The Stolen Generations are a tragic period in Australian history
The term "Stolen Generations" painfully marks a dark era in Australia where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were systematically and forcibly taken from their families by state policies, stretching from the 1910s until the 1970s. Historical estimates indicate that during this era, up to one-third of Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their parents and communities.
The government defended these actions under the guise of child welfare, suggesting that such measures were necessary for the children's protection and integration into mainstream society. One deeply flawed belief was that Indigenous peoples of "Pure Blood" were a fading race, and those of mixed heritage could assimilate more seamlessly into white society, underpinning these actions with a veneer of racial superiority.
So the next thing I remember was that they took us from there and we went to the hospital and I kept asking – because the children were screaming and the little brothers and sisters were just babies of course, and I couldn’t move, they were all around me, around my neck and legs, yelling and screaming. I was all upset and I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t know where we were going. I just thought: well, they’re police, they must know what they’re doing. I suppose I’ve got to go with them, they’re taking me to see Mum.You know this is what I honestly thought. They kept us in hospital for three days and I kept asking, ‘When are we going to see Mum?’ And no-one told us at this time. And I think on the third or fourth day they piled us in the car and I said, ‘Where are we going?’ And they said, ‘We are going to see your mother’. But then we turned left to go to the airport and I got a bit panicky about where we were going ... They got hold of me, you know what I mean, and I got a little baby in my arms and they put us on the plane. And they still told us we were going to see Mum. So I thought she must be wherever they’re taking us.
Confidential submission 318, Tasmania: removal from Cape Barren Island, Tasmania, of 8 siblings in the 1960s. The children were fostered separately. Bringing Them Home Report, 1997.
This policy was legally underpinned by various acts, with the Victorian Aboriginal Protection Act of 1869 being one of the earliest, permitting the state to remove mixed-descent Aboriginal people to promote their assimilation. Similarly, the establishment of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines in New South Wales in 1883, and its subsequent empowerment through the Aborigines Protection Amending Act of 1915 to remove children without court oversight, facilitated these removals.
Children uprooted from their families were forced into a white-centric lifestyle, often stripped of their cultural identity, language, and traditions. Many were led to believe their families had either relinquished them or were deceased. To further ensure the erasure of their Aboriginal heritage, these children were relocated far from their ancestral lands. The consequences of these policies were not confined to childhood but extended into adulthood, influencing their identity and sense of belonging.
The children often found themselves in institutional settings like the Kinchela Boys Home and the Cootamundra Girls Training Home, where they were prepared for servitude in white households. Regrettably, many experienced various forms of abuse within these homes.
The legislative framework that permitted such practices was dismantled by 1969, with New South Wales repealing relevant laws. Yet, the legacy of the Stolen Generations endures, notably in the disproportionate number of Aboriginal children in contemporary child protection systems.
The issuance of a formal Apology by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on February 13, 2008, to the Stolen Generations marked a significant acknowledgment of past injustices. However, the enduring impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities—ranging from intergenerational trauma to the loss of cultural continuity—underscores the long road still ahead in reconciling with this chapter of Australian history.