OTB,

Thanks for that - most people have no idea what
happened during those times. I know I didn't
until I saw that TV series not so long ago.

Dear JayB,

I'm so sorry to learn about your family's history.

Dear MHaze,

Those were painful times.

Regardless of the cause of their misfortune, which can be a chicken and the egg debate, society in my view has an obligation to do something about their misfortune. Nothing to do with political correctness but a lot to do with what is morally right.
We all have our stories, I have mine. I don't claim Aboriginality although I carry such genes. A lie existed in my mothers family for over 130 years claiming they had "Spanish blood" to explain the darkness of their skin, my mum liked to refer to her complexion as "olive". A cousin did a family tree back in the 1990's, and exclaimed to me one day "look at this old image of grandma's, grandma, she's as black as the ace of spades." I told her "I'm older than you and I remember 'Old Man,,," visiting in his big old car back in the 1960's and he was as black as the ace of spades to, he and the tribe didn't look too "Spanish" to me.

Dear Paul,

In my "salad days" (when I was fresh and green) I
would have loved to look Spanish or anything else
"exotic." Anything that was different would have
been just great. I dreamt of darker skin. But
instead I had a peaches and cream complexion.
I did not think my red hair was different enough.
Anyway, we're never satisfied are w, with what
we've been given? It should be what's inside that
matters.

OTB wrote:"Forced adoption was the practice of taking the babies from unmarried mothers, against their will, and placing them for adoption."

Its both easy and natural that mothers, 20 or 40 years after the event, might want to rationalise their decision to give up their kids by saying they were forced - drugged, coerced, tricked, whatever. But was it true at the time or were they, and those who advised them, just doing what all knew to be in the best interests of the child.

The Post Adoption Resource Centre, which worked with many relinquishing mothers, concluded (in a report to the 1993 NSW Law Reform Commission investigation) that ‘’many, possibly a majority of the birth mothers seen at the centre, described the adoption as having been in the child’s best interests in view of their own youth, lack of family support, inadequate finances and unreadiness for parenthood’’.

Jayb: My Great Grandmother was born, grew up & died in Redfern. I believe the House or where it used to be is now a Chemist Shop.

No, I looked it up on Google Earth & it was 80 Bathurst Street which is the Entrance to Avant Insurance on the Corner of George & Bathurst.

Paul1405: The details of history is not all that important, whether Gunner's mother put him on an ant hill, or not. is of little consequence in the wider context of Aboriginal disadvantage in contemporary Australia.

Oops: suddenly the details are of no importance. Well I'llllll Beeee. Isn't that just great. Suddenly details like the real facts are unimportant.

Paul1405: That is not to say that with effort both can't make a comeback to some degree, there are examples of that.

Well I suggested that at some other time & was put down for it. Those who want to take up Traditional Life should be encouraged. Taken out to the Bush Stripped naked, handed a lump of rock & told go for it. Never to darken any Western Civilization ever again. Those that wish to stay should then be supervised by their well paid Peers to clean up their act. No drugs, piss, be taught to live in a Western Society the Way Western Society lives. Except for some White Bogans, as shown on TV sometimes, who are totally despicable.

They can't have it both ways. They have to accept that white society is here to stay & if they want to live in it then they must conform to it.

mhaze: The child taken into care is as blameless as can be imagined. But equally, those who took to child, put it in care and gave it an education that it would never have received otherwise are also blameless. Good people doing good things in a bad situation.

You are so right.

Hi Foxy, others on here keep wanting to give history lesson about what took place in the past, which is fine, as far as it goes, who done what and where, who said this and who said that. These lessons in history in their self have no relevance to future outcomes, unless of course the teller wants to use it as a distorted justification to do nothing but blame the victim. To give an analogy the bloke who walks against the red light, and gets hit by a car, is just as much a victim of road carnage, as is the bloke who had the green light, and likewise got hit by a car. Do you take green to the hospital, and leave red on the road, because it was his fault, do you discount red's treatment compared to greens's, because it was his fault, or do you treat them equally and sheet home the blame later?
The burning question for me, is what does the future hold for Indigenous Australians.