Stolen Generations Fact Sheet
Jul 28th, 2007 by reconciliaction
This section of the ReconciliACTION website explores the policy of forcibly removing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) children from their families. These children became known as the Stolen Generations.
“There can be no reconciliation without addressing the past”
The forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families was official government policy from 1909 to 1969. However the practice took place both before and after this period. Governments, churches and welfare bodies all took part.
The removal policy was managed by the Aborigines Protection Board (APB). The APB was a government board established in 1909 with the power to remove children without parental consent and without a court order.
Under the White Australia and assimilation policies Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were ‘not of full blood’ were encouraged to become assimilated into the broader society so that eventually there would be no more Indigenous people left. At the time Indigenous people were seen as an inferior race.
Children were taken from Aboriginal parents so they could be brought up ‘white’ and taught to reject their Aboriginality. Children were placed with institutions and from the 1950s began also being placed with white families. Aboriginal children were expected to become labourers or servants, so in general the education they were provided was very poor. Aboriginal girls in particular were sent to homes established by the Board to be trained in domestic service.
The lack of understanding and respect for Aboriginal people also meant that many people who supported the child removals believed that they were doing the ‘right thing’. Some people believed that Aboriginal people lived poor and unrewarding lives, and that institutions would provide a positive environment in which Aboriginal people could better themselves. The dominant racist views in the society and government also means that people believed that Aboriginal people were bad parents and that Aboriginal woman did not look after their children.
No-one knows how many children were taken, as most records have been lost or destroyed. Many parents whose children were taken never saw them again, and siblings who were taken were deliberately seperated from each other. Today many Aboriginal people still do not know who their relatives are or have been unable to track them down.
The generations of children who were taken from their families became known as the Stolen Generations. The practice of removing children continued up until the late 1960s meaning today there are Aboriginal people as young as their late 30s and 40s who are members of the Stolen Generations.
In the 1990s the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission started a national inquiry into the practice of removing children. The Bringing Them Home Report on the national inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children was tabled in Parliament on 26 May 1997.
The report outlined the devastating impact the child removal policies had on children and their families. It found that many of the institutions and homes in which the children were placed were very cruel, and sexual and physical abuse of the children was common. It found that many of the people who managed the removals, including both the government and churches, abused their power and breached their supposed obligations as protectors and ‘carers’.
The report told a story of welfare boards, of segregation, of so-called ‘assimilation’ policies which did not work. The report also told stories of mothers fleeing into the bush with their babies, of the virtual slavery of the young girls who were sent out to rural properties to work as maids and of nannies of the children being treated like cattle. One woman reported: “We was bought like a market. We was all lined up in white dresses and they would come round and pick you out like you was for sale”.
The report found that the practice of forced removal was highly traumatic not only for the children but also for their families. The policy broke important cultural, spiritual and family ties which crippled not only individuals, but whole families and even whole communities. The report found that members of the Stolen Generations suffered higher rates of sexual abuse, maltreatment, dislocation of family life, poverty and hardship than other Aboriginal people.
The report also found that the policy of forced removal was based on racist assumptions about the benefits that would flow from such policies. The aim of the policy was to ‘breed out’ the Aboriginal race. In international law practices designed to destroy an entire race of people are known as genocide, and are forbidden under the 1948 Convention of Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
While many records have been lost, it has been estimated are 10% of Aboriginal children. It is estimated 100,000 Indigenous people have been affected by the policy of removal.
Dr Jane McKendrick, a psychiatrist at Melbourne University who has worked with Aboriginal communities for 17yrs, helped with the Bringing Them Home Report. She says a ‘high proportion’ of people from the Stolen Generations were either psychologically, physically or sexually abused while in care. Feelings of depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress and suicide are commonplace among victims. She notes that 50% of deaths investigated by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody were of people who have been removed from their families as children.
Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were placed with white families did not find out about their background until late in life. Finding their estranged families and returning to their birthplace can be the start of a painful process marred by feelings of cultural alienation. One of the people interviewed for the Bringing Them Home Report said: “A lot of people say that they don’t know what exactly they are, whether they’re white or they’re black. Where exactly they belong.”
The impact of the Stolen Generations has also passed on to the next generation. Dr McKendrick reported that “when (Aboriginal people who were removed) come to have their own children they’ve really got no idea how to parent in either the conventional Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal way … so their children are very often removed from them (by welfare agencies) which sets up this terrible cycle which goes on for generations.”
While many Aboriginal groups feel they can never be adequately compensated for the loss of their families, since the Bringing Them Home Report was released there has been a strong campaign for an official apology by the Australian Government. One of the key recommendations of Bringing Them Home Report was an official apology from the government, as well as financial compensation for the suffered caused by the government.
