The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of
Australian Aboriginal
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...
and
Torres Strait Islander
Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often grou ...
descent who were removed from their families by the Australian
federal and
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* '' Our ...
government agencies and church
missions
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
* Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
, under
acts
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...
of their respective parliaments. The removals of those referred to as "
half-caste" children were conducted in the period between approximately 1905 and 1967,
although in some places
mixed-race
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-eth ...
children were still being taken into the 1970s.
Official government estimates are that in certain regions between one in ten and one in three
Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples o ...
children were forcibly taken from their families and communities between 1910 and 1970.
Emergence of the child removal policy
Numerous 19th and early 20th-century contemporaneous documents indicate that the policy of removing mixed-race Aboriginal children from their mothers related to an assumption that the Aboriginal peoples were dying off. Given their catastrophic population decline after white contact, whites assumed that the full-blood
tribal Aboriginal population would be unable to sustain itself, and was doomed to
extinction
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds ( taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed ...
. The idea expressed by
A. O. Neville, the
Chief Protector of Aborigines for
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
, and others as late as 1930 was that mixed-race children could be trained to work in white society, and over generations would marry white and be assimilated into the society.
[Western Australia State Archives, 993/423/38, "Absorption of Half Castes into the White Population".]
Some
European Australians
European Australians are citizens or residents of Australia whose ancestry originates from the peoples of Europe. They form the largest panethnic group in the country. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorised within Eu ...
considered any proliferation of mixed-descent children (labelled "half-castes", "crossbreeds", "
quadroons", and "
octoroons",
terms now considered derogatory to Indigenous Australians) to be a threat to the stability of the prevailing culture, or to a perceived racial or cultural "heritage".
The Northern Territory Chief Protector of Aborigines, Dr.
Cecil Cook, argued that "everything necessary
ust be done UST or Ust may refer to:
Organizations
* UST (company), American digital technology company
* Equatorial Guinea Workers' Union
* Union of Trade Unions of Chad (Union des Syndicats du Tchad)
* United States Television Manufacturing Corp.
* UST Grow ...
to convert the half-caste into a white citizen".
Northern Territory
In the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...
, the segregation of Indigenous Australians of mixed descent from "full-blood" Indigenous people began with the government removing children of mixed descent from their communities and placing them in church-run missions, and later creating segregated
reserves and compounds to hold all Indigenous Australians. This was a response to public concern over the increase in the number of mixed-descent children and sexual exploitation of young Aboriginal women by non-Indigenous men, as well as fears among non-Indigenous people of being outnumbered by a mixed-descent population.
Under the ''
Northern Territory Aboriginals Act 1910'', the Chief Protector of Aborigines was appointed the "legal guardian of every Aboriginal and every half-caste child up to the age of 18 years", thus providing the legal basis for enforcing segregation. After the Commonwealth took control of the Territory, under the ''
Aboriginals Ordinance 1918'', the Chief Protector was given total control of all Indigenous women regardless of their age, unless married to a man who was "substantially of European origin", and his approval was required for any marriage of an Indigenous woman to a non-Indigenous man.
Policy in practice
The ''
Aboriginal Protection Act 1869'' (Vic) included the earliest legislation to authorise child removal from Aboriginal parents. The
Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines had been advocating such powers since 1860. Passage of the Act gave the colony of Victoria a wide suite of powers over Aboriginal and "half-caste" persons, including the forcible removal of children, especially "at-risk" girls. Through the late 19th and early 20th century, similar policies and legislation were adopted by other states and territories, such as the ''
Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897'' (Qld), the ''Aboriginals Ordinance 1918'' (NT), the ''Aborigines Act 1934'' (SA), and the ''1936 Native Administration Act'' (WA).
As a result of such legislation, states arranged widespread removal of (primarily) mixed-race children from their Aboriginal mothers. In addition, appointed
Aboriginal protectors in each state exercised wide-ranging
guardianship powers over Aboriginal people up to the age of 16 or 21, often determining where they could live or work. Policemen or other agents of the state (some designated as "Aboriginal Protection Officers") were given the power to locate and transfer babies and children of mixed descent from their mothers, families, and communities into institutions for care. In these Australian states and territories, institutions (both government and missionary) for half-caste children were established in the early decades of the 20th century to care and educate the mixed-race children taken from their families. Examples of such institutions include
Moore River Native Settlement in Western Australia,
Doomadgee Aboriginal Mission in
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
,
Ebenezer Mission in Victoria, and
Wellington Valley Mission
Wellington Valley Mission was a Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission near to Wellington, New South Wales and one of the earliest to "Civilize and Christianize" Aboriginal people in Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth o ...
in
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, as well as Catholic missions such as
Beagle Bay and
Garden Point
Pirlangimpi, formerly Garden Point, is a populated place on Melville Island in the Northern Territory, Australia.
History
Pirlangimpi lies from the site of the first British settlement in northern Australia, the short-lived Fort Dundas. The p ...
.
The exact number of children removed is unknown. Estimates of numbers have been widely disputed. The ''
Bringing Them Home'' report (produced by the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families in 1987), says that "at least 100,000" children were removed from their parents. This figure was estimated by multiplying the Aboriginal population in 1994 (303,000), by the report's maximum estimate of "one in three" Aboriginal persons separated from their families. The report stated that "between one in three and one in ten" children were separated from their families. Given differing populations over a long period of time, different policies at different times in different states (which also resulted in different definitions of target children), and incomplete records, accurate figures are difficult to establish. The academic
Robert Manne
Robert Michael Manne (born 31 October 1947) is an Emeritus Professor of politics and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. He is a leading Australian public intellectual.
Background
Robert Manne was born in Melbo ...
has stated that the lower-end figure of one in 10 is more likely; he estimates that between 20,000 and 25,000 Aboriginal children were removed over six decades, based on a survey of self-identified Indigenous people by the television station
ABS.
According to the ''Bringing Them Home'' report:
The report closely examined the distinctions between "forcible removal", "removal under threat or duress", "official deception", "uninformed voluntary release", and "voluntary release".
