Robert Manne's Stolen Children

Throughout the 1890’s and 1970’s the event of the Stolen Generation occurred. The Stolen Generation is where Aboriginal and Torre Strait Islander children were taken out of their parent’s custody, by the Australian State and Federal agencies and church commissions. These children were forced to live in so called ‘white’ methods and were to follow their teachings and understandings. This presentation of the Stolen Generation will be demonstrating; what the stolen generation was, why the white’s only took away the Aboriginal children away from their families, how did the Stolen Generation affect the children and their families, what happened to the Stolen children and what happened to the family members that weren’t stolen.

The stolen generation has impacted the lives of countless Indigenous Australians. The common perceptions of the Aboriginal people are negative. We think they should get jobs and work as hard as most white Australians do today. We don’t consider the emotions and effects the stolen generation has had on our indigenous Australian’s. We understand the past events were bad but we can’t fathom why they don’t just move on, forget it and leave the past behind? By looking through sources, recounts and information we can mould our narrow ideas and preconceptions to be considerate, understand the horror and respond better towards our indigenous people.

‘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

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

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.

“That is why the parliament is today here assembled: to deal with this unfinished business of the nation, to remove a great stain from the nation’s soul and, in a true spirit of reconciliation, to open a new chapter in the history of this great land, Australia.” He brings up this topic because he wants to do something good for Australia’s future and he says that it is time for a new beginning for Australia, and all the bad days and terrible things that happened to “The Stolen Generation” is a bolted chapter in the history of Australia.

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

A new page in Australia’s history by writing the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.” To continue on Kevin Rudd had also quoted” We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments, and governments that have inflicted profound grief suffering and loss on these fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of aboriginal and Torres strait islander children from their families, their community’s.” Therefore saying the stolen generation relates to the movie ‘

Reconciliation with the Indigenous People of Australia Reconciliation is not only an issue for the indigenous people of Australia, but for every Australian. The a major step in achieving this is for an official apology to be made by the Australian Government to indigenous Australians - especially those of the Stolen Generation. But as with any controversial issue in our society there are many differing views on the matter, in support and not in support of such a move. This essay will briefly outline these arguments subjectively.

‘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.

On February 13th, 2008, indigenous and aboriginal people across all of Australia were deeply moved and in tears; The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, had finally apologised the Stolen Generations in his ‘sorry’ speech. The Apology was an important step towards rebuilding respectful and new relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, and to honour and apologize to stolen generations. Many Australians believe that respectful relationships are essential if we are to solve persistent problems. But poll results can sometimes show otherwise. We will see how the media saw the ‘sorry’ apology, how aboriginal and non- indigenous people felt and how they received the apology and also check out poll results. We will

Belonging comes from an understanding, or the knowledge that an external sense of being comes from an internal sense of connection and safety. This critical analysis will portray how the text “Stolen” by Jane Harrison relates to the concept of belonging. Stolen is a play that tells the stories of 5 Aboriginal children that were stolen away from their families and were forced to grow up in institutions, following the European way of life. The children were segregated from their communities and treated as inferiorly. Their worth was seen as minimal and only useful to Europeans as slaves. “Stolen” is an example of not belonging to the environment that one is living in. The children are stolen from their parents, their culture and traditions,

During the 1890’s and 1970’s, Indigenous Australians did not have equal rights as the ‘white’ Australians and were treated callously, anguished and tortured due to their race. The Stolen Generation was the event where children, who were of an Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, were removed from their families. Many Indigenous children were forcefully removed from their families, never being able to see them again. The treatment towards the Indigenous Australian’s was horrific, as these children were taken away from their community, placed into an institution to be changed into the ‘white’ ways of doing things whilst being treated with brutality in the procedure. To demonstrate to what extent did the Stolen 3 Generation affected the Australian population several key areas of the will be examined. This includes; what was the Stolen Generation, when did the Stolen Generation start and when did it end, what was the cause of the Stolen Generation. how did the Stolen Generation affect the Indigenous Australians and the non – Indigenous Australians and how significant was the event to Australian History. Once these aspects have been observed, it will become clear that the affect of the Stolen Generation to the Australian population was a significant part of the Rights and Freedoms movement which change the way the Indigenous population were recognised in our society.

The Stolen Generation was between the times of 1910-1970. An estimate of 6,200 children in New South wales were forcefully removed from their homes and many more, due to the government policies at the time. The policy of Assimilation, it was the black inferiority and white was more superior. This removable was to teach the children the “white” way of living, teaching the western way of living, making them neglect their culture languages and making them hate their own background. Half of the children would either be adopted or put into an institution, where they would be abused. This is dark past of Australians’

After studying the unit “Stolen Voices”, I have come to believe that the language arts hold significant authority in controlling how readers respond to ideas and messages underlying within Indigenous texts as well as how they are presented. I also believe that as readers we should try to uncover the hidden values the author has left in their composition as well as make an attempt to understand and connect with them. “Stand up” directed by Rachel Perkins is an empowering episode from the Redfern Now series. This episode follows the journey of an Aboriginal youth who refuses to “stand up” for the Australian national anthem and is torn apart between his father’s principles and school traditions. Whereas, Oodgeroo’s touching autobiographical story