The Stolen Generations

One of the darkest chapters of Australian history was the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families. Children as young as babies were stolen from their families to be placed in girls and boys homes, foster families or missions. At the age of 18 they were 'released' into white society, often scarred for life by their experiences.

Today these Aboriginal people are collectively known as the 'Stolen Generations' because several generations were affected.

Many Aboriginal people are still searching for their fathers, mothers and siblings.

I feel our childhood has been taken away from us and it has left a big hole in our lives. —Jennifer, personal story in the Bringing Them Home Report

What members of the Stolen Generations experienced is best told by themselves. Netta was taken away from her family aged five.

Read Netta's story.

A guide to the Stolen Generations

Why were Aboriginal children stolen?

This is the most burning question for members of the Stolen Generations. In removing their children white people stole Aboriginal people's future. Language, tradition, knowledge, dances and spirituality could only live if passed on to their children. In breaking this circle of life white people hoped to end Aboriginal culture within a short time and get rid of 'the Aboriginal problem'.

In the early 20th century white Australians thought Aboriginal people would die out. In three generations, they thought, Aboriginal genes would have been 'bred out' when Aborigines had children with white people.

Adult Aboriginal people resisted efforts to be driven out of towns in simply coming back. But children, once taken away, could be controlled much easier.

Another reason for children being taken away was that authorities thought Aboriginal parents would neglect them. There is evidence, however, that malnutrition and starving kids were caused by Aboriginal people not receiving the full wages they were owed (stolen wages) [12].

Which children were taken away?

Authorities targeted mainly children of mixed descent, i.e. what they called 'half-caste' Aboriginal children (caution, this is a derogative term.). They thought that these Aboriginal children could be assimilated more easily into white society.

Many children during this time were never told that they were Aboriginal and discovered this much later in their lives. Aboriginal author Sally Morgan wrote about her experiences in her book 'My Place'.

What happened to the stolen children?

The stolen children were raised on missions or by foster parents. They were totally cut off from their Aboriginality. They were severely punished when caught talking their Aboriginal language. Some children never learned anything traditional and received little or no education. Instead the girls were trained to be domestic servants, the boys to be stockmen.

Many of the stolen girls and boys were physically and sexually abused. Many babies born to girls raped by white men were in turn taken away from them, sometimes as soon as they were born.

Boys and girls were brought into separate institutions which they (and some experts) would later compare with German concentration camps and the holocaust. Many tried to run away but with limited success. Many never saw their parents again or were told they were orphans.

The most infamous institutions are the following (be careful when you mention them to Aboriginal people, a lot of hurt and bad memories might come up):

• Bomaderry Children's Home (United Aborigines Mission) which operated from 24 May 1908 to 1981.
• Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls' Home which operated from 1911 to 1969.
• Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Home (Kinchela Training Institution) which moved to Kempsey in 1924 and closed in 1970.
• Mittagong Boys' Home
• Kempsey
• Parramatta Girls' Home which operated from 1887 until 1986
• Kahlin Compound, Darwin
• The Bungalow, Alice Springs

Many of those who were stolen established links with the area where they stayed for many years. After they left the institutions these people settled in the area.

Sometimes at night we'd cry with hunger. We had to scrounge in the town dump, eating old bread, smashing tomato sauce bottles, licking them. —Bringing Them Home - Community Guide, children's experiences

How many children were stolen?

That is not easy to answer. Few records of stolen children were kept, some were deliberately destroyed or just lost. Some administrations tried to tout their "successful assimilation" of Aboriginal people by deliberately understating Indigenous numbers, thus distorting data.

Hence numbers can only be roughly estimated. One source [3] estimates that more than 6,200 children were stolen in NSW between 1883 and 1969.

In 1994 the Australian Bureau of Statistics presented a survey which revealed that one in every ten (10%) Indigenous people aged over 25 had been removed from their families in childhood [4], a figure which seems to be confirmed by research since the Bringing Them Home Report [5].

The [South Australian] government was unable to say how many Stolen Generation people live in the state. — Statement in a 2007 article about the first court-ordered compensation ruling [9].

When were the children stolen?

Towards the end of the 19th century authorities started to take children away without a legal framework. A framework was established in 1909 with the Aborigines Protection Act.

