Look at some Indigenous sources letters, newspapers, memoirs, published

oral testimonies and secondary sources to answer the following question: To

what extent, and in what ways, has the removal of aboriginal children from
their families had lifelong and inter-generational impacts?
Between 1910 and 1970 up to 100,000 Aboriginal children were taken forcibly or
under duress from their families by police or welfare officers. Most were under 5
years old, there was rarely any judicial process, and being aboriginal was enough
reason to be taken. This period of Australian history was devastating and had life
long impacts on the Aboriginal people as well as inter-generational impacts. This
paper will firstly discuss the reasons why the children were taken and then link it to
how the removal of Aboriginal children impacted the families and to what extent they
were impacted.
In Jedda(2009), it states that there were a lot of complex reasons why the
government decided to take Aboriginal children away from their parents and place
them in institutions. There was a belief that the lives of Aboriginal people were so
poor and unrewarding that life in an institution would provide opportunities and an
environment from which Aboriginal children could easily make a transition to the
more superior world of white Australians. There was also the belief that Aboriginal
people were a blight upon the face of Australia and that the most effective way to
eliminate them was to carry out an active program of integration where children
were taken form their traditional and family environments and taught skills which
would allow them to enter the white society as labourers and servants. Finally, there
was a belief that Aboriginal people were bad parents, that Aboriginal people did not
look after their children, that marriages were too early and young Aboriginal women
became pregnant in the most unsavoury of circumstances. There can be no
agreement that most of the people involved in this process, both the official
government officers and the variety of people from the social and religious
organisations, believed that what they were doing what was for the overall benefit of
the children who came under their care and protection. There is a companion
argument that these well-meaning people were simple reflecting the attitudes and
values of their time. The problem is that regardless of the so-called benefits, they
were also offering rape, maltreatment, dislocation of family life, extraordinary
institutionalised violence and a total lack of respect for the rights of the individual.

(Jedda ,2009) Someone experiencing a life full of these acts is sure to suffer in a
negative way, weather mentally, socially or physically.
In recent times, personal testimony has become important practise for bearing
witness to traumatic historical events. The writer attempts to highlight the impact on
the victims life as she presents her testimony.
The first time I was only sent to the farm for only a few weeks and then back to school. In
the next holidays I had to go back. This time it was a terrifying experience, the man in my
house used to come into my room at night and force me to have sex. I tired to fight him off
but he was too strong. When I returned home I was feeling so used and unwanted. I went to
the Matron and told her what happened. She washed my mouth out with soap and boxed my
ears and told me that awful things would happen to me if I told any of the other kids. I was so
scared and wanted to die. When the next school holidays came I begged not to be sent to
the farm again. But they did not listen and said I had to. (Elder, 2003)

This emotional recount of the victims experience explains how she was terrified of
the farm and she was contemplating death. These acts can have significant impact
on a persons mental health, which can lead to life long consequences, such as not
being able to socialises or trust others. She goes on to say
I ran away from home, I was going to try and find my family. It was impossible. I didnt even
know where to go. The only thing was to go back. This time I was raped, bashed and
slashed with a razor blade on both my arms and legs because I would not stop struggling
and screaming. The farther and one of his workers raped me several times. I wanted do die,
I wanted my mother to take me home where I would be safe and wanted. Because I was
bruised and in a state of shock I didnt have to do any work and wasnt allowed to leave the
property. (Elder, 2003)

So not only was the victim mentally scared, she was also physically scared and
abused. Another story tells that this story was not uncommon. Another victim of child
removal and abuse explains that her experience impacts not only her but future
members of her family.
After several weeks of being kept away from everyone was examined by a doctor who told
the Matron I was pregnant. Another belting, they blamed me for everything that had
happened. I didnt care what happened to me anymore and kept to myself. All I wanted was
to have my baby and get away as far as I could and try and find my family. My daughter was

born [in 1962] at king Edward Memorial Hospital. I was so happy, I had a beautiful baby girl
of my own who I could love and cherish and have with me always. But my dreams were
soon crushed: the bastards took her from me and said she would be fostered out until I was
old enough to look after her. They said when I left Sister Kates I could have her back. I
couldnt believe what was happening. My baby was taken away from me just as I was taken
away from my mother.(Story of Millicent. Bringing them home: Report on the National
Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their
Families.)

