Stolen Generation
The Stolen Generation refers to the Aboriginal children in Australia who were forcibly removed from their families by government policies from 1910 to 1970. During this period, roughly one hundred thousand Aboriginal children were taken with the intent of assimilating them into white culture, as the government believed this would provide them with better opportunities. This practice often led to permanent separation from their biological families and resulted in profound psychological and emotional trauma. Many children were not informed of their Aboriginal heritage and faced severe mistreatment, including physical abuse and exploitation, in foster homes and institutions.
The broader context of these policies stemmed from a long history of oppression towards Aboriginal people following British colonization, which dismissed their claims to land and culture. The removal policies were justified under the guise of "protection," but they effectively aimed at eradicating Aboriginal culture. The repercussions of these actions continue to affect many survivors and their families, leading to ongoing discussions about reparations and recognition of their suffering. In 2008, a formal apology was issued by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, acknowledging the wrongs committed against the Stolen Generation, though the legacy of trauma remains significant within Indigenous communities today.
Stolen Generation
Stolen Generation (sometimes called Stolen Generations) refers to the many Australian Aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from their families because of various government policies between 1910 and 1970. During this period, around one hundred thousand Aboriginal children were taken from their biological parents and placed with white foster families. This practice was undertaken because the Australian government believed the Aboriginal race was dying out and that Aboriginal children would have a better chance at success in life if they were raised by white parents and assimilated into white culture. Children who were removed were often permanently separated from their biological parents and suffered psychological and emotional trauma as a result. Many younger children were not even told about their Aboriginal heritage. Children who were placed in orphanages and other institutions were also frequently subjected to physical abuse, sexual assault, and exploitation. Although Australia's Aboriginal removal policies were eventually abolished, the pain and suffering they caused continue to have a negative effect on the country's indigenous population.
Background
The people of Australia's Aboriginal community have endured oppression and persecution since the British First Fleet arrived in Sydney Harbor in 1788. From the outset, British settlers viewed Aboriginals as inferior people who had no legitimate claim on their own lands. In fact, Great Britain laid its own claim to Australia based on a doctrine known as terra nullius. This doctrine allowed the British to legally declare the land empty and open to colonization even though there were indigenous people living there. The British saw that the Aboriginals lacked a formal government and did not engage in organized trade and interpreted this to mean they were an uncivilized race of people who had no recognizable land rights. Although the Aboriginals had no concept of property rights, they did have a very close relationship with their land that the British did not understand. Rather than believing that the land belonged to them, the Aboriginals believed that they belonged to the land. British settlers' inability to understand the Aboriginal culture and the unique relationship they shared with their ancestral land had both immediate and long-term consequences.
As more settlers arrived in Australia, a growing number of Aboriginals were forced off their lands and exposed to dangerous foreign diseases that reduced their numbers. In addition, the establishment of European agricultural practices and the importation of various non-native animal species reduced or eliminated Aboriginals' traditional food sources and forced them to subsist on unfamiliar foreign foods that were high in sugar and starches. As a result, the Aboriginals' numbers were further reduced by malnutrition and diseases such as obesity and diabetes. In addition to health concerns, the Aboriginal population was also reduced through violence. On multiple occasions, Aboriginals who resisted white settlers were killed in bloody massacres that sometimes took hundreds of lives. Overall, it is estimated that within the first 150 years of British settlement, the Aboriginal population dropped from about three hundred thousand to around seventy-five thousand. Many white leaders viewed the diminishing Aboriginal population as a sign that Australia's indigenous culture was dying off and sought to do something about it.
Overview
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Australian state and federal governments began enacting so-called "protection" policies aimed at addressing the Aboriginal population's decline. These laws were mostly intended to encourage assimilation as a way of effectively eliminating the last remnants of Aboriginal culture. Among other things, the protection policies put in place during this era mandated the removal of non–full blood Aboriginal children from their biological families to better facilitate their assimilation into mainstream culture. Such children were either adopted by white foster families or sent to white-run orphanages. They were also placed in special institutions where they were stripped of their indigenous identity and forcibly integrated into white culture. Because of everything they endured during this process, these children eventually came to be known as the Stolen Generation.
Each of the Australian states adopted their own protection policies that set different rules for the removal of Aboriginal children. While some of these policies allowed children to be removed from their families simply for being Aboriginal, others stated that children had to be automatically removed when they reached fourteen years of age or if they were deemed to be neglected or at risk for immorality. Once removed from their families, Aboriginal children were forced to completely abandon their indigenous heritage and accept the norms of white society. In many instances, they were given different names and forbidden to speak their native languages. Younger children were often not even told that they were of Aboriginal descent at all.
Most of the Aboriginal children who were removed from their parents endured severe psychological and emotional trauma. In addition to being removed from their parents, many of these children were separated from their brothers and sisters. Many were also prevented from having contact with their biological parents. Some were even wrongly told that their parents were dead. These traumatic experiences were often compounded by the treatment that the children received from those who became responsible for their care. Removed Aboriginal children were often subject to physical abuse, exploitation, and even sexual assault in private family homes and public institutions alike. All of this had a profound, lasting effect on the children of the Stolen Generation.
The removal of Aboriginal children continued until "protection" policies began to be abolished in 1969. In the years that followed, the children of the Stolen Generation struggled with mental, emotional, and social problems because of the trauma they endured. Many of the details of what they experienced first became public knowledge when the Australian government published the Bringing Them Home Report in 1997. As it became clear just how much the children of the Stolen Generation suffered, additional steps were taken to address the situation, including paying reparations to survivors. In addition, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a formal apology to Stolen Generation survivors in 2008. In any event, many members of the Stolen Generation continued to feel the effects of being ripped away from their families and severely mistreated as part of an effort to eradicate their culture.
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