During the 1960s the process of child removal had slowed down but continued well into the 1970s (see personal ad below). Some of the schools and missions who held the Stolen Generations did not close until the early 1980s (e.g. Bomaderry Children's Home in NSW [19]).

Children continue to be taken from their families today. On the day of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations on February 13th, 2008 the Aboriginal newspaper Koori Mail reported that the NSW government created "2,500 new foster care places". The article continued that 12,700 children reportedly are "unable to live with their [black or white] parents due to abuse, neglect or bereavement."

Abuse of stolen children

Abuse in institutions and missions

Many non-Indigenous people today believe that Aboriginal children were taken from their families because they couldn't look after them. This is one of the myths about the Stolen Generations. The stolen children were, in fact, mistreated and abused, if not by their supervisors then by the other children who had to harden to survive.

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].

Abuse in white families

When the stolen children reached the age of 15 or 16 they were sent into white farms and households. Girls had to work as domestic servants while boys worked with cattle or crops.

These children were exploited. They had to work from as early as 6am to 10pm, seven days a week. As many as 20% were abused [24], physically and mentally, during these years.

Warning: The following source might upset you.

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.

This is not an isolated story. The abuse many children of the Stolen Generations suffered is passed on in one way or another to their own children. Their personal trauma becomes a transgenerational trauma.

One in 11 girls became pregnant while apprenticed, one in 12 died, and one in seven ran away. —Aboriginal Protection Board's ward registers, 1916 to 1928 [22]

Stolen Generations - the effects

Members of the Stolen Generations often suffer from or show

• Loneliness.
• Low self esteem and feelings of worthlessness.
• Depression and other mental illnesses.
• 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 [25]. 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 [26]

• Mistrusting everyone.
• Anguish of searching for their identity.
• Transgenerational traumas: Parents pass their traumas on to their children.
• Difficulties to find their religious beliefs, because often they have been brought to many different missions where they were exposed to various religions.
• 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." [20]
• Criminal offences which bring them to the attention of police and courts.
• Abuse which can be physical, emotional, sexual or an abuse of substances.
• 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." [26]
• 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 [13].
  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?'" [17]
• 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

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 [14]. 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 [15]. 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 [14].

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 [14]

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 [15].

"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 [15]

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."

Stolen Generation member dies only months after reunion

A 107-year-old member of the Stolen Generations died only months after she was finally reunited with members of her original people in Port Hedland, WA [6]. Belinda Dann's life is a sad example of many other members of the Stolen Generations, many of whom died broken-hearted because they never saw their loved ones again.

Belinda was six years old when she was taken from her mother. Along with sisters she was taken to Beagle Bay mission in north-western Australia. When they asked for their mother they were told she would come which she never did. She married as a teenager and moved to Port Hedland. She remembered her Aboriginal name but did not know who she was and where she came from.

By coincidence one of Belinda's grandsons mentioned her Aboriginal name in a conversation with an Aboriginal girl who had heard of Belinda and was connected to her people. A 100-year-long search was over. Belinda met her people and, incredibly, started speaking in her native Aboriginal language again. Four months later she died.

We didn't find our family until I was 11 or 12. —Prof. Larissa Behrendt, Aboriginal barrister [10]

We didn't know we were related. You find it out at 20 or 30, sitting in a pub drinking. —Richard Pittman, Stolen Generations member, taken aged four [18]

Compensation for Stolen Generation members

The conservative government led by Prime Minister John Howard which led Australia from 1996 to 2007 refused to apologise to the Stolen Generations arguing that it feared calls for 'endless' compensation.

Two major events acted as a precursor for a possible national compensation scheme: Tasmania's Stolen Generation compensation and the suing of the South Australian government by a member of the Stolen Generations.

Tasmania first state to compensate Aboriginal people

The Labour government which took office in 2007 has apologised but also refuses to compensate members of the Stolen Generations, anticipating large compensation claims. But in a courageous move, the state of Tasmania has made history.

For more than 20 years members of the Stolen Generations in Tasmania campaigned for recognition of their rights. First they demanded an apology, which was given in 1997, then compensation. [1]

In October 2006 the then Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon released a AUD 5 million funding package as part of his reconciliation efforts, making Tasmania the first state to compensate members of the Stolen Generations. He wanted to recognise "that in Tasmania's history Aboriginal people were dispossessed from their land, severed from their culture and taken from their families".