This recount highlights that the removal of this child has had life long effects on her
and also has had inter- generational impacts as her child was taken from her and
possible could suffer in the same way.
A Report on the Stolen Generation (1997) was written and contained over 700
pieces of legislation (which makes it very difficult to argue that it was government
policy) and 67 definitions of Aboriginality which led to nearly one half (47 per cent)
of all Aboriginal people surveyed in 1989 reporting that they had been removed from
their parents in childhood. The writers of the report are more circumspect, judging
that nationally we can conclude with confidence that between one in three and one
in ten indigenous children were forcibly removed from there families and
communities in the period from approximately 1910-1970. The impact on the families
would have been great and severe. Its described that many Aboriginal communities
were close, and to be in a community where its possible that as many as one in
three children were taken would be demoralising and hurtful.
All the time the warning sign about the damage being done were being telegraphed
to the government and all the time the government was taking no notice. In 1938
Gladys Prosser, a Noongar mother, was interviewed by the Perth Sunday Times and
stated In many things the white people mean well, but they have so little
understanding. My experience has convinced me that, psychologically, the Native
Department is working on wrong line... The same laws that apply to the white race
should apply to the native races in particular. Twenty years later a Special
Committee on Naive Matters told the West Australian Government the the removal
of a child from his mother at an early age can cause serious psychological and
mental disturbances.(Heabich, 2011)

Haebich continues and says it is to be found in the way that humans, knowing that to
act is difficult and to do nothing is easy, will invariably take the easy option. The
consequences of such action and inaction have been overwhelming. They stand,
along with all the poisonings and killings, as acts of barbarism and inhumanity. Try,
just for moment, to place yourself in the position of a South Australian women,
indentified in the report as Fiona, who was taken from her mother in 1932:
I guess the government didnt mean it as something bad; our mothers werent
treated as people having feelings. Naturally a mothers got a heart for her children
and for them to be taken away; no-one can ever know the heartache. She was
grieving when I met her in 1968. When me and my little family stood there my
husband and me and my two little children and all my family was there, there
wasnt a word we could say to each other. All the years that you wanted to ask this
and ask that, there was no way we could ever regain that. It was like somebody
came and stabbed me with a knife. I couldnt communicate with my family because I
had no way of communicating with them any longer. Once that language was taken
away, we lost a part of that very soul. It meant our culture was gone, our family was
gone, everything that was dear to us was gone - and every sun, every morning as
the sun came up the whole family would wail. They did that until they saw me again.
Who could imagine what a mother went through? But you have to learn to forgive.
(Haebich, 2011)
This paper has discussed, through the emotional testimonies and descriptive reports
that the Aboriginal people have had to endure a life time of suffering because of the
removal of Aboriginal children. The emptiness, hurt and anger towards the act, that
was the removal of aboriginal children, has not only been handed down to the
decedents of the Aboriginal people, but has impacted there personal life in some way
or another.

References:
Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Children form their Families (1997), Sydney: Human
Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission.
Elder, B. (2003) Blood on the Wattle: Massacres and Maltreatment of Aboriginal
Australians Since 1788. (3rd ed.) New South Wales, Australia: New Holland
Publishers.
Goodall, H. (2002) To Early Yet or Not Soon Enough? Reflection on Sharing
Histories as Process Australian Historical Studies Special Issue: Challenging
Histories: Reflections on Australian History, vol. 33, no. 118.
Haebich, A. (2011) Forgetting Indigenous Histories: Cases from the History of
Australias Stolen Generations. Journal of Social History, Vol. 44 (issue4), pg 10331046.
Jedda, G. (2009) Orphaned by the Colour of My Skin. Journal of family Studies, Vol.
15 (issue 1), pg 107-107, 1/2p
Kennedy, R. (2004) The Affective Work of Stolen Generations Testimony: From the
Archives to the Classroom. Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, Vol. 27 (issue
1), pg48-77.