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The Forum > General Discussion > Removing Aboriginal Children Evil?

Removing Aboriginal Children Evil?

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Was it always evil? was it always wrong? before you answer are you aware how little evidence was needed in those years to remove a white child?
Yes it was often wrong very wrong, yes sometimes evil very much so.
And sometimes it was the only way!
Scream at me but tell me you truly think no child should ever be taken from a parent before you say it was always wrong.
While some what after the stolen generation started post ww2 children of large white family's had every chance of being removed from homes ,just because they sometimes went hungry.
In one house commission street in Sydney 22 homes 3 family's found the kids taken away from parents who loved and looked after them white kids.
Do we understand the young mothers who had children but never saw them?
Taken at birth against their wills by a social welfare system that was brutal and wrong? yet thought it was doing the right thing.
No doubt about it if we say sorry it must be to them too!
Separatism is a tool to keep Australian Aboriginals down .
One set of rules for us all, yes spend more help more but do not pay for another generations mistakes, not crimes, not right but mistakes.
Posted by Belly, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 4:46:18 AM
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Well said Belly.

*amen*
Posted by BOAZ_David, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 8:26:48 AM
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Have you read the Forgotten Australians report, Belly? It is easy to read and your library should have a copy. It's a good starting point for this discussion.

Remember that, in several states, the white children who were taken from their parents and grew up in care have had a formal apology. (Though as far as I know, there hasn't been an apology from the federal government yet.)
Posted by botheration, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 9:05:10 AM
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Botheration,

There’s no need to go to a library to read the Forgotten Australians Report. It can be read on-line or downloaded at:

http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/clac_ctte/inst_care/report/

You can still get your own copy (free) by a simple telephone call to the Senate Committee at (02) 6277 3515 or an email to community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au

You’re right to say that, in several states, the white children who were taken from their parents and grew up in care have had a formal apology (from Church, charity or State Government) and that there has been no apology from the federal government yet. The feds washed their hands and refuse to exercise leadership (though they did give each State the princely sum of $16,666 to erect memorials to children who grew up in ‘care’).

Belly,
I think there are many things in common among the Stolen Generation, the Child Migrants and the Forgotten Australians. I think it’s a mistake to play one group off against another because it divides common cause and suits the authorities to be able to say they can’t even agree among themselves.

The trilogy of reports (“Bringing Them Home”, HREOC 1997; Lost Innocents”, Senate 2001; and “Forgotten Australians”, Senate 2004) document a profoundly disturbing story of child abuse and family breakup that must be understood by all Australian as part of the bleak history of growing up in this country.

In many cases, the stories documented in these reports show tragic mistakes, Belly, but in many instances too they document crimes against children. It may be a mistake to take children from their parents, and a mistake to separate siblings into different institutions; but it’s a crime to sexually abuse and impose violent physical cruelty on vulnerable children.

Those are crimes whether the victims are Indigenous, non-indigenous or immigrant children.
Posted by FrankGol, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 10:15:43 AM
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While books, plays and laments have been written about the dispossession and suffering of black Americans, there has been only a tentative recognition in Australia. For many years, a popular belief was that the children were being 'saved' from the horrors of a 'primitive' upbringing, in particular the 'half-castes' - when, in fact, many were abused and most received no protection from the state.

The President of the Human Rights Commission, Sir Ronald Wilson, said, "We as a committee have decided that what was done meets the international definition of genocide... which is the attempt to destroy a people, a culture. 'Bringing Them Home,' the commission's report, called for an official apology on behalf of all Australians.

John Howard had steadfastly refused to make this single gesture.

During the week the report was tabled, Federal Parliament spent an hour debating a proposal for a tax on the culling of emus.

By contrast, 'Bringing Them Home,' which described genocide in Australia, was given half an hour, during which the then Prime Minister, the members of his Cabinet and most government MPs left the chamber before the 'debate' was over.

The standard Australian atlas in circulation from 1939 to 1966 described white 'exploration' of Australia as 'the curtain of darkness... being slowly rolled back.' The areas of 'explored' Australia were represented as white oases in an otherwise dark continent. As 'Triumph in the Tropics' had pointed out, Australia was an 'empty land' because its inhabitants did not count as humans.
They were part of the fauna. And as such they possessed no rights, nor any claim to morality' and the Christian gentlemen who chronicled the Australian story were very keen on morality.

I remember my brother, a teacher, who when his students would ask,
"What's the use of history?' replied:
"There are still living today in Arnhem Land people who know almost no history. They are Aboriginal tribesmen who live practically the same way as their forefathers and ours did, tens of thousands of years ago...We are civilised today and they are not. History helps us to understand why this is so."
Posted by Foxy, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 10:15:47 AM
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Frank: "...there are many things in common among the Stolen Generation, the Child Migrants and the Forgotten Australians. I think it’s a mistake to play one group off against another because it divides common cause and suits the authorities to be able to say they can’t even agree among themselves."

Absolutely. Beautifully put.
Posted by botheration, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 10:31:12 AM
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