The Stolen Generations

15 November 2022
Simon Brand & John Dacey
Outline

1. The concept of Cultural Genocide

2. Native Child removal in The United States
3. What was Australian child removal?
4. Cause/Rational
5. Policy timeline
6. Who was impacted and how
7. What it changed
8. How it shaped the future
Cultural Genocide
● In 1944 Polish war crimes lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, published his
book titled Axis Rule in Occupied Europe
○ Which analyzes the scope of Nazi’s occupation of centeral Europe
○ In this book he terms coins the term “Genocide”
○ As a compentnet of genocide, Lemkin also disccuses the idea cultural genocide
■ Comparitive to Armenian genocide
● According to Gabriella Treglia, a Native American socio-cultural
historian at Durham University
○ “Cultural genocide, or ethnocide, is the attempted destruction of a group's
culture, religion, and identity. It is a coercive act imposed by a dominant group
upon a weaker or minority group. Cultural genocide has been associated with
imperialism and with settler-colonialism. It is particularly associated with
forced religious conversion and with forced assimilation policies, including
child removal and the outlawing of cultural expression.
● According to The Armenaian Genocide Institute, cultural genocide
is “acts and measures undertaken to destroy nations' or ethnic
groups' culture through spiritual, national, and cultural destruction”
Native American residential schools
● “Kill the Indian and save the man”
○ U.S. Army Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt, 1904
○ Thought it was a noble cause to “civilize” native americans, wanted them to fully
participate in society
○ First record use of the word “racism” to explain the racial segregation that was occuring
at the time
● Original started by religious institution to convert native americans
children to christianity and european society
○ Began to be established mid-17th century and throughout the 18th century
● By 1902 there were 25 federally funded residential schools with a total
enrollment of over 6,000 students
● The Meriam Report of 1928
○ Department of the Interior investigation
○ Found that residential schools were underfunded and had extremely rigid and harsh
programs
○ Abolished a majority of residential school and stopped most oppressive practices
Who? What? Where? When? Why?
Who: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were targets- especially those with
one White parent, governments, churches, and welfare groups were the ones that
removed children from families

What: Government sanctioned assimilation policy that forcibly removed First Nations
children from their families to be adopted by white families or placed in abusive
institutions

Where: Across Australia, Victoria became the first state to implement a policy and other
states and territories adopted similar policies before it became federal policy

When: Between the mid-1800s and 1970

Why: Assimilation policies, the idea that First Nations peoples would live better lives in
White society, First Nations peoples should be allowed to die out, children were
considered more adaptable to White society
Factors that led to the stolen generation

● In the late nineteenth century The Doomed Race Theory

proposed that the aboriginal race would naturally die off
● Starting in the twentieth century, the realization that
aboriginals were not dying off led to a panic within White
Australian society
○ Growing population of mixed race magnified this panic
● “They would live better in a more ‘civilized society’”
○ Much like USA’s “kill the indian, save the man” policy
 Policy Timeline

The Aborigines Protection Act (Victoria) The Aborigines Protection Act (NSW)

first aboriginal child removal policy for the Gave the Aborigines Protection Board the
purpose of assimilation power to take custody of any Aboriginal
children that the court found to be neglected

1901 1915

1869 1909
Confederation The Aborigines Protection Amending Act
(NSW)
Aboriginals were not considered citizens and
the federated states therefore retain exclusive Aboriginal Protection Board could now take
power over all Aboriginal affairs Indigenous children without the need of
courts concluding that the child was
neglected.
 Timeline Continued

First Commonwealth conference on Native

Welfare

Adopts a national policy of assimilation ”The Formal end to the stolen generation
destiny of the natives of aboriginal origin, but not
of the full blood, lies in ultimate absorption … with All states repealed legislation allowing the
a view to their taking their place in the white removal of Aboriginal children
community on an equal footing with the whites."

1951

1937 1969
The September Native Welfare Conference

“The recent Native Welfare Conference agreed

that assimilation is the objective of native welfare
measures. Assimilation means, in practical
terms, that, in the course of time, it is expected
that all persons of aboriginal blood or mixed
blood in Australia will live as do white
Australians. The acceptance of this policy
governs all other aspects of native affairs
administration.”
Who it impacted
● As many as 1 in 3 Indigenous children taken between the years of 1910 and 1970
● Children with lighter skin more vulnerable
● Taken by police, from their homes, walking to and from school
● Forcibly removed from homes, caring and able families, and communities
● Parents were lied to that children had died, children were lied to that their families no
longer wanted them
● Placed in non-Indigenous homes or institutions
● Lost connection to and denied access to identity, land, language, and culture
● Punished for using native language, not allowed to use birth name
● Trained to be domestic servants or stockmen doing unpaid labour
● Lack of records kept by the government posed challenges to reconnection with families
later in life
● Suffered from grief and trauma both individually, collectively, and intergenerationally
● Stolen generation survivors were 3x more likely to have a police record and less likely to
have a secondary education, 66% have incomes in the bottom 30%
● Over 17,000 survivors today, 33% of Indigenous adults are descendants of survivors
What it Changed
Policy Repeal

● By 1969, all states repealed legislation that allowed for removal of children
● Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agencies established

Focus and Awareness on Indigenous issues

● Mabo v Queensland in 1992 attracted much attention as another issue related to

government treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Media Depiction

● Films, documentaries, and literature were created in years following the end of Stolen
Generations policies including Rabbit-Proof Fence and Australia

Reparations Schemes

● States and territories have reparations schemes that survivors of the Stolen Generations
can apply to. NSW pays $75,000 to living survivors and covers $7,000 for funerals of
survivors
Shaping the Future
National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families

● Beginning in 1995 by Attorney-General Michael Lavarch

● Heard testimony and received evidence on the subject from across Australia
● 1997 Bringing Them Home report: Recommended funding for stolen generations to record their history,
reparations paid to those affected, and official apologies from Parliament

National Sorry Day

● First held 26 May 1998

● Followed formal state-parliament-passed apologies
● Reconciliation events including Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk for Reconciliation

Apology by Parliament

● Took place 13 February 2008

● Delivered by PM Kevin Rudd
● Adopted/Passed unanimously by the House of Representatives and the Senate following widespread
approval by the general public
Questions and Discussion
● What do you think the legacy of “the stolen generation” is in
Australian history?
● What is your impression of forced assimilation in The United
States and Australia? Is it cultural genocide?
● Decades later, do you think the recommendations of “Bringing
Them Home” have been properly acted on? Are there other
recommendations you think should have been made?
● Intergenerational trauma is a lasting impact of child removal.
How do you think that Intergenerational trauma would impact
Indigenous people that are our age?