The evidence indicated that in numerous cases, children were brutally and forcibly removed from their parent or parents, possibly even from the hospital shortly after birth, when identified as mixed-race babies. Aboriginal Protection Officers often made the judgement to remove certain children. In some cases, families were required to sign legal documents to relinquish care to the state. In Western Australia, the ''Aborigines Act 1905'' removed the legal guardianship of Aboriginal parents. It made all their children legal
wards of the state, so the government did not require parental permission to relocate the mixed-race children to institutions.
In 1915, in New South Wales, the ''Aborigines Protection Amending Act 1915'' gave the
Aborigines' Protection Board authority to remove Aboriginal children "without having to establish in court that they were neglected." At the time, some members of Parliament objected to the NSW amendment; one member stated it enabled the Board to "steal the child away from its parents." At least two members argued that the amendment would result in children being subjected to unpaid labour (at institutions or farms) tantamount to "slavery".
[ Writing in the 21st century, Professor Peter Read said that Board members, in recording reasons for removal of children, noted simply "For being Aboriginal."][ But the number of files bearing such a comment appear to be on the order of either one or two, with two others being noted only with "Aboriginal".
In 1909, the Protector of Aborigines in ]South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, William Garnet South, reportedly "lobbied for the power to remove Aboriginal children without a court hearing because the courts sometimes refused to accept that the children were neglected or destitute". South argued that "all children of mixed descent should be treated as neglected". His lobbying reportedly played a part in the enactment of the ''Aborigines Act 1911.'' This designated his position as the legal guardian of every Aboriginal child in South Australia, not only the so-called "half-castes".[
The ''Bringing Them Home'' report identified instances of official misrepresentation and deception, such as when caring and able parents were incorrectly described by Aboriginal Protection Officers as not being able to properly provide for their children. In other instances, parents were told by government officials that their child or children had died, even though this was not the case. One first-hand account referring to events in 1935 stated:
]I was at the post office with my Mum and Auntie nd cousin They put us in the police ute and said they were taking us to Broome. They put the mums in there as well. But when we'd gone bout they stopped, and threw the mothers out of the car. We jumped on our mothers' backs, crying, trying not to be left behind. But the policemen pulled us off and threw us back in the car. They pushed the mothers away and drove off, while our mothers were chasing the car, running and crying after us. We were screaming in the back of that car. When we got to Broome they put me and my cousin in the Broome lock-up. We were only ten years old. We were in the lock-up for two days waiting for the boat to Perth.
The report discovered that removed children were, in most cases, placed into institutional facilities operated by religious or charitable organisations. A significant number, particularly females, were "fostered" out. Children taken to such institutions were trained to be assimilated to Anglo-Australian culture. Policies included punishment for speaking their local Indigenous languages. The intention was to educate them for a different future and to prevent their being socialised in Aboriginal cultures
Australian Aboriginal culture includes a number of practices and ceremonies centered on a belief in the Dreamtime and other mythology. Reverence and respect for the land and oral traditions are emphasised. Over 300 languages and other groupings ...
. The boys were generally trained as agricultural labourers and the girls as domestic servants
A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...
; these were the chief occupations of many Europeans at the time in the largely rural areas outside cities.
A common aspect of the removals was the failure by these institutions to keep records of the actual parentage of the child, or such details as the date or place of birth. As is stated in the report:
the physical infrastructure of missions, government institutions and children's homes was often very poor and resources were insufficient to improve them or to keep the children adequately clothed, fed and sheltered.
The children were taken into care purportedly to protect them from neglect and abuse. However, the report said that, among the 502 inquiry witnesses, 17% of female witnesses and 7.7% of male witnesses reported having suffered a sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, whi ...
while in an institution, at work, or while living with a foster or adoptive family.
Documentary evidence, such as newspaper articles and reports to parliamentary committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
s, suggest a range of rationales. Apparent motivations included the belief that the Aboriginal people would die out, given their catastrophic population decline after white contact, the belief that they were heathens and were better off in non-indigenous households, and the belief that full-blooded Aboriginal people resented miscegenation
Miscegenation ( ) is the interbreeding of people who are considered to be members of different Race (human categorization), races. The word, now usually considered pejorative, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms ''miscere'' ("to m ...
and the mixed-race children fathered and abandoned by white men.
Effects on the removed and their descendants
Removed people
The stated aim of the "resocialisation" program was to improve the integration of Aboriginal people into modern uropean-Australiansociety; however, a recent study conducted in Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...
reported that there was no tangible improvement in the social position of "removed" Aboriginal people as compared to "non-removed". Particularly in the areas of employment and post-secondary education, the removed children had about the same results as those who were not removed. In the early decades of the program, post-secondary education was limited for most Australians, but the removed children lagged behind their white contemporaries as educational opportunities improved.
The study indicated that removed Aboriginal people were less likely to have completed a secondary education, three times as likely to have acquired a police record, and were twice as likely to use illicit drugs as were Aboriginal people who grew up in their ethnic community. The only notable advantage "removed" Aboriginal people achieved was a higher average income. The report noted this was likely due to the increased urbanisation of removed individuals, and greater access to welfare payments than for Aboriginal people living in remote communities. There seemed to be little evidence that removed mixed-race Aboriginal people had been successful in gaining better work even in urbanised areas.
By around the age of 18, the children were released from government control. In cases where their files were available, individuals were sometimes allowed to view their own files. According to the testimony of one Aboriginal person:
I was requested to attend at the Sunshine Welfare Offices, where they formerly (sic) discharged me from State ward ship. It took the Senior Welfare Officer a mere 20 minutes to come clean, and tell me everything that my heart had always wanted to know...that I was of "Aboriginal descent", that I had a Natural mother, father, three brothers and a sister, who were alive...He placed in front of me 368 pages of my file, together with letters, photos and birthday cards. He informed me that my surname would change back to my Mother's maiden name of Angus.
The ''Bringing Them Home'' report condemned the policy of disconnecting children from their cultural heritage. One witness said to the commission:
I've got everything that could be reasonably expected: a good home environment, education, stuff like that, but that's all material stuff. It's all the non-material stuff that I didn't have — the lineage... You know, you've just come out of nowhere; there you are.
In 2015, many of the recommendations of ''Bringing Them Home'' were yet to be fulfilled. In 2017, 35% of all children in out-of-home care in Australia identify as being Aboriginal, an increase from 20% in 1997 when ''Bringing Them Home'' was published.
Generational effects
A 2019 study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is Australia's national agency for information and statistics on Australia's health and welfare. Statistics and data developed by the AIHW are used extensively to inform discussion and polic ...
(AIHW) found that children living in households with members of the Stolen Generations are more likely "to experience a range of adverse outcomes", including poor health, especially mental health
Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental hea ...
, missing school and living in poverty. There are high incidences of anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil
Turmoil may refer to:
* ''Turmoil'' (1984 video game), a 1984 video game released by Bug-Byte
* ''Turmoil'' (2016 video game), a 2016 indie oil tycoon video ...
, depression, PTSD and suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...
, along with alcohol abuse, among the Stolen Generations, with this resulting in unstable parenting and family situations.
Public awareness and recognition
Historian Professor Peter Read, then at the Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
, was the first to use the phrase "stolen generation". He published a magazine article on the topic with this title, based on his research. He expanded the article into a book, ''The Stolen Generations'' (1981).[ Widespread awareness of the Stolen Generations, and the practices that created them, grew in the late 1980s through the efforts of Aboriginal and white activists, artists, and ]musicians
A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who ...
(Archie Roach
Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian singer, songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Abori ...
's "Took the Children Away
"Took the Children Away" is a song written and recorded by Australian singer Archie Roach. The song was released in September 1990 as his debut single. The song was included on Roach's debut studio album '' Charcoal Lane''.
At the ARIA Music ...
" and Midnight Oil's " The Dead Heart" being examples of the latter). The '' Mabo v Queensland (No 2)'' case (commonly known as the ''Mabo case'') attracted great media and public attention to itself and to all issues related to the government treatment of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia, and most notably the Stolen Generations.
In early 1995, Rob Riley, an activist with the Aboriginal Legal Service, published ''Telling Our Story.'' It described the large-scale negative effects of past government policies that resulted in the removal of thousands of mixed-race Aboriginal children from their families and their being reared in a variety of conditions in missions, orphanages, reserves, and white foster homes.
The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's ''National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families'' commenced in May 1995, presided over by the Commission's president Sir Ronald Wilson and its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Dodson. During the ensuing 17 months, the Inquiry visited every state and Territory in Australia, heard testimony from 535 Aboriginal Australians, and received submissions of evidence from more than 600 more. In April 1997, the Commission released its official ''Bringing Them Home'' report.
Between the commissioning of the National Inquiry and the release of the final report in 1997, the government of John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...
had replaced the Paul Keating
Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously ser ...
government. At the Australian Reconciliation Convention
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Au ...
in May 1997, Howard was quoted as saying: "Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies."
Following publication of the report, the parliament of the Northern Territory and the state parliaments of Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales passed formal apologies to the Aboriginal people affected. On 26 May 1998, the first "National Sorry Day
National Sorry Day, or the National Day of Healing, is an annual event that has been held in Australia on 26 May since 1998. The event remembers and commemorates the mistreatment of the country's Indigenous peoples as part of an ongoing proce ...
" was held; reconciliation events such as the Walk for Reconciliation across Sydney Harbour Bridge
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Sydney Harbour from the central business district (CBD) to the North Shore. The view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is widely regarded ...
and in other cities were held nationally, and attended by a total of more than one million people. As public pressure continued to increase on the government, Howard drafted a Motion of Reconciliation with Senator Aden Ridgeway, expressing "deep and sincere regret over the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents", which was passed by the federal parliament in August 1999. Howard said that the Stolen Generation represented "the most blemished chapter in the history of this country".
Activists took the issue of the Stolen Generations to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of ...
. At its hearing on this subject in July 2000, the Commission on Human Rights strongly criticised the Howard government for its handling of issues related to the Stolen Generations. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination concluded its discussion of Australia's 12th report on its actions by acknowledging "the measures taken to facilitate family reunion and to improve counselling and family support services for the victims", but expressed concern:
that the Commonwealth Government does not support a formal national apology and that it considers inappropriate the provision of monetary compensation for those forcibly and unjustifiably separated from their families, on the grounds that such practices were sanctioned by law at the time and were intended to "assist the people whom they affected".
The Committee recommended "that the State party consider the need to address appropriately the extraordinary harm inflicted by these racially discriminatory practices."
Activists highlighted the Stolen Generations and related Aboriginal issues during the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...
. They set up a large "Aboriginal Tent City" on the grounds of Sydney University to bring attention to Aboriginal issues in general. Cathy Freeman is an Aboriginal athlete who was chosen to light the Olympic flame
The Olympic flame is a symbol used in the Olympic movement. It is also a symbol of continuity between ancient and modern games. Several months before the Olympic Games, the Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece. This ceremony starts the Olymp ...
and won the gold medal in the 400 metre sprint. In interviews, she said that her own grandmother was a victim of forced removal. The internationally successful rock group Midnight Oil attracted worldwide media interest by performing at the Olympic closing ceremony in black sweatsuits with the word "SORRY" emblazoned across them.
In 2000, Australian journalist Phillip Knightley summed up the Stolen Generations in these terms:
This cannot be over-emphasized—the Australian government literally kidnapped these children from their parents as a matter of policy. White welfare officers, often supported by police, would descend on Aboriginal camps, round up all the children, separate the ones with light-coloured skin, bundle them into trucks and take them away. If their parents protested they were held at bay by police.
According to the archaeologist and writer Josephine Flood, "The well-meaning but ill-conceived policy of forced assimilation of mixed-race Aborigines is now universally condemned for the trauma and loss of language and culture it brought to the stolen children and their families."
