Consequences of removal
The children who were taken away from their families have become known as the 'Stolen Generations'. Their stories have only really come to light since the mid-1990s. Before that, many non-Indigenous people had no idea what had been happening to Aboriginal families for so many years. In 1995 the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families was launched by the Labor government under Paul Keating. Hundreds of people all over the country gave their testimony to the inquiry. Children who had been taken away, parents who had lost children, church groups that had run homes and government officials who had authorised the removal of children. The report, titled Bringing Them Home, was published in 1997. It found that the consequences of removal on the 'Stolen Generations' are many, varied and lasting. See image 1
It has been estimated that around 60 000 children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island backgrounds were taken from their families between 1909 and 1969. But that number is only an estimate. In many cases, records were not taken or were destroyed. By the late 1980s more than 100 000 people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island descent had been affected by the assimilation policy of removing children. That is over 100 000 people who had lost links with their culture and heritage, as well as with their families. The effect is still being felt today. There is continuing hardship and grief in the Indigenous communities over what was done to them and their children for so many years. It would be very difficult to find an Aboriginal family which has not been damaged in some way by the removal policy.
Most of the children were taken between the ages of two and four, but many were also taken when they were only a few hours old. A great majority of those children were put into group homes where they received no warmth or love from their carers. A huge part of Aboriginal culture is based on kinship and family relationships but many children grew up without knowing this. The loss of so many children also had a major effect on the families that were left behind. How could traditional life carry on with so many members of the family missing?
Family contact was not encouraged by the white authorities. They wanted the children to forget all about their Aboriginal heritage, so they were often moved to homes hundreds of kilometres away. Many children were told that their parents did not want them any longer, or that their family was dead. When some parents did manage to track down their children in the homes, they were denied access to them, or the children did not know them. Some children were given completely new names and birth dates, so it would be nearly impossible for them to trace their real families later. Many children were also illegally adopted. Children were given away to families only to find out later on that their real families were still alive and had never signed any papers to give up their parental rights. See animation
The Aboriginal Protection Board said it was removing children because they were allegedly being abused or neglected by their parents, but some children encountered far worse abuse when they were forced to leave their families. Emotional, physical and sexual abuse were common in the group homes and in foster homes. There are stories of girls who reported sexual abuse and were told they were lying, then when they became pregnant were abused for being 'dirty'. The sexual abuse also created a cycle of removed children; girls who had been taken away by the Board also had their children taken away when they became pregnant.
Not everyone's experience of the removal policy was negative. Some of the foster homes and church missions were kind places where the children were well looked after. Some of places changed over time and there are both bad and good reports about the homes and the schools. The Bringing Them Home report showed that some members of the Stolen Generations are glad that they were removed and are thankful for the opportunities given to them by being placed in a different environment.
Others have been broken by their experience. Memories of being taken from their families and being emotionally and physically abused have taken their toll. The years spent being used as virtual slave labour and being told that they were worthless and less than human also caused severe psychological damage to many of the Stolen Children when they became adults.
Many children of the Stolen Generations were left with no sense of identity or belonging when they grew up. In many cases as soon as they were legally adults, they were made to leave the institutions they had been in all their lives. The children of mixed parentage who had lighter skin had spent years having it drummed into them that being black was a bad thing and that they had to be white. But when they went out into the world the white people would not see them as anything but black. There was no one to help them adjust to the white world into which so many were supposedly assimilated into.
Those who tried to return to their Aboriginal communities also faced many problems. In some cases the children who had been taken away were not welcomed back again or could not settle in to Aboriginal life - they had become too 'European'.
Many of the Aboriginal children with paler skin had been fostered and adopted out to white families. Those people grew up thinking they were white. It was a great shock for many when they found out that they were actually of Aboriginal descent. There is still, to a certain extent, a great stigma attached to being Aboriginal among many 'white' people, so many people will not admit they are of Aboriginal descent. This is, however, starting to change. In the last two Censuses, the number of people claiming Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent has risen. More and more people are coming forward to claim their heritage.
When many of the children grew up and discovered they were adopted, they went searching for their real families. Many of them found families who had been torn apart by grief and despair at their removal. Many found entire family networks they knew nothing about - parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins. Unfortunately for some, when they did manage to track down where they came from, it was only to discover their parents had recently died after spending their lives grieving and looking for them. So many records were destroyed, or just not made in the first place, that some people will never be able to know where they came from.
Despair and isolation are two of the most long-lasting consequences of the removal policy and assimilation. Many people today know they are 'Aboriginal' but have no culture or heritage to claim as their own, their identity has been stripped from them. Alcoholism and suicide are two of the major social ills that affect the Indigenous community in Australia. Rates of self-abuse through alcohol and drugs are much higher among Aboriginal peoples than among white Australians. Health problems from working as children and mental illnesses are also incredibly common among those who were removed from their families. Domestic violence and imprisonment are also far too common in the Aboriginal community.
Although it is now illegal to remove any children from their family without a court order, there is understandably still a lot of suspicion in the Aboriginal community towards welfare officials and other authorities. Relations between the police and Indigenous people have also remained very strained.
Since the publication of the Bringing Them Home report in 1997 white Australians are now fully aware of what was done to the Indigenous population. But some people, however, have questioned the truth of the testimonies given to the Inquiry and the extent to which the Aboriginal population was actually affected by the removal policy. There are many people who have apologised to the Aboriginal community for what was done to them, but there are many who believe that an apology is not necessary as the assimilation policy was 'well intentioned'. This attitude has angered many Aboriginal people and has led to deep divisions within Australian society.
