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The Forum > Article Comments > Once again, Australia is stealing its indigenous children > Comments

Once again, Australia is stealing its indigenous children : Comments

By John Pilger, published 25/3/2014

Described by a Chief Protector of Aborigines as 'breeding out the colour', the policy was known as assimilation. It was influenced by the same eugenics movement that inspired the Nazis.

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Big Nana:

...The question regarding Aboriginal communities is simply this: Will those communities be in existence in say four generations of time? The answer to this question will include their current fragility as a community in this present time!

...Can remote Aboriginal communities withstand the trauma that alcohol inflicts on the moral compass of the remote community? The most devastating side effect of alcohol abuse on the community, is child neglect and abuse: A symptom of that abuse is the removal of the children for protection by State authorities!

...So, is the question one of survival of the community, or a question of the rights of the child? It would be over-simple to conclude that removing the child will either protect it or promote the “extent” of the community from which it was removed!

...Is it (in the long-run), better to sacrifice the child for the community survival, or pull down the complete society by removing the child, then dealing with individual transgressions of the community by existing laws of the land, until the communities are restored to a condition acceptable to raring children in safety?

...I am positive in my thinking that Aboriginal communities will eventually restore themselves to strength, since these communities have been existing in their current or similar form for many thousands of years! There is cause for great hope!
Posted by diver dan, Friday, 28 March 2014 3:40:08 PM
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Jayb:

I get excited when somebody mentions my name! Interesting though, in NSW, one third of all children under sixteen have been removed from their parents at some stage of their lives!

http://www.smh.com.au/national/number-of-children-removed-from-parents-soars-20100701-zqqv.html

You would not be wrong in guessing that the fault for that lies squarely at the feet of the parent (In the end): I don't think that point is disputed!

But the broader question is; what leads to this situation of necessity of State Authorities to remove children from their parents in such alarming numbers?

WHY are parents failing? Thus, the conclusion in my tome above!
Posted by diver dan, Friday, 28 March 2014 9:46:47 PM
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Big Nana tells it how it is. As for the suggestion some of these communities will somehow restore themselves and questions of whether children be left in the circumstances "that RSPCA wouldn't permit an animal to remain" for the purpose - I think the answers are NO and only if we were prepared to tolerate torture and deaths of innocents for the sake of some bizarre experiment.

Diver Dan writes: "The most devastating side effect of alcohol abuse on the community, is child neglect and abuse"

It's worse than that. Many children are born with the condition FAS (Foetal Alcohol Syndrome) which ensures the collective intellect and ability of survivors of current and future generations to thrive are further compromised.

At least a child removed early from neglect and abuse and placed in a SAFE environment where they have adequate nutrition, affection and education may have half a chance of returning to their community - if they desire. Not much opportunity to improve the state of affairs if you are dead from neglect, been murdered, suicide or worse ... rendered useless through the effects of ur birth, upbringing and lifestyle
Posted by divine_msn, Saturday, 29 March 2014 10:58:56 AM
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As Pilger refuses to engage in debate , is there some way to communicate directly to him the contributions of Lego and Big Nana. Then we can at least say, "Now you know". My attempts have been unsuccessful.
Posted by Leslie, Saturday, 29 March 2014 12:14:16 PM
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Perhaps Mr Pilger could name ONE person who was illegally removed, and the circumstances of that removal ? Perhaps it could be taken before a court ?

It was never legal, anywhere in Australia, to remove a child from his/her carers for no cause.

Years ago, I studied the school records from one Aboriginal community here in SA, from 1880 to the 1960s. Eight hundred kids went to that school in that time. About twelve were taken TO the Mission (as it was) from outside the region (1.5 %), and about 47 school-age children (6 %) were, at some time or other, taken AWAY into care, usually for less than a year. Family break-down, destitution, maternal death, paternal death, etc. may have been the cause in most cases, as they would have been with white kids. Forty mothers died in that time, leaving 140 school-age children. Only one of those 47 did not return, as far as I can tell, and of the other 46 that did, the majority later married other Aboriginal people.

Yes, this was just one Mission, one setting. But here was a population with English as their first language since late in the nineteenth century, many very pale, comparatively well-educated, yet so few seized and taken away forever. Well, not one, really: the one child mentioned above was the child of a single mother who died of TB, with nobody to really look after her, but a very old great-grandmother, already burdened with numerous grand-children to care for.

Until a generation ago, there was a huge Orphanage in Adelaide (Goodwood). As far as I know, no Aboriginal kid was ever sent there.

Meanwhile, today, Aboriginal kids make up a third of kids taken into care. I'm tempted to paraphrase Gandhi: if anybody asked, 'What do you think of Aboriginal parenting ?' Having seen kids fishing around in garbage bins for food while their mother wolfed down a KFC chicken, having sent off the kid with 'F..k off, you little black ape!', I am sorely tempted to answer, 'Hey, that would be a good idea.'

Joe
www.firstsources.info
Posted by Loudmouth, Saturday, 29 March 2014 1:31:21 PM
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Diver Dan "..I am positive in my thinking that Aboriginal communities will eventually restore themselves to strength, since these communities have been existing in their current or similar form for many thousands of years! There is cause for great hope"

Not while the present consumption of alcohol in aboriginal communities remains.

David
Posted by VK3AUU, Sunday, 30 March 2014 7:51:46 AM
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