Australian federal parliament apology
One of the recommendations of the 1997 Bringing Them Home report was for Australian parliaments to offer an official apology. A decade later, on 13 February 2008, Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...
presented an apology to Indigenous Australians as a motion
In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...
to be voted on by the house. The apology text was as follows:
The text of the apology did not refer to compensation to Aboriginal people generally or to members of the Stolen Generations specifically. Rudd followed the apology with a 20-minute speech to the house about the need for this action. The government's apology and his speech were widely applauded among both Indigenous Australians and the non-Indigenous general public.
Opposition leader Brendan Nelson also delivered a 20-minute speech. He endorsed the apology but in his speech Nelson referred to the "under-policing" of child welfare in Aboriginal communities, as well as a host of social ills blighting the lives of Aboriginal people. His speech was considered controversial and received mixed reactions. Thousands of people who had gathered in public spaces in around Australia to hear the apology turned their backs on the screens that broadcast Nelson speaking. In Perth
Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...
, people booed and jeered until the screen was switched off. In Parliament House's Great Hall, elements of the audience began a slow clap, with some finally turning their backs.
The apology was unanimously adopted by the House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
, although six members of Nelson's opposition caucus left the House in protest at the apology.[ Later that day, the ]Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...
considered a motion for an identical apology, which was also passed unanimously. Beforehand, the Leader of the Greens
Greens may refer to:
*Leaf vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, spring greens, winter greens, spinach, etc.
Politics Supranational
* Green politics
* Green party, political parties adhering to Green politics
* Global Greens
* Europ ...
, Senator Bob Brown
Robert James Brown (born 27 December 1944) is a former Australian politician, medical doctor and environmentalist. He was a senator and the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens. Brown was elected to the Australian Senate on the Tasm ...
, attempted to amend the motion to include words committing parliament to offering compensation to those who suffered loss under past Indigenous policies, but was opposed by all the other parties.
Legal cases and compensation
The states all have redress schemes: first Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
(2006), followed by Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
(2007), Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
(2012), South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
(2015), New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
(2017) and Victoria (2022),[ while a redress scheme for the territories, formerly controlled by the Commonwealth Government, was announced in August 2021.]
For victims of sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
, there is also National Redress Scheme
The National Redress Scheme (NRS) was established in 2018 by the Australian Government as a result of a recommendation by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It aims to offer support to survivors of abuse suf ...
, set up in the wake of the ,[ which started on 1 July 2019 and open for applications until 30 June 2027.]
New South Wales
Compensation claims have been heard by the NSW Supreme Court's Court of Appeal in ''Williams v The Minister Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 and New South Wales'' 000NSWCA 255 and the Australian Federal Court in ''Cubillo v Commonwealth of Australia'' 000FCA 1084. In ''Williams'', an individual (rather than a group of plaintiffs) made claims in negligence arising from having been placed under the control of the Aborigines Welfare Board pursuant to s 7(2) of the ''Aborigines Welfare Act 1909'' shortly after her birth, and was placed by the Board with the United Aborigines Mission
The United Aborigines Mission (UAM) (also known as UAM Ministries, United Aborigines' Mission (Australia), and United Aborigines' Mission of Australia) was one of the largest missions in Australia, having dozens of missionaries and stations, and ...
at its Aborigines Children Home at Bomaderry near Nowra, NSW. The trial judge found that there was no duty of care and therefore that an action in negligence could not succeed. This was upheld by the NSW Court of Appeal in 2000.
In relation to whether the action in NSW courts was limited by the passage of time, the Court of Appeal, reversing Studert J, extended the limitation period for the non-equitable claims by about three decades pursuant to s 60G of the ''Limitation Act 1969'' (''Williams v Minister'', ''Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983'' (1994) 35 NSWLR 497).
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...
's 2008 Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples was not expected to have any legal effect on claims for compensation in NSW.
New South Wales set up a scheme running from 1 July 2017 until 30 June 2022, enabling survivors to claim compensation. Its funding also allows for a healing fund, allocating grants to healing centres, memorials and keeping places, as well as a separate fund to help fund Stolen Generations members' funerals. There were estimated to be between 700 and 1,300 survivors in NSW in 2017.[
]
Queensland
Queensland has the ''Redress Scheme'' that provides compensation payments ranging from $7000 to $40,000 to people who experienced abuse and neglect as children in Queensland institutions (Government of Queensland 2012). The scheme is not exclusive for Indigenous peoples but is for anyone who experienced abuse as a child whilst in state care.[ Zuckermann, Ghil‘ad (2020), '' Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond'']
Oxford University Press
/
South Australia
In June 1998, Bruce Trevorrow, a Ngarrindjeri man, sued the South Australian Government
The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...
for pain and suffering suffered as a result of his being removed from his parents when he was a baby.
On 1 August 2007, aged 50, Trevorrow became the first member of the Stolen Generations to be awarded compensation by a court of law, when it awarded him . The SA government appealed in February 2008, but lost their appeal in March 2010, but Trevorrow had died only a few months after they lodged the appeal.[
The South Australian reparations scheme was set up in November 2015, after a 2013 parliamentary committee reported that such a fund would be cheaper than fighting legal claims. The fund allows for around 300 eligible people to receive up to each.][ A Individual Reparations Scheme provided ex-gratia payments to Aboriginal people who were eligible for reparations, and in 2018, a payment of was made to eligible applicants, with an additional to follow. After the total fund of was underspent, the Community Reparations Fund was established to support projects that would promote healing for the Stolen Generations, their families and the wider community.
