was the Prime Minister of Australia in 2008 who explains the damage and apologises for the way that the actions of past governments tore apart the lives of their indigenous people. Then there is ‘Blind Eye,’ the documentary in which people who were stolen are interviewed and tell their stories. The film, ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ this tells the story of two girls who were stolen and gives us insight into how brutally that they were treated after being ripped apart from

The Stolen Generation has had a great effect on Aboriginal rights and freedoms as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders didn’t even have the rights to raise and look after their children and as a result 100,000 Aboriginal Australian’s were displaced and placed into white families. The lack of understanding and respect for Aboriginal culture also meant that many people who supported the removal of these children really thought they were doing “the right thing”. The impact on Australian life today is still being felt as the Stolen Generation is seen as a recent event has it only ended in the early 1970s. Children that where taken away back then now cannot trace back their roots and therefore have no record of their family history or where

The notion of the contemporary indigenous identity and the impact of these notions are both explored in texts that have been studied. Ivan Sen’s 2002 film ‘Beneath Clouds’ focuses on the stereotypical behaviours of Indigenous Australians highlighting Lina and Vaughn’s journey. This also signifies the status and place of the Australian identity today. Through the use of visual techniques and stereotypes the ideas that the Indigenous are uneducated, involved in crime and the stereotypical portrayal of white people are all explored. Similarly the notion of urban and rural life is represented in Kennith Slessor’s ‘William Street’ and ‘Country Towns’.

This narrative text is based off the film The Sapphires set in Australia in the 1960s. In The Sapphires we see a flashback of Kay’s childhood and how she is part of the Stolen Generation. I will use this storyline as the starting point for my diary entries. The film gave me background knowledge on Stolen Generation and their experiences they faced. However, I need to know extra information so I will do further research about the Stolen Generation, in order to give an accurate description of their experiences. This narrative is targeted towards everyone. It is designed to inform them about the Stolen Generation and how they changed when forcibly moved to an Aborigines White Institution. This piece of text will be written in a diary entry form. I will use informal and conversational language. I will also use descriptive language when describing objects and sceneries throughout the text.

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

‘Australia’ also showed how the government controlled how children of Aboriginal descent were brought up with language used such as “The mixed raced children must be dislocated from their primitive full blooded Aborigine, how else are we to breed the black out of them”. This presented again the reason as to why the Aboriginal children were taken away from their own cultures to be raised in something completely different.

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

Aboriginal children forcefully removed from their families, known as “The Stolen Generation”. The Stolen Generation as

The Stolen Generation was a period in which the Australian Government forcibly removed Aboriginal children from their homes. Children were then placed into institutions in a bid to completely rid of Indigenous Australians - this was a complete abandonment of their basic civil rights. The events that led to and occurred during this time period, affected children, families and their communities then, now and undoubtedly into the future.

Took the Children Away, reminds Aborigines about the deep agonising memories that Indigenous Australian children had to suffer through and how land was… and is still a part of their hearts

The policies portrayed in the movie and real life was given effect by the Australian government and known today in Australia as the Stolen Generations. Mixed race Aboriginal children were taken by force from their families. Some of those children were taken at birth, some at two years of age some in their childhood years. They were sent to foster families or raised in training schools, special purpose institutions to prepare them for lives as factory workers or domestic servants. Some parents know that where their children had been taken and could keep connection with them. In some cases they had no any ideal whither the children.

Thus, silencing the entire right wing European and Government perspectives. The current Australian Curriculum sees year 9 and 10 students tasked with exploring massacres and the spread of European disease as effects of European-Indigenous contact, this accompanies investigating accounts of Indigenous Australians removed from their families during The Stolen Generation (Australiancurriculum.edu.au, 2017). Young Australians, under the premise of education, are presented a biased review of Australia’s history, guided to recognise only Indigenous perspectives and negative effects (Davies, 2014). Is this practise compromising Australians entire understanding of Australia’s history, particularly Indigenous relations? Historians including Bain Attwood, a leading scholar in the field of cross-cultural history, suggests: “the Stolen Generations narrative is endangering historical truths…”(R. Kennedy, 2001). The Australian Curriculum negates justly acknowledging the Protection policies roots in aiming to ensure acceptance of half cast children into white society, in the pursuit of peacefully assimilating Australia’s cultural divide. As was the dominate discussion focus of the 1937 Commonwealth-State Native Welfare Conference, theorising “how