In 1997 the then Prime Minister John Howard refused to make an official apology. He argued that the current generation should not be responsible for the mistakes of the past. Critics pointed out that the Prime Minister had been a Member of Parliament in the 1960s – when forced removal was still government policy. Aboriginal rights activists also argued that it was important to recognise the truth of Australia’s history if we are to deal with it and move forward in reconciliation. Instead of an apology the Prime Minister passed a ‘Statement of Regret and Motion of Reconciliation’ in Parliament.
At the state level governments responded more positively to the Bringing Them Home Report. NSW Premier Bob Carr was the first State leader to make a formal apology to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the NSW Government and the Australian people. In the following years all state and territory leaders also apologised. Many church leaders have also apologised, and have started programs to raise awareness amongst their members about the Stolen Generations.
As part of the grassroots campaign calling for a national apology, the 26 May 1998 became the first national Sorry Day. Sorry Day was marked by ceremonies, rallies and meetings. Across the country millions of people signed Sorry Books. Ten years later Sorry Day continues to be recognised each year on 26 May. More recently Sorry Day has become known to some as Journey of Healing Day.
In 2007 a new Labor Government was elected, and promised to finally make an official apology to the Stolen Generations. At the first session of the new Federal Parliament, on 13 February 2008, the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued an official apology to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Government.
Members of the Stolen Generation were invited onto the floor of Parliament and to watch the apology from the gallery. The apology was welcomed by the majority of the Australians and celebrations were held across the country. For a copy of what the Prime Minister said visit the Parliament website at www.aph.gov.au and look up ‘Hansard’ (Hansard is the recording of all the things said in Parliament).
Some sections of the community and the media still strongly opposed the apology, arguing that the people who took the children thought they were doing the ‘right thing’, that children were taken for their own good, that the government should not be responsible for the past, and that the apology would lead to a flood of compensation claims.
After the Prime Minister’s apology the Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson also officially apologised, but his reference to some of the arguments during his talk caused upset amongst many of the people who watched the apology.
For a response to the arguments people have made against the apology see the Apology to the Stolen Generations Fact Sheet on this site.
During the apology the Prime Minister ruled out financial compensation for the Stolen Generations, but reconfirmed the Government’s commitment to focus on ‘closing the gap’ - to raise the health of Indigenous people so it matches those of other Australians. The Government and the Opposition also agreed to form a Bipartisan Committee to develop future Indigenous Policy. The campaign continues for compensation for members of the Stolen Generation and for the full implementation of the recommendations of the Bringing Them Home Report.
Stolen Generations Alliance website
http://www.sgalliance.org.au/.
The alliance was launched in 2007 as a national body speaking out for members of the Stolen Generation. This great website includes links to speeches by Stolen Generations members, media releases and opinion pieces. The ‘Education Kit‘ includes suggestions for activities people can do with primary school children, teenagers and adults, and resources in books, film and song. This is a useful site to get a sense of what members of the Stolen Generation are calling for from the government, and to get a critical view of what recommendations have and haven’t been implemented from the Bringing Them Home Report.
National Sorry Day Committee (NSDC) website
http://www.nsdc.org.au/
The NSDC’s memberships is made up of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous volunteers, including members of the Stolen Generations.
Bringing Them Home Report and education tools, by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC)
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/education…
HREOC has developed a range of resources to compliment the Bringing Them Home Report and to help educate people about the Stolen Generations. Includes lots of resources for use with students and the ‘Us Taken-Away Kids’ publication developed to mark the tenth anniversary of the original report. The website can be a bit hard to navigate, but there are some great resources on there so keep trying!
Stolen Generations webpage by the European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR)
http://www.eniar.org/stolengenerations
This site contains brief summary history mainly aimed at overseas readers. It includes some information about the Bringing Them Home Report and news indexes from various media sources of recent reports and events.
Wikipedia Stolen Generations page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generation
Includes an extensive description of the implementation of policy and action introduced by European government, personal stories and accounts of experiences from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous points of view. Also includes information about the political campaign: descriptions of media events, reactions of denial from governments, information on protests, controversy and the politics surrounding the Bringing Them Home Reports.
http://www.dreamtime.net.au
Brief description of history. Accounts of personal stories from two members of the stolen generation and information on two separate boys and girls missions and info about a Link Up program.
http://www.aboriginalartonline.com
Aboriginal perspective of history, quotes from Bringing Them Home Report and Archie Roach lyrics.
Parliamentary Library
http://www.aph.gov.au
This is a web page for the Parliamentary Library. It mainly talks of political reports and actions. Good for dates and statistics and background on government analysis and policy, but not extensive information on describing history or the repercussions of any of these actions on the Indigenous community.
SEE ALSO:
Two good resources which should be available from your local library include The Stolen Generation – issues in society (editor Kate Healey) and Blood on the Wattle (by Bruce Elder).
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