]
Tasmania
In October 2006 the Tasmanian Government allocated a package of to fund various reconciliation measures, including compensation for affected people, or their descendants if no longer living, under the ''Stolen Generation of Aboriginal Children Act 2006''. In a first for the country, 106 people were found to qualify for the payments.[
]
Victoria
On 3 March 2022 Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced a reparations package worth . Aboriginal Victorians who were removed before 1977 are able to access payments of each. Each person deemed eligible will also receive a personal apology from the Victorian Government
The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and ...
and access to healing programs. It is thought that around 12000 people will be eligible to access the payments and programs. The reparations package was raised as a key issue at the first meeting of the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria in 2020, and Andrews acknowledged that it was long overdue. Applications open on 31 March 2022.[
]
Western Australia
Western Australia has a redress scheme that is not exclusive for Indigenous peoples but is for anyone who experienced abuse as a child whilst in state care.[
]
Territories
''Kruger v Commonwealth''
21st century
A compensation fund worth was announced by the federal government on 6 August 2021, to be used to award one-off payments of in recognition of the harm suffered as well as to pay for counselling, for survivors of the Stolen Generations in the Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...
, Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...
and Jervis Bay Territory
The Jervis Bay Territory (; JBT) is an internal territory of Australia. It was established in 1915 from part of New South Wales (NSW), in order to give the landlocked Australian Capital Territory (ACT) access to the sea.
It was administered ...
.
A class action on behalf of around 1700 deceased estates and family members was launched in the Northern Territory in 2021. In August 2022 the Commonwealth agreed to pay compensation of over A$50 million to the claimants, pending formal approval from the New South Wales Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. Whilst the Supreme Court ...
.
Historical debate
Use of the word "stolen"
The word "stolen" is used here to refer to the Aboriginal children having been taken away from their families. It has been in use for this since the early 20th century. For instance, Patrick McGarry, a member of the Parliament of New South Wales
The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Each ...
, objected to the ''Aborigines Protection Amending Act 1915'' which authorised the Aborigines' Protection Board to remove Aboriginal children from their parents without having to establish cause. McGarry described the policy as "steal ngthe child away from its parents".
In 1924, the ''Adelaide'' ''Sun'' wrote: "The word 'stole' may sound a bit far-fetched but by the time we have told the story of the heart-broken Aboriginal mother we are sure the word will not be considered out of place."
In most jurisdictions, Indigenous Australians were put under the authority of a Protector, effectively being made wards of the State. The protection was done through each jurisdiction's Aboriginal Protection Board; in Victoria and Western Australia these boards were also responsible for applying what were known as '' Half-Caste Acts''.
More recent usage has developed since Peter Read's publication of ''The Stolen Generations: The Removal of Aboriginal Children in New South Wales 1883 to 1969'' (1981), which examined the history of these government actions. The 1997 publication of the government's ''Bringing Them Home – Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families'' heightened awareness of the Stolen Generations. The acceptance of the term in Australia is illustrated by the 2008 formal apology to the Stolen Generations, led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and passed by both houses of the Parliament of Australia. Previous apologies had been offered by State and Territory governments in the period 1997–2001.
Some have objected to the use of the term "Stolen Generations". Former Prime Minister John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...
did not believe the government should apologise to the Australian Aboriginal peoples. Then Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs John Herron disputed usage of the term in April 2000. Others who disputed the use of the term include Peter Howson
Peter Howson OBE (born 27 March 1958) is a Scottish painter. He was a British official war artist in 1993 during the Bosnian War.
Early life
Peter Howson was born in London of Scottish parents and moved with his family to Prestwick, Ayrs ...
, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs from 1971 to 1972, and Keith Windschuttle, an historian who argues that some of the abuses towards Australian Aboriginal peoples have been exaggerated and in some cases invented. Many historians argue against these denials, including to Windschuttle in particular. Anthropologist Ron Brunton also criticised the proceedings on the basis that there was no cross-examination of those giving their testimonies or critical examination of the factual basis of the testimony.
The ''Bringing Them Home'' report provided extensive details about the removal programs and their effects. Sir Ronald Wilson, former President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission and a Commissioner on the Inquiry, stated that "when it comes to the credibility of those stories, there is ample credibility, not from the cross-examination of the children themselves, but from the governments whose laws, practices and policies enabled these forced removals to take place. We had the support of every State government; they came to the Inquiry, came with lever-arch files setting out the laws from the earliest days right up to the end of the assimilation policy, that is up to the 1970s and more importantly, senior government offices attended. In every case, these senior officers acknowledged that there was a lot of cruelty in the application of those laws and policies."
In April 2000, Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron tabled a report in the Australian Parliament in response to the Human Rights Commission report which stated that, as "only 10% of Aboriginal children" had been removed, they did not constitute an entire "generation".[ The report attracted media attention and protests.]["No stolen generation: Australian Govt"](_blank)
, ''The 7.30 Report'', ABC TV, 3 April 2000. Retrieved 19 February 2008. Herron apologised for the "understandable offence taken by some people" as a result of his comments, although he refused to alter the report as it had been tabled.
Historian Peter Read referred to the children affected as the "Stolen Generations". Another historian, Robert Manne
Robert Michael Manne (born 31 October 1947) is an Emeritus Professor of politics and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. He is a leading Australian public intellectual.
Background
Robert Manne was born in Melbo ...
, defended that terminology, making the analogy that other people refer to the "generation that lost their lives in the First World War" without meaning over 50 per cent of the young people at the time; rather, people use that phrasing as a metaphor for a collective experience. Similarly, he believes, some of the Aboriginal community use the term to describe their collective suffering.
Genocide debate
There is ongoing contention among politicians, commentators, and historical, political, and legal experts as to whether the forced removals of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children that occurred during the Stolen Generations can be accurately described as genocidal
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
acts, and particularly whether they meet the definition of genocide in article II (e) of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. While it is generally not disputed that these forced removals occurred, the contention surrounds whether they were enacted with the intention of destroying the Indigenous people of Australia. There is further contention as to whether those responsible for the Stolen Generations should be criminally liable for genocide. In response to a submission by the National Aboriginal and Islander Legal Services Secretariat to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Commissioner Johnston considered whether the policies and practices of the Australian Governments pertinent to the Stolen Generations constituted a breach of the Convention but concluded that " is not my function to interpret the Convention or to decide whether it has been breached, particularly since the policies involved were modified in 1962 somewhat and abandoned by 1970". The ''Bringing Them Home'' report concluded that: The Australian practice of Indigenous child removal involved both systematic racial discrimination and genocide as defined by international law. Yet it continued to be practised as official policy long after being clearly prohibited by treaties to which Australia had voluntarily subscribed.
