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Who are the stolen generations?
International

Who are the stolen generations?

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5 minutes, 59 seconds Read

Key Points
  • Thousands of indigenous children were violence from their families and in white society.
  • These removals caused deep, permanent trauma passed on by generations.
  • Communities healed by cultural resounding and support programs.
  • Education and national recognition are the key to healing.
Content warning: This delivery contains disturbing material, including references to trauma, removal of children and entries from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died.

From 1910 to the 1970s, thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were systematically removed from their homes under the official government policy. These children were placed in institutions or promoted by non-native families.

Why have children taken?

Shannan Dodson, a Yawuru woman from the Broome environment and CEO of the Healing Foundation, says there was a devastating goal behind their removal.
“What was heartbreaking about the stolen generations was that they were tens of thousands of children who were removed, and especially for the only reason to want to assimilate them in non-Aboriginal culture … Many of those children members and many of them never saw their families again.”
Children were specifically the target because they more often accepted what they were told and rejecting their culture. Families were often misled – thought that their children had died or that they were unwanted.

Poor registration makes it difficult to know how many children have been removed, but the number can be as high as one in three children. However, we know that every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community has changed forever and the scars continue to exist.

Canberra, Australia – February 13: members of the stolen generation of Australia respond while listening to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, supplying an apolgia to indigenous people for the past on 13 February 2008 in Canberra, Australia. The apology was aimed at tens of thousands of Aboriginals who were violently removed from their families as children who have now left the assimilation policy. (Photo by Mark Baker-Pool/Getty Images) Credit: Pool/Getty Images

Where did the children go?

Many stolen children were taken to institutions led through the church throughout the country.
These were called training centers or dorms where the children were subjected to extreme discipline. They were stripped of their identity and received new names, language and religion.
Brothers and sisters were often separated and some institutions only housed infants.
In 1943, after four years, the old aunt Lorraine Peeters, a woman from Gamilaroi and Wailwan, was brought to the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls in NSW. Her two brothers went to the infamous Kinchela Aboriginal Boys’ Training Home.
“Punishment was automatically when you forgot to be white,” she recalls.
“We couldn’t even talk about an Aboriginal person. And that regards you as a four -year -old who is brainwashed. You soon forgot native ways and learned white ways. And the punishment was terrible in those places.”
For the next 10 years, Aunt Lorraine was trained as a household servant for white families.

Nowadays she is a strong voice for survivors and the founder of the Marumali program, a healing initiative tailored to the needs of those who have experienced forced removal.

Shannan Dodson CEO Healing Foundation.png

Shannan Dodson CEO Healing Foundation

What is intergenerational trauma?

The trauma that children, families and communities experience continues to resound through the generations.
Nowadays there are young people who don’t know who they are, where they come from or why they behave the way they do, says Aunt Lorraine.
“It’s a vicious circle. If we don’t break it in our families, it will continue.”
Due to the historical lack of support systems, trauma is often unconsciously passed on to children while witnessing the pain that their parents and grandparents experience.
This is known as intergenerational trauma.
Survivors talk about how difficult it can be to raise their own children because they did not grow up in a loving or supporting environment, explains Shannan Dodson.
“Some survivors have admitted that because of the trauma they have experienced, they unfortunately that trauma have passed on to their own children. And we see that cycle and then repeat to grandchildren and great -grandchildren. And that is why we refer it as intergenerational.”
The symptoms of intergenerational trauma are nowadays visible in high percentages of the breakdown of the family, violence, imprisonment, suicide and drug and alcohol abuse.

Communities now work to end the trauma cycle through healing.

Australian Aboriginal girl visits the doctor

An essential part of healing is education – continuing that all Australians understand the truth about the stolen generations. Credit: Davidf/Getty images

What does healing of trauma look like?

“I think healing is something that looks different than different people, but we do know that survivors have to decide for themselves what that healing looks like for themselves,” says Shannan Dodson.
Healing means rebuilding family structures and strong communities. It also means rebuilding a sense of identity and pride. Re -connection with country, culture and language helps to restore the identity that has been removed.
Survivors also spend their need to share their experiences and to be able to speak freely about historical injustices.
“In circles and meetings you create the healing to happen there,” says Aunt Lorraine about her work with the Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation, founded by former residents of the Cootamundra house.
“They talk about it, they cure it, through only Yarning, share … and the more they do that, they have not forgotten.”
Intergenerational trauma -animation, The Healing Foundation

This video contains the voice of a deceased person.

Tell education and truth

Another essential part of healing is education – continuing that all Australians understand the truth about the stolen generations.

‘I would like to see it [non-Indigenous Australians] Give their children the opportunity to learn the true history of this country, “Aunt Lorraine,” and to dismantle the systems, to dismantle them and start again because the policy written about our crowd is really racist, racistly based. ‘

Australia commemorates National Sorry Day

Leilla Wenberg, a member of the stolen generation removed from her parents car in 6 months old, has a candle during a National Sorry Day Demorative event at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on 26 May 2009 in Sydney, Australia. National Sorry Day has been held annually on 26 May since 1998 to recognize the mistakes that have been made to indigenous families of the stolen generation. Credit: Sergio Dionisio/Getty images

What kind of survivors of the stolen generations?

At a turning point in 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd then released the long -awaited apology to the stolen generations, their descendants and their families.
What has been followed are various initiatives and developments, including the creation of the Healing Foundation.
Survivors and their families need continuous support, says Shannan Dodson.
“Our organization really advocates a national healing package, which means that the remaining justice that must be seen for stolen generation survivors takes place before more survivors die.”
Intergenerational healing can continue through programs such as Marumali, support from the Healing Foundation and initiatives guided by the community.

Real healing also requires Australia as a whole to listen and to help survivors to recover their stories.

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