The Stolen Generation
Background
In the 1800’s the colonial authorities of Australia set in place a ‘protection system’ to look after the Indigenous Australians. To do this, they set up special communities where the Indigenous could farm the land and live off the produce. The Indigenous could not get used to this way of life.
In 1909, the government created the Aborigines Protection Act 1909, which enabled the authorities to forcibly take Aboriginal children out of their homes so that the authorities can ‘provide for the custody, maintenance and education of the children of aborigines’.
‘We were each handed a pair of pyjamas with a number Mr Borland, the manager, had given us earlier printed on the pocket, and a shirt and pair of shorts also. I was number 33. Not Bill. Not even Simon. Just number 33.’
– Bill Simon, taken away at age 10.
The children that were taken away from their homes were quite young, they were taken often up to the age of five. These children were taken because the governments in Australia did not believe in the future of the Indigenous.
The Governments of Australia believed the best way to ensure that Indigenous children (especially those of mixed descent, whom they called ‘half-caste’) were assimilated into European society was to remove them — forcibly, if necessary — from their families and raise them in institutions or foster homes, to make them ‘more white.’
‘Aboriginal children are mostly removed for ‘neglect’ or ‘emotional abuse’. I have seen first hand how these judgements are made on a racist basis, or arise directly from the extreme poverty faced by families.’
—Padraic Gibson, Senior Researcher, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney
What Happened?
The government had many methods of taking Aboriginal babies away from their mothers. They would be taken away and later told that they were orphans. The government would give the Indigenous mothers documents to sign, saying that they were part of a vaccination program; because the mothers couldn’t read, they signed.
Some of the key events in this period of time are;
- In
1937, the first Commonwealth/State conference on 'native welfare' adopts
assimilation as the national policy
- By
1969, all states have annulled the legislation allowing for the removal of
Aboriginal children under the policy of 'protection'. In the following years,
Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agencies are set up to contest removal
applications and provide alternatives to the removal of Indigenous children
from their families
- 1994,
the 'Going Home Conference' in Darwin brings together over 600 Aboriginal
people removed as children to discuss common goals of reparations
- In
1995, the Commonwealth Attorney General established a National Inquiry into the
Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their
Families, to be conducted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
(HREOC).
- In
2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, on behalf of the Australian Parliament, makes
a historic national apology to the Stolen Generations.
At Kinchela Boys Home, on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, Indigenous boys were taught to farm the land and operate heavy machinery such as tractors. The boys were forbidden from speaking their own language and were severely punished by the staff for disobedience.
The Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls was where generations of Indigenous girls removed from their families between 1911 and 1969. The girls were sent to work as domestic servants in the homes and farms of New South Wales' middle class, when they were old enough.
‘Four generations of my family went without parently love, without mother or father. I myself found it very hard to show any love to my children because I wasn't given that, so was my mother and grandmother.’
—Carol, personal story in the Bringing Them Home Report
Success/Failure/Why significant?
There aren’t any successes in this event; Indigenous Australians had lost years of their lives due to the racism from our governments and white Australians. The Only success may have been that the government had got what they wanted; they wanted the Indigenous away from their families and that’s what they got. The Indigenous never assimilated into the community like the government wanted them too, they just felt out of place.
‘I suspect I'll carry these sorts of wounds 'til the day I die. I'd just like it not to be so intense, that's all.’
--Bringing Them Home - Community Guide
This time in our history is deeply significant because it is seen as one of the darkest parts of Australia’s history, therefore there are some things are we will never find out because they have been locked away, due to the government not wanting the citizens to know all the horrible things that went on during that period.
This was seen as one of the darkest parts of Australia’s history.
This was especially significant to the Indigenous Australians because it impacted their lives so negatively. They were treated horribly as children, being physically, emotionally and, for the girls, sexually abused; they did not know what love was, nor how to love.
Now, due to now they were treated;
- They have probably
gained low self-esteem, depression and mental illness.
- They are more likely
to get in trouble with the Law as they grow older.
- They are probably more
vulnerable to emotional, sexual and physical abuse.
- They are, most likely,
unable to recognize and reconnect with their land.
‘The madness of the past is still the cruelty of today.’
—Jeff McMullen, journalist
Those victims of the Stolen Generation, have passed on these traits to their children. They did not learn to love, so they did not teach their children about love.
‘Healing is not just another government program. It has taken many generations to get to this level of trauma and it will take quite a few to fully recover from it.’
—Dr Greg Phillips, Aboriginal trauma and grief specialist from the Waanyi people
The Search Begins
They had taken away my family!
The child within me cried,
The stolen life, the agony
Of many a year gone by.
The cover up; the pretence.
The falsehood: All those lies.
Didn't they know I'd find out the truth one day,
And now I just ask WHY?
All their words and all their kindness
Can never fill the pain.
Can I ever trust the people,
That I believed in, once again?
The stole me from a lifetime,
My heritage. My home.
My family. My identity.
My spirit all alone.
But to let them win, would be a sin.
To give up would be a crime.
I must search on. I must fight on.
To find what is rightfully mine.
To find my heritage; my family.
My home and identity.
To find the person who was lost to me.
Me… the Aborigine! Poem by Pauline McLeod