However, in the subsequent case of '' Kruger v Commonwealth'', the High Court judges rejected the claim of the plaintiffs that the ''Aboriginals Ordinance 1918'' authorised genocide as defined by the Convention and ruled that there was no legislation to implement the Convention under Australian municipal law at the time. One of the recommendations of the ''Bringing Them Home'' report was that 'the Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with " republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from th ...
legislate to implement the Genocide Convention with full domestic effect'. While genocide has been a crime under international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
since the commencement of the Convention in 1951, in accordance with Section 51(xxix) of the Australian Constitution, it has only been a crime under Australian law since the commencement of the ''International Criminal Court (Consequential Amendments) Act 2002'', and so the Stolen Generations cannot be considered genocide under Australian law because the Act is not retrospective. In its twelfth report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Australian Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...
argued that the removal policies and programs did not constitute a breach of the Convention.
In 1997, Sir Ronald Wilson, then President of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body funded by, but opera ...
, commissioner of the ''National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families'', and co-author of the ''Bringing Them Home'' report, argued that the policies resulting in the Stolen Generations constitute attempted genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the L ...
: he stated, "It clearly was attempted genocide. It was believed that the Aboriginal people would die out."
Manne argues that the expressed views of government bureaucrats, such as A. O. Neville, to assimilate the mixed-race children into the white population by means of "breeding out the colour", and therefore eventually resulting in the full-bloods being "forgotten", bore strong similarities to the racial views of the Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
in 1930s Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. Manne points out that, though the term "genocide" had not yet entered the English language, the policies of Neville and others were termed by some contemporaries as the "die out" or "breed out" policy, giving an indication of their proposed intent. He also states that academics "generally acknowledge" that the authors of the ''Bringing Them Home'' report were wrong to argue that Australian authorities had committed genocide by removing indigenous children from their families. Social assimilation has never been regarded in law as equivalent to genocide.
Though historian Paul Bartrop rejects the use of the word genocide to describe Australian colonial history in general, he does believe that it applies to describing the Stolen Generations. Bartrop and US scholar Samuel Totten
Samuel Totten is an American professor of history noted for his scholarship on genocide. Totten was a distinguished professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville where he taught from 1987 to 2012 and served as the chief editor of the jo ...
together wrote the ''Dictionary of Genocide'', for which Bartrop wrote the entry on Australia. He said he used as the benchmark for usage of the term genocide the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which is also cited in the ''Bringing Them Home'' report.
In 2006, Australian historian Patrick Wolfe wrote:To take an example from genocide's definitional core, Article II (d) of the UN Convention on Genocide, which seems to have been relatively overlooked in Australian discussions, includes among the acts that constitute genocide (assuming they are committed with intent to destroy a target group in whole or in part) the imposition of “measures intended to prevent births within the group.” Given that the Australian practice of abducting Aboriginal children, assuming its “success,” would bring about a situation in which second-generation offspring were born into a group that was different from the one from which the child/parent had originally been abducted, there is abundant evidence of genocide being practised in post-war Australia on the basis of Article II (d) alone.
In 2008, Australian historian Inga Clendinnen suggested that the term genocide rests on the "question of intentionality", saying: "There's not much doubt, with great murderous performances that were typically called genocide, that they were deliberate and intentional. Beyond that, it always gets very murky."
Representation in other media
Documentary
*The documentary ''Lousy Little Sixpence
''Lousy Little Sixpence'' is a 1983 Australian documentary film about Australian history that details the early years of the Stolen Generations and the struggle of Aboriginal Australians against the Aboriginal Protection Board in the 1930s. The f ...
'' (1983) was the first film to deal with the Stolen Generations. Directed and produced by Alec Morgan, it won several international and Australian awards. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
did not air it for two years. The film is now standard fare in educational institutions, and has been highly influential.
*The documentary film ''Kanyini
Kanyini is a word in the Pitjantjatjara dialect spoken by Indigenous Australians.
It is the principle of connectedness through caring and responsibility that underpins Aboriginal life. Kanyini is a connectedness to ''tjukurrpa'' (knowledge of ...
'' (2006), directed by Melanie Hogan
Melanie Hogan (born 8 July 1977) is a film director and producer, known for her works in Australian documentary cinema. Hogan became first known with her directorial debut ''Kanyini'' which premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in 2006. The fil ...
, featured Bob Randall. He is an elder of the Yankunytjatjara people and one of the listed traditional owners of Uluru
Uluru (; pjt, Uluṟu ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone formation in the centre of Australia. It is in the southern part of the Northern Territory, southwest of Alice Springs ...
. He was taken away from his mother as a child, living at the government reservation until he was 20, and working at various jobs, including as a carpenter, stockman, and crocodile hunter. He helped establish the Adelaide Community College and has lectured on Aboriginal cultures. He served as the director of the Northern Australia Legal Aid Service and established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander centres at the Australian National University, University of Canberra, and University of Wollongong
The University of Wollongong (abbreviated as UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment ...
.
*Episode 5, "Unhealthy Government Experiment", of the 1998 SBS documentary television series ''First Australians
''First Australians'' is an Australian historical documentary series produced by Blackfella Films over the course of six years, and first aired on SBS TV in October 2008. The documentary is part of a greater project that further consists of ...
'' concerns the Stolen Generations in Western Australia.
Feature film and television drama
*The Australian film '' Rabbit-Proof Fence'' (2002), directed by Phillip Noyce, was loosely based on the book '' Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence'' by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It concerns the author's mother and two other mixed-race Aboriginal girls who ran away from Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, and returned to their Aboriginal families. In a subsequent interview with the ABC, Doris recalled her removal in 1931 from her mother at age three or four, and subsequent rearing at the settlement. She was not reunited with her mother until she was 25; all those years, she believed that her mother had given her away. When the two women were reunited, Doris was no longer able to speak her native language and had been taught to regard Indigenous culture as evil.
