Well Amicus, its like if you keep adding the same number to itself and continually realising a clearly aberrant result, you know there is a problem.

And if the maths don’t add up, the answer probably wont be the cliched explanations trotted out, e.g. ‘the dog died, the curtains are on fire, it’s the cats birthday,’ if you get my drift, there could be something else going on. e.g. if 40% of all traffic accidents are caused by drunk drivers, it does not automatically mean 60% of all accidents are caused because people aren’t getting pissed.

CJ, you’ve got it from the horses mouth, individual only slags off the Indigenous when its justified. [I think that’s the applicable end of the horse]

Relevant to the claims of ‘individual,’ and ‘blairbar,’ of advice they have received from Indigenous people, the immediate question that springs to mind, is why would they confide anything to these whackos?

I cant think of a more apt name for blairbar than Kebi boy, if that definition blairbar states is accurate. Well done Aka.

Of course, blairbar demonstrates the extent of his respect and patronising of Indigenous people, when he responds in conclusion to Aka; “The Cultivation of Whiteness" and "Broken Circles". look like interesting reads but neither has anything to do with "Stolen Generations" from Torres Strait.”

For he knows that when discussing issues referenced to another culture, its important to assure them that whatever reference they may recommend is obviously misleading to the issue. For he only has their best interests at heart, as opposed to his own distorted view. If I had been able to study under such an intellect, I would have had a PhD in no time. Rats!

Dear blairbar,

May I humbly suggest that if you're genuine
in your search for the truth as you say
you are and you don't just have a "mental
block" which prevents some Australians from
coming to terms with the past - then why
don't you go into any regional or national
library and get the reference librarians to
help you find the answers you seek?
In other words - do some research. Believe me
it is there to be had.

For example if you google -
" Stolen generations torres strait ..."
heaps of websites come up that will
refer you to other sources.

One of which is the following:

http://reconciliaction.org.au/nsw/education-kit/stolen-generations/#forced

I hope this helps.

I must admit that I embarrassed myself a little bit, as I was implying that blairbar's knowledge was small. I have no idea, nor do I wish to imagine, whether blairbar is a small person.

I do find it very curious though, as to why it is such a hobby horse of blairbar's to know of specific instances of forced child removal in the Torres Strait. I could name names but that would be so wrong so you will have to keep looking yourself. Often children were taken by trickery. Under the Joh era there was forced evictions from the islands of people who spoke out. If these people were forced onto the mainland of course they came under the act. Do you really expect the government of the time to keep papers specificaly for you. In 1980 the force of the government was still all powerful up there.

As an Indigenous woman, I have certainly met many men who have married Indigenous women, only to treat them as I stated earlier. That is a simple fact.

If your interest lies in the history of the Torres Strait, there are one or two books written that contain some facts and some misinterpretation. The two that spring to mind were written by school teachers that I knew. Unfortunately when they deviated from fact there was a lot of non-indigenous interpretation. See Martin Nakata's book, Disciplining the Savages, as he gives an effective critique of non-indigenous research in the Torres Strait. Unfortunately, our stories are predominantly written by non-indigenous folk, and written from their perspectives, biases, and understanding of the world.

If you still persist in finding evidence of stolen generation people from the Torres Strait perhaps you should contact Link up and put your premise to them. They are wonderful helpful people.

The difficulty Foxy from Googling "Stolen Generations Torres Strait"
is that you come up with thousands of hits containing "Stolen Generations Aborigines and Torres Strait" and 99.9% deal with the removal of Aboriginal children.
"blairbar - clearly there were members of the Stolen Generations who are of TSI descent, no matter how that annoys you for some reason. If the PM's Apology had omitted them, don't you think that they would have cause for complaint?"
The reason it is annoying CJ is that I was brought up to look for evidence when somebody makes a statement which is at odds with my observation. Simple as that.
If the evidence is compelling, so be it. But so far I can’t find any defensible evidence to support the claim that Torres Strait Islander children were part of the Stolen Generation..
You have no evidence CJ, otherwise you would have had great delight in revealing it to me. How can anybody complain about sometting bad that didn’t happen to them?

Cameron,

I enjoyed reading your article and I agree with many of the points that you raised. Robert Manne has written a pretty good piece in The monthly which picks apart Windschuttle's self-published opus. http://www.themonthly.com.au/nation-reviewed-robert-manne-comment-keith-windschuttle-2256

I get the feeling that Windschuttle never made the grade as a historian or as an academic. Thats why much of his writings are so aggressively critical of other academics. His tenure at the Qadrant Magazine has been similarly disappointing. With the exception of Bolt, most of the neo-cons haven't had much to do with him in recent times. So I get the feeling that his 15 minutes of fame are up.

But anyway, great article. The tragedy of what happened to the Stolen Generations should not be forgotten. We all owe Australia's Aborigines a giant moral debt for their dispossession and subsequent suffering. Hopefully, we can find a way to alleviate their exclusion and suffering where it still exists. I look forward to reading your book.

“I must admit that I embarrassed myself a little bit, as I was implying that blairbar's knowledge was small. I have no idea, nor do I wish to imagine, whether blairbar is a small person”. Nice try Aka but it hardly excuses your rudeness.
“I could name names but that would be so wrong so you will have to keep looking yourself. Often children were taken by trickery”. I don’t want any names Aka just the evidence of forcible removal of Islander children as part of the “Stolen Generation. But Aka be honest you have no such evidence otherwise you would have shown it already here and/or presented it to any of the many Indigenous research bodies.
“As an Indigenous woman, I have certainly met many men who have married Indigenous women, only to treat them as I stated earlier. That is a simple fact”. I have met Torres Strait Islanders men who treated their Islander partners horribly. That is a simple fact. But so what?
“Unfortunately, our stories are predominantly written by non-indigenous folk, and written from their perspectives, biases, and understanding of the world. “ Do you include Mer State School in your criticism?
“perhaps you should contact Link up and put your premise to them. They are wonderful helpful people.”
Good idea. Looks promising. http://www.link-upqld.org.au/