THE STOLEN GENERATIONS
It’s impossible for me to defend or ever understand a “child removal policy” so extreme that an entire culture suffered. Known as Australia’s “dirty little secret”, thousands of half-caste children of aboriginal descent were forcibly removed from their families for a period of about 75 years, beginning in the late 1890’s. It is estimated that almost every family lost at least one child, which could mean that as many as 100,000 children were taken. No reason for removal needed to be given, no proof of neglect or abuse. Government officials, under the Aborigines Protection Act, were given FULL power to “transfer” children of mixed descent from their families into institutions. The stories of “how” they were taken are all heart-wrenching and tragic. Some were taken from the hospital directly after birth. Others were brutally and forcibly removed from their parents. Reports have also been given of police cars picking up a mother and child and then kicking the mother out after the car took off. Or even sadder, the parents that were told their child “died” at a hospital.
Most of these “stolen children” were taken under the age of 5, and most never saw their parents again. Although some were adopted or fostered out to white families, most went into group homes where they were given new names and new birth dates so they could never be traced again. Reports of the conditions at these facilities vary, but some have equated them with Nazi-like concentration camps where they were not adequately fed or properly clothed. One man named Bill Simon testified that he was taken at the age of 10, and when he arrived was given a set of pajamas, a pair of shorts and a shirt. They were all marked with the number “33”, and that was how they referred to him thereafter. There are also thousands of reports of the horrific abuse these children suffered, both physical and sexual, and that many tried to run away but few succeeded.
Not only did these children suffer traumatizing experiences that will stay with them for a lifetime, many were taught that being black was “bad” and were punished severely if they tried to speak their indigenous language. So in addition to losing their “family”, they also lost their culture, their personal identity and any sense of belonging. They no longer wanted to be black… but they didn’t feel “white” either and often faced discrimination from Caucasians as well. Some were even light-skinned enough that their adopted families raised them as “white” but were devastated later when they were told the truth of their background. Also, reverse discrimination occurred for some that tried to return to their aboriginal family but were never “welcomed back”.
What is seldom mentioned about these generations of children, however, is that a large percentage of them were raised to be “slave” laborers. They were poorly educated, and boys were trained to be agricultural laborers and girls were domestic servants. One woman reported: “We was bought like a market. We was all lined up in white dresses and they would come round and pick you out like you was for sale”. So it’s hard to believe the government’s position that they were trying to protect or “assimilate” these children into a white society. There are just too many cases where they were treated as “less than human”. In fact, up until 1967, Aborigines were classified under the “Flora and Fauna Act” and not even considered human enough to be counted in the population statistics.
Copyright © 2013 (Michelle Parsons, Getting Back on Your Path). All Rights Reserved.