* Baz Luhrmann's 2008 film '' Australia'', starring Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...
and Hugh Jackman, deals with the Stolen Generations.
Stage
*'' Stolen'' (1998) is a play by Australian playwright Jane Harrison. It tells the story of five fictional Aboriginal people by the names of Sandy, Ruby, Jimmy, Anne, and Shirley who dealt with the issues for forceful removal by Australian governments.
*The Indigenous opera '' Pecan Summer'' (2010) by Deborah Cheetham, which premiered in Mooroopna, is set at Federation Square, in Melbourne, on the day of Kevin Rudd's apology, and quotes some of his words.
Literature
* Bryce Courtenay's novel '' Jessica'' tells of a case brought in a New South Wales court against the Aboriginal Protection Board. It challenged the ''Aboriginal Protection Act of 1909'' in order to return two children from Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls to the Aboriginal mother.
*Aboriginal artist and author Sally Morgan has written several novels based on the lives of her and her family members, featuring intimate portrayals of the impact of forced removal on individuals, their families, and communities, although Sally herself was not a stolen child. Her first, '' My Place'', involves her quest to uncover her Aboriginal heritage which had previously been denied by her family, who insisted "as a survival mechanism" that they were of Indian extraction.
*'' Benang'' is Indigenous Australian Kim Scott
Kim Scott (born 18 February 1957) is an Australian novelist of Aboriginal Australian ancestry. He is a descendant of the Noongar people of Western Australia.
Biography
Scott was born in Perth in 1957 and is the eldest of four siblings with ...
's second novel. ''Benang'' is about forced assimilation and finding how one can return to one's own culture. The novel presents how difficult it is to form a working history of a population who had been historically uprooted from its past. ''Benang'' follows Harley, a young man who has gone through the process of "breeding out the colour", as he pieces together his family history through documentation, such as photograph and his grandfather's notes, as well as memories and experiences. Harley and his family have undergone a process of colonial scientific experimentation called "breeding of the colour", which separated individuals from their indigenous families and origins.
Notable people
* Gordon Briscoe, Doctor of Indigenous History, Order of Australia
* Deborah Cheetham, Aboriginal soprano, actor, composer and playwright
* Katherine Mary Clutterbuck (Sister Kate)
* Ken Colbung, political activist and leader
*Ningali Cullen
Ningali Cullen (1942–2012) was an Aboriginal activist and co-chair of the National Sorry Day Committee.
Early life
Cullen was born at Ooldea, South Australia in 1942. Along with her brother and one of her sisters, she was taken from her famil ...
(deceased), co-chair of the National Sorry Day Committee
*Belinda Dann
Belinda Dann (4 July 1900 – 9 October 2007) was an Indigenous Australian born as Quinlyn Warrakoo to an Irish cattle station manager and a Nykina mother.
Biography
Born in Lunlungai community, Derby, Western Australia, at the age of 8 she ...
, born as Quinlyn Warrakoo, forced name change to Belinda Boyd, deceased at 107 years of age making her the longest-lived member of the stolen generation
* Polly Farmer, Australian rules footballer
*Lorna Fejo
Lorna "Nanna Nungala" Fejo (14 June 1930 – 25 February 2022) was a Warumungu woman named by the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, in his historic Apology to the Stolen Generations, on 13 February 2008.
At four years of age, she was f ...
, the Warumungu woman named by Kevin Rudd, in his Apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008
*Sue Gordon
Sue Gordon is an Aboriginal retired magistrate from Western Australia who has been locally and nationally honoured for her work with Aboriginal people and in community affairs. She is known for being chair of the Gordon Inquiry (the Inquiry in ...
, retired Perth Children's Court magistrate.
* Ruby Hunter, musician
* A. O. Neville, WA Protector Of Aborigines from 1915–45 and advocate of the removal of children
* May O'Brien, WA educator and author
* Lowitja O'Donoghue, AC, CBE, DSG, nurse, public administrator and Indigenous rights activist
* Doris Pilkington Garimara, author of '' Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence''
* Bob Randall, Indigenous Australian of the Year
* Aunty Isabel Reid
The Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls, commonly known as "Bimbadeen" and Cootamundra Girls' Home, located at Cootamundra, New South Wales operated by the New South Wales Aborigines Welfare Board from 1911 to 1968 to provi ...
(born 1932), elder and advocate for the Stolen Generation; NSW State Recipient of Senior Australian of the Year 2021; oldest living survivor of those forcibly removed under the '' Aborigines Protection Act 1909'' (NSW), having been sent to the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls Minister for Indigenous Australians
The Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Government of Australia is a position which holds responsibility for affairs affecting Indigenous Australians. Previous ministers have held various other titles since the position was created in 19 ...
, Ken Wyatt, paid homage to her on 13 February 2021, the 13th anniversary of the Apology.
* Rob Riley (deceased), CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Service 1990–1995, author of ''Telling Our Story'' which instigated the National Inquiry into Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families
*Archie Roach
Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian singer, songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Abori ...
, musician
* Cedric Wyatt, Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in Western Australia
Comparisons
The White Stolen Generations
During the same period from the 1930s to 1982, 250,000 Australian-born non-Indigenous children were also removed from parents who were deemed "unfit". At the time this was widely seen as a positive thing by society for both the mothers and the children. The term ''white stolen generations'' is now used to distinguish this group from the Indigenous stolen generations. The mothers were sometimes drugged, tied to beds, or told their babies had died. These babies were often adopted into middle class families.[Liz Hannan, Liz (8 December 2010)]
"White mothers of stolen children also deserve an apology"
''The Sydney Morning Herald''.[Calligeros, Marissa (24 December 2010)]
''Brisbane Times
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
''.
