1. The Stolen Generations (all images are hyperlinked)

2. Listen to Lowitja’s story
Between 1910 and 1970 up to 100,000 Aboriginal children were taken forcibly from their families by police or welfare officers.
Most were under 5 years old. There was rarely any judicial process. To be part Aboriginal was enough. They are known as the ‘Stolen Generations’.

3. Photo Darwin Newspaper 1930s
Where did they go?
Most were raised in Church or state institutions. Some were fostered or adopted.
Many suffered physical and sexual abuse. Food and living conditions were poor.
They received little education, and were expected to go into low grade domestic and farming work.
Photo Darwin Newspaper 1930s

4. Why were they taken?
They were taken because it was Federal and State Government policy that Aboriginal children - especially those of mixed Aboriginal and European descent - should be removed from their parents.
Between 10 and 30% of all Aboriginal children were removed, and in some places these policies continued into the 1970s.
The main motive was to ‘assimilate’ Aboriginal children into European society over one or two generations by denying and destroying their Aboriginality.
Speaking their languages and practising their ceremonies was forbidden
They were taken miles from their country, some overseas
Parents were not told where their children were and could not trace them
Children were told that they were orphans
Family visits were discouraged or forbidden; letters were destroyed.

6. Violence and Abuse .
Roy Stewart was removed from his family when he was just three years old. Until he died aged 77 he was haunted by the memories of what he witnessed at the Kinchela Boys' Home in NSW. He was made to bury other boys who had been bashed to death by drunken supervisors [21].
Institutions were a "training ground for jail" says Roy's brother who has spent almost 30 years in jails. "You'd have your first fight on day one. They'd throw another bloke at you on day two and rate you." Today Roy's brother has dozens of counts on his criminal record, many of them for bar fights, a continuation of what he had learned at the boy's home.
It is reported that about 10% of those stolen children sent to institutions were sexually abused [24].

7. Valerie Linow - Rape.
Valerie Linow was a domestic servant for a white grazier family [11]. When she was 17 she spilt a bucket of milk and never expected what would happen to her:
"He yelled out to me, 'Get inside!' And the next minute, he just belted me. He yelled and had this fence wire and just belted me across my legs and I doubled up. Today, I still wear marks here on the top of my legs 'cause I was doubling up trying to protect myself."
"And the elder...elder girl, she was about 10, and I could hear the girl calling, 'Give it to her, Daddy! Give it to the nigger!'"
"And the next minute, he yells out to me, he said, 'Valerie, get in here.' He said, 'You didn't do the girls' room properly.' And that's... I went into the girls' room and then that's when he raped me. He just threw me on the bed and just raped me."
Valerie had the guts to report the incident to police. The grazier was not charged.

8. The results
The physical and emotional damage to those taken away was profound and lasting:
Most grew up in a hostile environment without family ties or cultural identity.
As adults, many suffered insecurity, lack of self esteem, feelings of worthlessness, depression, suicide, violence, delinquency, abuse of alcohol and drugs and inability to trust.
Lacking a parental model, many had difficulty bringing up their own children.
The scale of separation also had profound consequences for the whole Aboriginal community - anger, powerlessness and lack of purpose as well as an abiding distrust of Government, police and officials.

9. Bringing them home 1995
A National Inquiry was set up in Its 1997 Report ‘Bringing them Home’ contained harrowing evidence.
It found that forcible removal of indigenous children was a gross violation of human rights which continued well after Australia had undertaken international human rights commitments.
It was racially discriminatory, because it only applied to Aboriginal children on that scale, and
It was an act of genocide contrary to the Convention on Genocide, (which forbids ‘forcibly transferring children of [a] group to another group’ with the intention of destroying the group)

10. Marjorie Woodrow
Marjorie Woodrow’s mother, Ethel Whyman, was a Barkandji woman from western NSW. She became pregnant with Marjorie after being raped by a white man. Marjorie was taken age 7 in 1940.
“There was molesting going on – it’s lucky that a lot of us didn’t have babies but you know, it’s probably that we were too young to fall pregnant. It was just dreadful.”

11. Sources and Links Stolen Generations - Aboriginal Stolen Generation
Lowitja O'Donoghue - The Stolen Generation - Australian History, Indigenous Studies
Stolen Generations Journey of Healing for Australian Aboriginal children at Moola Bulla Australia.
The Stolen Generations - European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights
Stolen Generations Timeline - Aboriginal Stolen Generation Timeline
Community Profile: Marjorie Woodrow - [2004] ILB 55; 6(5)pg19