The package was distributed between living members of the Stolen Generations and the children of those who had died. 106 Aborigines qualified for one-off compensation, 45 cases were rejected [29]. To qualify applicants had to be Aboriginal and been removed from their families between 1935 and 1975 for at least 12 months.

Many other Australian state governments shrink from apologising to or compensating Aboriginal people for fear of multi-million dollar payments.

Stolen Generation member successfully sues SA government

Ngarrindjeri man Bruce Trevorrow was 13 months old when he was sent to hospital with a stomach ache. The hospital falsely recorded that he had no parents and was 'neglected and malnourished', reason enough for authorities not to return him to his family. A decade would pass before Bruce was able to see his loved ones again [7].

In June 1998 Mr Trevorrow sued the South Australian government for pain and suffering. During the trial it was established that Bruce

• lost his cultural identity,
• suffered depression and subsequently became an alcoholic and heavy smoker,
• was never told his mother tried to see him but was not allowed to,
• suffered from emotional problems which put him in and out of institutions, including jail,
• is chronically insecure.

The court was satisfied that 'the conduct of the state, amounting to misfeasance in public office, together with the false imprisonment of the plaintiff, has been a material cause of the plaintiff's long-term depression'. The court found that this had 'ruptured the bond' between Bruce and his family to a degree that he could not overcome the difficulties he encountered, contrary to his siblings who were not taken away.

On August 1st 2007, 50-year-old Bruce Trevorrow was awarded AUD 525,000 which made him the first member of the Stolen Generations to be awarded compensation by a court.

The ruling was facilitated by enough evidence found in records which backed Bruce Trevorrow's claims. Many other members of the Stolen Generations cannot access records because they were destroyed or lost.

The SA government did not contest the ruling as such and considered establishing a compensation fund for the Stolen Generations, similar to the one created by the Tasmanian government in 2006 [8].

I have reached the conclusion that the plaintiff has, thus far, generally had a miserable life. —Justice Thomas Gray about Bruce Trevorrow

Sadly, on 20 June 2008, Bruce Trevorrow passed away aged 51 after a long illness [27]. Despite his compensation he continued to feel the impact of "dislocation from his family origin, incomplete cultural identity and the many injustices he experienced", said his family [28].

Explore more events with the Stolen Generations Timeline.

'Not stolen, but rescued'

A significant number of Australians disagreed with the apology delivered in February 2008 to the Stolen Generations by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Here are their main arguments:

• The Stolen Generations don't exist. Some people simply and flatly deny that children were stolen. They want to see 'proof' and claim no-one could 'find' them.
• Aboriginal children were 'rescued'. Supporters claim that Aboriginal children were not stolen but 'rescued' from a family and community environment that was "rife with rape, incest, drug and/or alcohol abuse and insanitary living conditions" [16]. The Aboriginal children were 'given a chance'.

I've asked my granny if she thought she was rescued. She replied, "I didn't need rescuing from my mother's love."—Che Cockatoo-Collins [23]

• 'We did not do it'. People who refuse to apologise to the Stolen Generations feel that they or their ancestors had no part in what happened, hence shared no responsibility for the pain caused.
• An apology leads to compensation claims. Many people fear that after the apology "a flood of compensation claims will be forthcoming" running to "millions of dollars" [16].

Free Stolen Generations resources

The resources listed here are free of charge and you can either download or order them.

Free Stolen Generations booklet

A must-read is the report by Peter Read, 'The Stolen Generations - The removal of Aboriginal children in New South Wales 1883 to 1969'.

Published in 1981 it was then a ground-breaking first attempt to document the devastating consequences of the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families.

The report's chapters are:

• 2006: The return of the Stolen Generations
• Introduction
• A typical case
• The laws regarding children
• The number of children taken
• Life in the homes
• Employment
• Fostering
• Going home
• The effects
• Why did they do it?
• Appendix

The 34-page report comes with several black-and-white images and can be downloaded as a PDF file from the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs ('Publications').

Free Bringing Them Home DVD

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, a government body, published a DVD in 1997. The free DVD is based on the Bringing Them Home Report which was released on the 26th May that year.