Organisations such as the ''Apology Alliance'' and ''Adoption Loss Adult Support'' have actively campaigned for a parliamentary apology similar to that given for the Aboriginal Stolen Generations. In 2001, then treasurer of NSW Michael Egan made a statement of public acknowledgement in the NSW Parliament. In October 2010, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett
Colin James Barnett (born 15 July 1950) is a former Australian politician who was the 29th Premier of Western Australia. He concurrently served as the state's Treasurer at several points during his tenure and had previously held various other p ...
delivered a parliamentary apology on behalf of state institutions involved in the aggressive adoption practices. Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...
made a personal public apology.
Trauma and healing
Trauma suffered as a result of children being separated from their families and forced to adopt a culture foreign to them is ongoing and passed down through generations.
The Healing Foundation is a government-funded body[ established on 30 October 2009 as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation was established after several months of consultation with community representatives. The head office is in Canberra, with branches in ]Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...
, Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
, Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...
, Darwin
Darwin may refer to:
Common meanings
* Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection
* Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...
and on the Torres Strait Islands
The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...
. the Foundation had provided funding for more than 175 community organisations to develop and run healing projects, "to address the ongoing trauma caused by actions like the forced removal of children from their families". It also conducts research into Indigenous healing.
The Marumali Program was designed and established by Stolen Generations survivor Lorraine Peeters, starting with her presentation of the model she had created, the "Marumali Journey of Healing Model", to a conference of mental health professionals at a conference in Sydney in 1999. Her body of work was copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
ed and subsequently circulated to and used by many organisations to help survivors to heal from specific types of trauma suffered as a result of the removals. Peeters then developed the Marumali Program to train Indigenous counsellors to use her model. , she and her daughter continue to give workshops, both in the community and in prisons. ''Marumali'' is a Gamilaroi word meaning "to put back together", and she says it relates to the ultimate goal of reconnecting with what has been lost. She continues to advise the Healing Foundation.[
]
See also
* Aboriginal Protection Board
* Aboriginal reserve
* American Indian boarding schools
*Canadian Indian residential school system
In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The schoo ...
* Cultural assimilation of Native Americans
*Cultural genocide
Cultural genocide or cultural cleansing is a concept which was proposed by lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 as a component of genocide. Though the precise definition of ''cultural genocide'' remains contested, the Armenian Genocide Museum defines ...
*Hidden Generations
Hidden Generations is a term used to describe a group of Indigenous peoples who responded to colonial forces in Australia by reducing their visibility. Although the term is relatively new in public conversation, it describes a very established pa ...
* Institutional abuse
* Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany
*'' Kinder der Landstrasse'' ("children of the highway"), program of forced removal and institutionalization of children of nomadic ''Yenish'' groups in Switzerland during the 20th century
*Lost children of Francoism
The lost children of Francoism (; ; ) were the children abducted from Republican parents, who were either in jail or had been assassinated by Nationalist troops, during the Spanish Civil War and Francoist Spain. The kidnapped children were sometim ...
, children of Republican parents abducted during the Spanish Civil War
* Moseley Royal Commission (1934), officially "the Royal Commission Appointed to Investigate, Report and Advise Upon Matters in Relation to the Condition and Treatment of Aborigines"
* Native schools in New Zealand
* Native Tongue Title
*'' Our Generation'' (film)
* Protector of Aborigines
* Sixties Scoop, the removal of children from Indigenous families in Canada beginning in the 1960s
* Northern Territory National Emergency Response (aka "The Intervention")
* Yemenite Children Affair in Israel
References
Further reading and external links
Bibliography and guides
''Stolen Generations Bibliography: A select bibliography of published references to the separation of Aboriginal families (and) the removal of Aboriginal children''
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)
Background note: ''"Sorry": the unfinished business of the Bringing Them Home report'', Australian Parliamentary Library, 4 February 2008
Bibliography on Kahlin Compound at the Northern Territory Library.
(PDF)
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
* ttp://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/index.html Resources on ''Bringing Them Home''
Bringing them Home Report (1997)
Australian Human Rights Commission
* ttp://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/apologies_states.html ''Apologies by State and Territory Parliaments'' (1997–2001)
Government
Reparations for the Stolen Generations in New South Wales
Parliament of NSW
*[http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2783560 Moseley, Henry Doyle 1935, Report of the Royal Commissioner appointed to investigate, report, and advise upon matters in relation to the condition and treatment of Aborigines]
Aboriginal welfare : initial conference of Commonwealth and state Aboriginal authorities held at Canberra, 21 to 23 April 1937
''An Index to the Chief Protector of Aborigines Files 1898 – 1908''
Guide to Institutions Attended by Aboriginal People in Western Australia Compiled by researchers employed by the State Solicitor's Office
(PDF)
Sister Kate's on the WA Government Heritage Register
* ttp://www.liswa.wa.gov.au/federation/fed/011_abor.htm Aboriginal Western Australia and Federationbr>''Queenslanders reflect – digital stories capturing responses to the 2008 Apology''
''Mount Isa responses to the Apology – digital stories''
*
Response to the Apology – Collection of digital stories held at State Library of Queensland
'
Academic sources
*
* <
*
* Research project.
* Focuses on debates about representing Australia's colonial history, specifically in regard to child removal.
* Reproduction of a 1998 essay by historian Robert Manne
* Collection of articles and reports related to public policy and the Stolen Generations
News
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*
*
*
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*
Other
Rob Riley, CEO ALS 1990–1995 Telling Our Story ALSWA
Home page of the Kimberley Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070928102137/http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/news/age4dec04b.html Sue Gordon becomes a force for her peoplebr>Fremantle Arts Centre Press – My Place by Sally Morgan
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070928102043/http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/resources/history/genocide.html ''Genocide in Australia'' by Colin Tatz, AIATSIS Research Discussion Papers No 8br>Journey of Healing: Rabbit Proof Fence
{{Politics of Australia, state=autocollapse
Political terminology in Australia
Human rights abuses
Institutional abuse
Anti-indigenous racism in Australia
Multiracial affairs
Cultural assimilation
Adoption history
Adoption, fostering, orphan care and displacement
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Child abduction in Australia