Assessment Resource Centre (ARC)

Stolen Generation

The Stolen generation was an entire generation of children that were taken from their Aboriginal mothers, fathers and families from the 1920’s to the late 1960’s/early 1970’s to be taught the ways of white man. These children lived underprivileged lives, devoid of any sense of identity, and many suffered huge traumas that developed chronically into their adult lives. The apology made by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last year was a vital step towards building a bridge for recovery and equality in Australia for those stolen children.

For the period of almost half a century, the Australian government acted to “help the progress of assimilation” of Aborigines by effectively ‘stealing’ thousands of Aboriginal Australian children from their parents, their homes and their identities. The government, would remove the children, changing their names and dates of birth and send them to Christian missions to “European-ise” the children and bring them up as ‘White’ Australians.

Unfortunately, these days so many of these victims from the stolen generation are facing problems caused by their suffering as youths, and also, there is a strong sense of a loss of identity as these children were stolen from their parents and their land – which they have such a strong spiritual connection with – and so many are continuing to suffer years after their return to their homes.

In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd gave a ‘Sorry’ speech to the Stolen generation, apologising for the wrongs committed by the governments before him. He made clear the massive remorse held by the wider Australian community to the treatment of the Aboriginal People and as such helped hugely to building a bridge towards the total recovery of these suffers.

It is hoped that, thanks to the apology to the Stolen Generation, Australia can continue to head towards reconciliation with the Aboriginal people and non-indigenous Australians and one day achieve equality and hence harmony. The Stolen Generation lost their identity – something near impossible for them to recover from, but it is hoped that the Sorry speech will help recognise and ease the pain felt by these people.

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