The Stolen Generation Era

After many years of European settlement in Australia, many Aboriginal people had been removed from their families and placed into schools with white Australians. This was due to the ‘protection policy’ laws that encouraged the removal of Indigenous children. Because fewer indigenous children were able to learn about their own culture, there was a slow decline in the culture of the indigenous people. As a result of this, there were continued tensions between the free settlers and Indigenous people as they had no roles in the government and couldn’t vote. This made them feel as if they were excluded from greater society and had long term negative impacts upon their sense of belonging to the new

The taking of half-caste Indigenous children was implemented into Australian law in the late 19th century, and continued as late in to the mid 1960's. Many politicians and everyday Australians agreed that it was helpful for the indigenous so that they were not 'disadvantaged'; “The greatest thing we have achieved” (Former PM William Hughes

The recent Australian film, Rabbit Proof Fence, similarly condemns the social, political and cultural mores of colonial and post-colonial Australia in relation to its past treatment of indigenous Australians. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, it too, is set in the 1930’s and reflects similar attitudes and values whites have to black people. The film is a true story based on the book by Doris Pilkington Garimara, the daughter of one of the half-caste children in the film who, together with two other Aboriginal girls, was forcibly removed from her family in Jigalong, Western Australia. These children form part of what is now known as the “Stolen Generation”. They, like many others who lived in the first part of the 20th century, were the victims of the official government assimilationist policy which decreed that half-caste children should be taken from their families and their land in order to be made “white”. The policy was definitely aimed at “breeding out” Aboriginality, because only half and quarter caste children were taken.

These children were put into the white homes and were prompted to adopt on the white ways. Parents had neither say nor rights in regards in keeping their child. This law stood from the 1900 to 1969 and in some cases until the 70’s. The aim for this law was to get rid of the Indigenous Australians leaving only the British settlement. On February 13th 2008 our former prime minster Kevin Rudd had apologised for the stolen generation.

‘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.

The Stolen Generation refers to the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly removed from their families and assimilated into European communities between 1880 and 1970. These children were made to adopt white culture in attempt to allow aboriginal people to “die out”, through forced rejection of their heritage and banning the use of their own language. Children faced physical, psychological and sexual abuse, sexual and labour exploitation, racism, grief, and suffering. Between 1 in 10 and 3 in 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were taken by government, church, or welfare authorities and placed into institutional or foster care with non-Indigenous families.

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

The White Australia Policy is one of the most infamous acts passed in Australian history. It discriminated against countless of different races. The policy was created with the purpose to recreate the image of a ‘White Australia’. This was the old approach taken by the Australian government to select immigrants from the white countries like the United Kingdom and stop the entry of immigrants not from white countries. Australia was following the example set by Great Britain, as shown in a statement made by W.G. Spence “If we keep the race pure,

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

Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.

The period (1814-1980s) saw the establishment of the Stolen Generations where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were forcibly separated from their families. Neglect was used as the basis for removal (Anderson, 2002). The direct impact of this policy was the death of hundreds of Aboriginal children in residential care, due to physical, nutritional and psychological neglect (Kidd, 2000). From an Indigenous perspective, this removal policy and practice has been considered a genocidal act, which spread injury trans-generationally. It continues to cause considerable grief, loss and trauma among Aboriginal families thus impacting on Aboriginal health and wellbeing (Healing Foundation, 2016). The 2014-2015 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social survey

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 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

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

Assimilation policy proposed that ‘full blood’ Indigenous people should be allowed to ‘die out’ through a process of natural elimination, while ‘half-castes’ were encouraged to assimilate into the white community. This approach was founded on the assumption of black inferiority and white superiority. It was assumed that Indigenous people would enjoy the same quality of life as white Australians if they adopted European customs and everyone would live together as a single white Australian community. In actuality, assimilation policy further destroyed Indigenous identity, culture and families. It also was justification for the removal of Indigenous children from their