The Stolen Generation The Stolen Generation

1881: New South Wales Protector of Aborigines – Aboriginals forced to live on reserves with no legal rights and condemned to poverty. Between 1915 and 1939 any station manager or policeman could take children from their parents.

Aboriginal Day of Mourning, led by leading activist, William Cooper.

1909 NSW Aborigines Protection Act: 1: Control of money for assisting Aborigines 2: Distribute blankets and clothing to Aborigines 3: Have custody of Aboriginal children and educate them 4: Manage reserves 5: Supervise all matter affecting Aborigines 6: Remove from the reserve any Aborigines who should be earning their own living.

In New South Wales alone more than children were taken from their families. White authorities went to great lengths to break the cultural and family bonds between parents and children. In 1921 a Northern Territory Aboriginal children’s home housed 52 children in three iron sheds behind the local hotel. At the age of 14 most children left the mission of government institution. Education for aboriginal children viewed as futile.

The United Nations Convention of 1948 defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

With your own knowledge, use of the textbook and sources from the N.C.H.E website, do you argue that the policies of the Australian government and the resulting ‘stolen generation’ was a form of genocide? National Centre for History Education – Ozhistorybites, Issue 2.

Movie - Rabbit Proof Fence: Marjorie Woodrow history - Member of the Stolen Generation: