Stolen Generations—effects and consequences
Removal from their families has far-reaching consequences for children of the Stolen Generations. All aspects of their lives are affected.
Some enter a lifelong search for their parents, others never succeed as parents themselves and turn to substance abuse.
Many feel that they are living a life surrounded by ghosts – people they don't know but should.
Stolen Generations - the effects
Searching for family. Aboriginal people of the Stolen Generations are still looking for their
families [1]. This personal ad also documents that children were taken until the late 1970s.
Members of the Stolen Generations often suffer from or show
- Loneliness.
- Low self esteem and feelings of worthlessness.
- Loss of identity: Aboriginal ex-footballer Sydney Jackson's "exact age cannot be guaranteed"
because "no reference to the birth of Sydney Jackson can be found". His birthday was "simply assumed"
to be July 1, 1944 [2]. As a consequence people like Syd have problems applying for legal documents such as passports.
I have no identity really.—Cynthia Sariago, daughter of a stolen woman [3]
- Mistrusting everyone. Aboriginal elder Prof Lowitja O'Donhoghue for example has a tendency to hold something of herself back from everyone but a selected few [19]. Having been brought up in an institution she never had a family in the traditional sense.
- Difficulties to find their religious beliefs, because often they have been brought to many different missions where they were exposed to various religions.
- Internal guilt because Stolen Generation members often blame their mothers and fathers for not loving and caring for them, based on incorrect or sparse information supplied by foster parents and government institutions. Later they often find out that their parents were continually trying to contact and reuinite with their children [4].
- Anguish of searching for their identity. For some, when they are reunited with a parent after many
years (sometimes decades), the reunion turns into another perceived hurt and rejection when they find they cannot, or the
parent does not want to, bond with them.
I met my mother for the first time when I was in my 30s, and it was sad because too much time had passed, and it was hard to make a connection. —Aunty Maria Starsevik, taken aged two [4]
I didn't see my mother again until I was 35. —Brian Morley, taken aged two [4]
- Depression and other mental illnesses.
Many boys were told that their mother or their father (quite often both) was dead, when in fact they were alive. Being told this news caused many to suffer severe depression... Some boys lost all hope and just wanted to die. —Bill Simon, taken away aged 10 [5]
I was hurting and had found no way of safely healing the pain. So I turned the pain, anger, resentment and bitterness inwards and did what so many of us do, which is to punish and hurt ourselves. Despite being loved, I choose to suffer from days of depression and I couldn't see any hope in the future. —Joy Makepeace, taken away aged less than a year old [17]
- Difficulties parenting or filling any communal role. "As a child I had no mother's
arms to hold me. No father to lead me into the world... We had few ideas about relationships. No-one showed us how to
be lovers or parents." [6] Consequently many relationships of members of the Stolen Generations fail,
dragging their children into a vicious cycle of foster parents.
It is vital to find family members for children in care or another generation grows up not knowing their parents.
We never heard the words 'I love you', so we never leanred to say them to our family... or feel them. We became empty vessels, out of touch with our feelings. —Sharyn Egan, member of the Stolen Generations [18]
We kept coming across a pattern of Stolen Generation members whose children, then grandchildren and even their great-grandchildren had ended up in care.—Glendra Stubbs, CEO Link-Up [7]
- Short family tree: Many Aboriginal people in rural and urban areas can't go further than 2 generations into their Aboriginal family tree [20].
- Unable to manage relationships because they have never had a role model to learn from. Many
relationships are violent and abusive (the abused turns to become an abuser).
He witnessed and suffered abuse that left emotional and physical scars so deep they would have a lasting impact on his life and all his relationships.—Bill Simon, taken aged ten [8]
- Transgenerational traumas: Parents pass their traumas on to their children.
I know families who, if they see a stranger walk in their front yard, all run to the back of the house—grandmother, mother, son and grandson.—Kim Hill, CEO Northern Land Council and former ATSIC Commissioner [9]
- Criminal offences which bring them to the attention of police and courts.
- Abuse which can be physical, emotional, sexual or
an abuse of substances.
I was given the first hug of my life in a women's environment which I didn't know anything about... It tore me apart because not understanding what a hug is, and to be given that all of a sudden by someone, you suddenly realise someone cared about you, but it wasn't that. It was abuse, as a 12-year-old. —Elder Mary Terszak, member of the Stolen Generations [10]
- Violence which can be domestic or intrinsic (leading to suicide). Mothers of the Stolen Generations living
in remote areas are three times as likely to experience violence as other Indigneous mothers [11].
Simon recounts...the time he first tasted alcohol, and how that, and later on harder drugs, worked to numb him of the blinding rage and violence he felt. —Bill Simon, taken aged ten [8]
- Loss of cultural affiliation. Since they were denied any traditional knowledge Stolen Generations cannot take a role in the cultural and spiritual life of their Aboriginal communities. "I don't know nothing about my culture. I don't know nothing about the land and the language," says Cynthia Sariago whose mother passed away. "It's hard going back [to your home country] because you're not really accepted by your mother's traditional people." [3]
- Deep distrust of government, police and officials which continues to shape community relationships to these bodies.
- Loss of language: "Many of us eventually lost our language... When some of us finally met
our parents, it was almost impossible to bridge the language and culture gap.", says Uncle George Tongerie, who had
been placed in Colebrook Home at Quorn, SA [12].
Lee Nangala, 46, daughter of a member of the Stolen Generations recalls: "I remember saying over and over again to Mum, '...How come we don't have a language, Mum?... Mum, where do I come from?'" [13] - Loss of land. Not only can they sometimes not remember where their traditional land is, but in breaking the continuous practice of customs they are not entitled to claim native title over their land.
Many members of the Stolen Generations also had their wages stolen from them.
I suspect I'll carry these sorts of wounds 'til the day I die. I'd just like it not to be so intense, that's all. —Bringing Them Home - Community Guide, the effects
Digression: Effects of child removal on children's brains
The excellent book The Brain That Changes Itself explains what happens to a child which has been removed from their mother [14].
"For children to know and regulate their emotions, and be socially connected, they need to experience [various kinds of emotional] interaction many hundreds of times in the critical period [of brain development] and then to have it reinforced later in life."
If a child is removed before or shortly after the critical period is completed other people need to take on the role of the mother. Stolen children rarely had others helping them to soothe themselves. They had to learn to "autoregulate" themselves by "turning off their emotions", a devastating blow to creating lasting relationships.
Children who grow up without their caring mothers, in institutions where one nurse is responsible for a group of infants, "stop developing intellectually, are unable to control their emotions, and instead rock endlessly back and forth, or make strange hand movements. They also enter 'turned-off' states and are indifferent to the world, unresponsive to people who try to hold and comfort them. In photographs these infants have a haunting, faraway look in their eyes." Compare this statement to the old newspaper photograph above. These children have given up all hope of finding their parents again.
Children suffering from early trauma release a stress hormone that kills cells in the hippocampus of the brain. This makes learning and long-term memory difficult and predisposes them to stress-related illnesses for the rest of their lives. "Trauma in infancy appears to lead to a supersensitisation" which can last into adulthood.
Growing up with ghosts
Children of parents who lost loved ones often 'grow up with ghosts', meaning that missing family members are psychologically present but physically absent [15]. While the parents know exactly whom they lost, their children know very little of this part of their family history.
Parents worsen this problem by hiding their traumatic memories, names or photographs. When they die they leave unfillable gaps in the family's history. "I didn't want to bother you with some of the crap I had to put up with," says for example the mother of Cathy Freeman [16]. Cathy is an Aboriginal Olympic gold medallist.
Aboriginal people are not the only ones suffering from such a loss of relatives and loss of past. Children of Holocaust survivors share the same experiences [15].
I grew up knowing people 'I didn't know', mourning people I think were dead, but actually never knowing for sure. —Child of a Holocaust survivor [15]
The children of survivors of great family losses find themselves left with many questions, shame and sometimes an almost obsessive desire to fill in the blank spaces of their family's past. This motivated Cathy Freeman in 2007 to sign up for a series aired by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) television channel, 'Who do you think you are', and search for her heritage [16].
"I wanted to know more about where I came from and who I belong to because one's history sets you on the right pathway for the future and makes you feel that bit more secure in the present," she explained.
I can see how I am a reflection of my ancestors.—Cathy Freeman, Aboriginal Olympic gold medallist [16]
With this sentence Cathy explains how getting to know her ancestry helps her understand her own personality. Her search gives her a sense of purpose and helps her pass on a complete picture of her past to future generations: "It was important for me to know it so that I can share it with my children some day."
A relative or descendant of one of the four million Jews or political prisoners that Hitler exterminated in his death camps stands a better chance of learning the fate of his relatives than an Aborignal person trying ot piece together his or her family history.—John Danalis in 'Riding The Black Cockatoo', comparing the extensive records Nazis kept about their victims to poor or non-existent records in Australia.
Related content
Guide: The Stolen Generations: Why, Which, What, When, How?
Compensation: Is compensation possible for Stolen Generation members?
Free: Resources about the Stolen Generations
Out of respect for Aboriginal culture I use Indigenous sources as much as possible.
[1] NIT, issue 130/Vol.6, 31/5/2007, p.37,
[2] 'The lucky country?', The Age Sport supplement, 13/2/2008, p.6
[3] 'Sorry 'the first battle'', Koori Mail 419, p.9
[4] 'Support call in Melbourne', Koori Mail 470 p.34
[5] 'A long way from home', Sydney Morning Herald, 23/5/2009
[6] 'Nation needs to embrace apology', Illawara Mercury, 13/2/2008, p.47
[7] 'New service aims to link families', Koori Mail 452 p.33
[8] 'From pain to peace', Koori Mail 453 p.60
[9] 'The man on the land', NIT 16/10/2008 p.27
[10] 'Calls for action from WA', Koori Mail 445 p.43
[11] 'Stolen mums 'at higher risk'', Koori Mail 463 p.8
[12] 'Remembering the days at Colebrook', Koori Mail 417, p.33
[13] 'First step the hardest', The Daily Telegraph, 13/2/2008, p.25
[14] 'The Brain That Changes Itself', Scribe Publications 2009, pp228 and pp242
[15] 'Ghosts of missing family: empathy in painful past', The Canberra Times, 13/2/2008, p.13
[16] programs.sbs.com.au/whodoyouthinkyouare/celebrity/?id=72
[17] joymakepeace.blogspot.com/2010/11/releasing-anger-and-healing-pain_06.html, visited 9/11/2010
[18] 'Baskets tell a story', Koori Mail 487 p.58
[19] 'O'Donohghue" Still here', Koori Mail 408 p.16
[20] 'Tell your story', Koori Mail 400 p.21