Michael is the education officer for IndigenousX, having previously worked in the government sector and the private sector in various mentoring roles, including juvenile justice and high schools.
The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the First Peoples and Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways on which the Museum stands. Image credit: gadigal yilimung shield made by Uncle Charles Chicka Madden. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more. Skip to main content Skip to acknowledgement of country Skip to footer On this page Toggle Caption Aunty Barbara regularly attended and photographed protests in Sydney.
She is a documentarian, photographing significant social movements and events involving the fight for Indigenous rights. Back to top. Search website Submit Search. When Aunty Hazel Collins witnessed the removal of her daughter Helen's baby son, an event she recalls in the film After the Apology , it made her realise she had to do something. And I promised, promised my little baby and his mum, there'd be no more.
With all the pain and trauma caused by the child removal policies one has to ask: Was this legal? Didn't these laws violate basic human rights? They argued that the laws breached basic fundamental human rights such as the right to due process before the law, equality before the law, freedom of movement and freedom of religion.
In a "dramatic demonstration of Australia's lack of rights protection" [43] the High Court held that none of these rights were protected. We are not talking Aboriginal rights here—we are talking human rights! In other words, it was perfectly legal for Australia's government to forcibly remove Aboriginal children.
Australia's failure to protect basic human rights falls hardest on the poor, the marginalised and the socioeconomic disadvantaged. That is, they fall hardest on Aboriginal people, families and communities. Members of the Stolen Generations yearn most to reunite with their lost loved ones. Sometimes family members find each other just in time, sometimes just a short time too late. Services which help people reunite need more funding.
A year-old member of the Stolen Generations died only months after she was finally reunited with members of her original people in Port Hedland, Western Australia.
Belinda was six years old when she was taken from her mother. Along with sisters she was taken to Beagle Bay mission in north-western Australia. When they asked for their mother they were told she would come which she never did. She married as a teenager and moved to Port Hedland. She remembered her Aboriginal name but did not know who she was and where she came from.
By coincidence one of Belinda's grandsons mentioned her Aboriginal name in a conversation with an Aboriginal girl who had heard of Belinda and was connected to her people. A year-long search was over. Belinda met her people and, incredibly, started speaking in her native Aboriginal language again.
Four months later she died. We didn't know we were related. You find it out at 20 or 30, sitting in a pub drinking. The main service members of the Stolen Generations can use to find loved ones is Link-Up see below. But Link-Up needs more resources to work effectively. Some Aboriginal people feel like being "stolen again" when they are unable to revisit their newly found family. On 13 February , one year after it apologised to the Stolen Generations , the Australian government promised to establish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation.
The foundation is designed to deal with the "trauma experienced by all Aboriginal people as the after-effect of colonisation", [49] but with a particular focus on the Stolen Generations.
It won't deliver healing services, instead it funds healing work, educates communities and social workers and evaluates healing programs to find out what works. According to Aboriginal trauma and grief specialist Dr Greg Phillips, healing is "a spiritual process that includes recovery from addiction, therapeutic change and cultural renewal".
Healing is not just another government program. It has taken many generations to get to this level of trauma and it will take quite a few to fully recover from it. Many members of the Stolen Generations attend annual reunions where they meet fellow Aboriginal people to share their stories and experiences they endured as children in the institutions where they were raised.
The Link-Up service see bottom of this page often supplies funding for these reunions. For many this is the start of their journey of healing. Here are their main arguments:. I've asked my granny if she thought she was rescued. She replied, "I didn't need rescuing from my mother's love. Did you know that in Australia there is another stolen generation, one which shares the pain and consequences?
It's called the "white stolen generation" to distinguish it from the Aboriginal stolen generation. In the five decades up to , the newborn babies of young, single women were forcibly removed from them for adoption, a practice sometimes called 'baby farming'. Mothers were drugged, tethered to beds, not allowed to see their babies, told they were dead. More than , white mothers lost their babies to forcible removal at birth by these past illegal adoption practices. Prime Minister Julia Gillard offered a national apology to those affected by forced adoptions in Here is the story of a member of the white stolen generation: [54].
Both my parents were given up to adoption, as was I. In my case my mother, at the time aged 16, was forced by her adoptive mother to give me up. She had no say in the matter and it's something that she had great difficulty dealing with for 42 years till the time that I tracked her down. My birth father was never even told of my existence, and if not for a chance run-in with my mother ten years after my birth in Sydney would have never even known I existed.
He was never asked for permission to give me up for adoption. My birth mother's adoptive family went to great lengths to hide the fact that their teenage daughter was pregnant. They sent her off to Auckland, NZ, to give birth to me then give me up.
It wasn't until three years ago, when my birth father in Melbourne tracked me down, that I finally learnt the truth. Australia is not the only country where children were stolen from their mothers. Countries around the world share similar painful histories. Published in it was then a ground-breaking first attempt to document the devastating consequences of the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families.
The report's chapters are: The return of the Stolen Generations, Introduction, A typical case, The laws regarding children, The number of children taken, Life in the homes, Employment, Fostering, Going home, The effects, Why did they do it? The DVD is a minute documentary, interviewing Aboriginal people of the Stolen Generations and showing historical footage. It is a must-see for all interested in learning more and listening to the stories of Aboriginal people who were stolen. But be warned: The content is sometimes heartbreaking.
A very good movie which tells the story of three young girls taken away from their family is Rabbit-Proof Fence by Phillip Noyce. Baz Luhrmann's Australia also treats the Stolen Generations as a central theme of the movie. The documentary Lousy Little Sixpence was the first film to tell shocked Australians the story of five girls stolen from their families.
Some short films by Aboriginal directors discuss Stolen Generations, e. Or try the award-winning documentary Why me? The film Children of the Open Road , original title Kinder der Landstrasse presents striking parallels between the Stolen Generations and Swiss government policies towards the Rom gypsies in the first half of the 20th century. More movies about Aboriginal people or by Aboriginal directors. I was crying for the kids. It brought back personal memories for us.
I was like him. I was like them. I was taken away. When members of the Stolen Generations tell their stories in schools students are often in tears.
Some stories might be too harsh for them. Some teachers have found softer ways of teaching [56] which still show the full emotional impact the policies had on people.
The community-based National Sorry Day Committee was formed in after the Bringing Them Home report recommended that a National Sorry Day be held each year on 26 May "to commemorate the history of forcible removals and its effects. The NDSC aims to achieve all 54 recommendations of the Bringing Them Home report, and its Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal supporters work together with Stolen Generations members, Aboriginal communities, government, social justice and community organisations to achieve this goal.
It also offers counselling to newly reunited families. Link-Up has offices in almost every Australian state. In South Australia from to Link-Up arranged family reunions and brought together 4, people. Family Link was established in to identify family and kin placements for Aboriginal children in foster care. The service, funded by Link-Up, works with the Department of Community Services to place them with other family members when Aboriginal children cannot live safely with their parents.
Find and Connect is a resource for the Forgotten Australians all Australians who have been 'in care', including British Child Migrants and the Stolen Generations who wish to find their history.
The policies also robbed Aboriginal people of their culture and future. The children were not allowed to speak their language or follow their traditions and spirituality. Many received little education. The impact has been devastating, with profound repercussions for all Aboriginal people. The government-initiated HREOC Inquiry found that children removed from their families are disadvantaged in many ways: they are more likely to come to the attention of police, more likely to suffer low self-esteem, depression and mental illness, and more vulnerable to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
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