The Stolen Generation
1) Explain the Stolen Generation (when did it occur/who was responsible and why government officials believed they were justified in taking these actions).
The Stolen Generation was a very lonely and depressing time for the indigenous people of Australia. It lasted an overwhelming 60 years in which an estimated 100 000 aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were forcibly removed from their families and land to be raised in homes or adopted by white families. This Policy was designed to ‘breed out’ Indigenous people until there was none left. These children became known as the ‘Stolen Generations’.
The forced removal of these Indigenous children became an official government policy from 1909 to 1969. However these acts of removing Indigenous children from their homes occurred before and after these dates.
The Aborigines Protection Board (APB) managed this removal policy; Governments, Churches and welfare bodies all took part in this operation. The Government gave the APB the power to forcibly remove Indigenous children without parental consent and without a court order in 1909.Children were to be fixated to an institution or mission dormitory, fostered or adopted.
The Government under the White Australia and Assimilation Policies tried to encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were not of pure blood to become incorporated into the broader community of white Australian’s so that eventually there would be no Indigenous people left. At the current time the white Australians thought they were superior to the Indigenous people and that they were doing them a favour by giving them an education and clothing them, even though they only educated them to a certain extent so that they could work as labourers or servants.
Children were extracted from their Indigenous culture so they could be brought up white and ‘taught’ to reject their Aboriginality. These children were distributed to institutions and from roughly the 1950’s were
The Stolen Generation was a very lonely and depressing time for the indigenous people of Australia. It lasted an overwhelming 60 years in which an estimated 100 000 aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were forcibly removed from their families and land to be raised in homes or adopted by white families. This Policy was designed to ‘breed out’ Indigenous people until there was none left. These children became known as the ‘Stolen Generations’.
The forced removal of these Indigenous children became an official government policy from 1909 to 1969. However these acts of removing Indigenous children from their homes occurred before and after these dates.
The Aborigines Protection Board (APB) managed this removal policy; Governments, Churches and welfare bodies all took part in this operation. The Government gave the APB the power to forcibly remove Indigenous children without parental consent and without a court order in 1909.Children were to be fixated to an institution or mission dormitory, fostered or adopted.
The Government under the White Australia and Assimilation Policies tried to encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were not of pure blood to become incorporated into the broader community of white Australian’s so that eventually there would be no Indigenous people left. At the current time the white Australians thought they were superior to the Indigenous people and that they were doing them a favour by giving them an education and clothing them, even though they only educated them to a certain extent so that they could work as labourers or servants.
Children were extracted from their Indigenous culture so they could be brought up white and ‘taught’ to reject their Aboriginality. These children were distributed to institutions and from roughly the 1950’s were
Bibliography: Horton, David, The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Aboriginal Studies Press, Volume 1, 1994 The World Book Encyclopaedia, World Book, North Michigan, Volume 1, 2005 The Australian Encyclopaedia, Australian Geographic Society, Sydney, Volume 1, 1988 History Books Barwick, John and Jennifer, Aboriginal Australia, Heinemann, Melbourne, 2009 Bird, Carmel (ed), The Stolen Generation, Random House, Sydney, 1998