The DVD is a 32-minute documentary, interviewing Aboriginal people of the Stolen Generations and showing historical footage. It is a must-see for all interested in learning more and listening to the stories of Aboriginal people who were stolen. But be careful: The content is sometimes heartbreaking.

The first DVD is free, any further copy is just AUD 5. To order your copy send an email or letter to:

Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission

Level 8, Piccadilly Tower
133 Castlereagh Street
Sydney NSW 2000

publications@humanrights.gov.au
Phone: 02 9284 9672
Fax: 02 9284 9611

www.humanrights.gov.au

The Stolen Generations in the arts

Archie Roach, an Aboriginal singer-song writer, wrote "Took The Children Away", a song featured on his 1990 debut album "Charcoal Lane":

...
Took us away
They took us away
Snapped from their mother's breast
Said this is for the best
Took us away.

Told us what to do and say
Taught us all the white man's ways
Then they split us up again
And gave us gifts to ease the pain
Sent us off to foster homes
As we grew up we felt alone
Cause we were acting white
Yet feeling black 		
...

More Aboriginal music

Help for members of the Stolen Generations

Link-Up

Link-Up helps members of the Stolen Generations to track down their relatives. It has offices in almost every Australian state. In South Australia from 1999 to 2007 Link-Up arranged 160 family reunions and brought together 4,915 people.

Link-Up NSW Aboriginal Corporation
PO Box 93
Lawson, NSW 2783
phone 02 - 4759 1911, toll-free 1800 624 332
linkup@nsw.link-up.org.au

Out of respect for Aboriginal culture I use Indigenous sources as much as possible.
Antar newsletter 8/2006, www.smh.com.au, [1] Koori Mail 390, 6/12/2006, p8, [2] NIT, issue 130/Vol.6, 31/5/2007, p.37, [3] The Stolen Generations, Peter Read, 1981, p.11, [4] http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aar/factfile.htm, [5] www.reconciliation.qut.edu.au: Bringing Them Home Factsheet [6] Koori Mail 413 p.19 [7] NIT 135 p.4 [8] Koori Mail 407 p.4 [9] NIT 135 p.6 [10] NIT 135 p.24 [11] 'Rewind' program on ABC, 17/10/2004 [12] Stolen Wages committee submissions, http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/Committee/legcon_ctte/stolen_wages/submissions/sublist.htm, submission #21 [13] 'Remembering the days at Colebrook', Koori Mail 417, p.33 [14] 'Ghosts of missing family: empathy in painful past', The Canberra Times, 13/2/2008, p.13 [15] http://programs.sbs.com.au/whodoyouthinkyouare/celebrity/?id=72 [16] 'Stolen Generation compensation', The Courier Mail, 13/2/2008, p.31 [17] 'First step the hardest', The Daily Telegraph, 13/2/2008, p.25 [18] 'Flight to reclaim the past', Herald Sun, 13/2/2008, p.14 [19] 'The one-way train ride to misery', Illawara Mercury, 13/2/2008, p.7 [20] 'Nation needs to embrace apology', Illawara Mercury, 13/2/2008, p.47 [21] 'Family saddened by apology that comes too late for some', Sydney Morning Herald, 13/2/2008, p.7 [22] 'Step brings back some humanity', Sydney Morning Herald, 13/2/2008, p.16 [23] 'It's time to heal my granny's suffering', The Advertiser, 13/2/2008, p.6 [24] 'Long road to apology after indigenous victims revealed depth of suffering', The Age, 13/2/2008, p.14 [25] 'The lucky country?', The Age Sport supplement, 13/2/2008, p.6 [26] 'Sorry 'the first battle'', Koori Mail 419, p.9 [27] 'Stolen Generation 'victor' passes away', NIT 26/6/2008 p.6 [28] 'Tributes pour in for Stolen Gen fighter', Koori Mail 429 p.5 [29] 'Tasmania to pay 'stolen generation' of Aborigines £2.2m in reparations', guardian.co.uk, 23/1/2008

Content

• A guide to the Stolen Generations
• Abuse of stolen children
• Stolen Generations - the effects
• Stolen Generations resources
• Tasmania first state to compensate Aboriginal people
• The Stolen Generations in the arts
• Help for members of the Stolen Generations

• Australia
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