History Of The Stolen Generation

The ‘Stolen Generation’ dates back to a period in the continent of Australia where the children from the Australian aboriginals were detached from their families by the Australian government (Young 2009). This period dated back from the mid-1800s to the late 1970s. When these aboriginal children went to school, they were taken up by the cops either when they were going to school or when they were returning from school. They often underwent abuses of various forms and were placed in over 480 institutions from where they were either adopted by some non-indigenous families or even fostered by non-indigenous families. This forced removal of First Nations children fell under the policy of Assimilation and was primarily done because it was wrongly assumed that if the First Nations people became a part of the white people, then the lives of these aboriginals would improve remarkably. In this paper, the history of the ‘Stolen Generation’ is discussed in detail followed by the role of colonialism in the next session. The following section discusses the reason behind this removal and the last section provides a detailed analysis of whether this is still current in the present generation and finally, there is a conclusion (Rumsey 1993). 

Captain Arthur Philip had taken the lead of the fleet of 11 British ships which had convicted the colony in the country area of New South Wales, Australia. These Aboriginals are split into two groups – firstly, the Aboriginal group which were residing in Australia at the time when Australia was being colonized by Britain in 1788, and secondly, the Torres Strait Islander People – the people who originally inhabited Torres Island and the descendants of modern-day Queensland, Australia (Asch 2009). It is assumed that humans have migrated from Asia to the northern parts of Australia where the humans had made use of primitive boats. But according to current theories, people have assumed that these people who had earlier migrated from Asia to North Australia had originally come out of Australia approximately 70,000 years ago. Therefore, the Aboriginal Australians make the oldest population in the history of human beings. During the 1860s, Victoria was the first state in South East Australia, which passed laws that sanctioned the laws regarding the removal of Aboriginal children from their families. The other States of Australia had adopted such laws and policies later on after this and it was finally established in the 1900s by the federal government of Australia. This went on for centuries where the children of the Australian Aboriginal families were separated either when they were going to their school to study or they were returning from school to their home. This was mainly done by the cops of Australia. These children were physically detached from their families and mentally the children were detached from their native Australian community and culture. The children from the Aboriginal Australian families were detached and separated from 1910-the 1970s. This was because the First Nations children were originally separated with the misconception that the lives of these aboriginal children would tend to improve if they would mix with the white generations. Generations after generations were lost in this manner and therefore, these generations were slowly renamed as the ‘Stolen Generations’. The separation of the children from their families naturally left both the families and the little children in a state of trauma and loss whose impact continues in the First Nations families, communities, and individuals even today. It was taken for granted that these children should be abolished permanently either through a natural process of ‘die out’ or they should be mixed with the community of the Whites (Malaspinas et. al. 2016). 

Colonialism

When one country dominates over the other country entirely from every aspect, it is known as colonialism. The entire power of the colonized state remains in the hands of the foreign country which is dominating the colonized country. When a foreign country intrudes into another country for colonization, the first and foremost target revolves around the political arena and secondly, the foreign country aims to exploit the colonized country from every aspect. Australia was no exception. It was ruled by Britain during the 1800-1960s.  This process of colonialism is a part and parcel of another process known as imperialism. Rather, imperialism directly produces colonialism (Slater 2018). Britain started to rule many countries and make them its colonies for several reasons. At that time, Britain was undergoing a phase of the industrial revolution. The European countries, therefore, underwent a socio-economic transformation. The primary sector and the secondary sector started having a stark difference. The secondary sector started growing rapidly as a result of the revolution but compared to that, the primary sector did not grow so fast. The raw materials were supplied to the secondary sector by the primary sector, but since the primary sector could not cope as fast as the secondary sector, Europe had to invade other countries to gather the raw materials required. Moreover, the urban population was growing too fast in Britain and it was becoming increasingly difficult for the agricultural sector of Britain to supply food to the rapidly growing urban population of Britain. The colonialism of Britain had many impacts on Australia, the main impact about the degradation of the Australian states which were under the direct control of the British. Another major impact of the British in Australia was that the British had compelled the Australians to produce goods that the Australians would export. Originally, Australia did not need to produce these goods but they had to produce them since they were colonized. As a result, the local people of Australia were left unfed and remained poor. Consequently, Australia faced food shortages, and quite naturally, the prices of food items also shoot up. It can well be said that the local needs of the Australians were destroyed and replaced by the needs of the British. The traditional marketing system of Australia which catered to the needs of the local Aboriginals now catered to the needs of the British and had transformed themselves into modern marketing centers. Hence, the rule of the British over Australia had shattered the continent to bits and pieces (Sahoo). 

Impact of the Stolen Generation

The Stolen Generation had left the entire race of the Aboriginals devastated and traumatized since the families had to stay separated from their children. The children were also not treated well at all, they were abused and exploited by all means (Longbottom et. al. 2019). Hence, even the children were traumatized. The common health problems and mental problems which the families and the children suffered from are anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress which ultimately led to suicides, poor health. The survivors of the Stolen Generation have suffered the most as compared to the residents of Australia who were originally non-aboriginals and the First Nations people who did not have to directly suffer from this. Most of the children who were removed from their families were psychologically, sexually, and physically abused by the non-aboriginals who adopted the children or fostered them after separating them from their families. The children were forced to forget their native culture and this led to the children being ashamed of their culture and them being a part of the First Nations people. As a result, the children felt disconnected from their culture and thereby could not pass on the culture to their legacy. The children were taken at such a young age that they were told that it was originally their parents who were abusive or had passed away or had abandoned them and consequently, they did not even know who their biological parents were. The children were kept under highly controlled institutions where they were given less food and minimal affection, they were kept hungry and cold for several days together. The children were kept as servants of the family who adopted them and hence were given the minimum education or no education at all. The long-term impact of this has become dreadful since the children who have now become parents are unable to assist their children in their studies. The parents of these children had entered into a depression from which they had never been able to come out. Many had turned to alcohol as their last resort and to cope with this unbearable loss and many had even committed suicide. The cultural diversity and the richness of the First Nations people were lost as a result of this seizure of the children. Moreover, the children also could not pass on the legacy to the next generation when they became adults and this was the entire motive of the Australian government. The government was successful.

Current Status and Analysis

Though the Stolen Generation is not valid in the current state of Australia, that is to say, the children are not taken away by the cops while on their way to school but what remains still today are the descendants of the Stolen Generation. The count of the Stolen Generation is numbered as 17,150 survivors as the number of people still alive in 2018. No law still sanctions the Stolen Generations but evidence suggests that, in some way or the other, there are practices that go against the Aboriginals of Australia. The descendants of the Stolen Generation are facing many disadvantages today as compared to the non-aboriginals and the residents of the Torres Islands. It is said that the Stolen Generation had never ended in itself, it gradually changed from the children being stolen to child protection. A systematic inquiry was surveyed on the Indigenous child protection by Andrew Jackomos, the then commissioner of Aboriginal children and young people, in 2014 and then in 2019, and it was surprisingly found that the numbers increased from 1000 in 2014 to 3000 in 2019 (Krakouer 2019). These systems of Australian child protection provide jobs and employment to a thousand people even today. The disadvantage that is faced by the Aboriginals of Australia provides benefits to various professions like lawyers, education specialists, social workers, psychologists, and medical professionals. These professions benefit from the Aboriginals in one way or the other out of which the main benefit pertains to the financial benefit. During the last four years, the Australian government has been called by the Family Matters Campaign so that the government might and should raise the support given to the Aboriginals of Australia who are struggling daily to protect their children. These requests have been considered by some authorities while other authorities provide more support to the families who adopt or foster an Aboriginal child rather than the family who protects the child before getting stolen. The Australian Prime Minister of 2008, Kevin Rudd, had expressed regret regarding the successive governments of Australia since they had forcibly removed the children from their families and culture where the continent hops for a future where the past will not be repeated (Read 1998). 

Conclusion

The Stolen Generation had shaken the entire continent to bits and pieces. The separation of the children abruptly from their families has cut off all familial, spiritual, and cultural ties from the rest of the Aboriginals. It has left a permanent scar on the lives of the victimized families and their stolen children. There’s a famous saying, ‘To err is human, to forgive divine. This proverb has an uncanny resemblance with present-day Australia. The then ruling government who were by birth British had committed mistakes by stealing the children of the Aboriginals and trying to permanently abolish that culture. But today, the Aboriginals are trying to achieve forgiveness which is an act of divinity, though they are constantly struggling to achieve rights and compensation since they are trying to move on in life with maturity. Though some Aboriginal families can forgive, none will ever be able to forget the incidents as they will be etched in their hearts.

References

Asch, M., 2009. Radcliffe-Brown on colonialism in Australia. Histories of Anthropology Annual, 5(1), pp.152-165.

Krakouer, J., 2019. The stolen generations never ended – they just morphed into child protection. The Guardian, [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/17/the-stolen-generations-never-ended-they-just-morphed-into-child-protection> [Accessed 9 March 2022].

Longbottom, M., McGlade, H., Langton, M., and Clapham, K., 2019. Indigenous Australian children and the impact of adoption legislation in New South Wales. The Lancet, 393(10180), pp.1499-1500.

Malaspinas, A.S., Westaway, M.C., Muller, C., Sousa, V.C., Lao, O., Alves, I., Bergström, A., Athanasiadis, G., Cheng, J.Y., Crawford, J.E. and Heupink, T.H., 2016. A genomic history of Aboriginal Australia. Nature, 538(7624), pp.207-214.

Read, P., 1998. The return of the stolen generation. Journal of Australian Studies, 22(59), pp.8-19.

Rumsey, A., 1993. Aboriginal Australia. Language and culture in Aboriginal Australia, pp.191-206.

Sahoo, S.S.,Stolen Generation And Their Stolen Rights: a Study Of The Myth Of Protection In Colonial Australia.

Slater, L., 2018. Anxieties of belonging in settler colonialism: Australia, race, and place. Routledge.

Young, R., 2009. The stolen generation. Psychotherapy in Australia, 16(1), p.59.