Stolen Generations

"Stolen Children" redirects here. For the film, see The Stolen Children.

A fictional portrayal entitled The taking of the children on the recently installed (2003) Great Australian Clock, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney, by artist Chris Cook.

The Stolen Generations (also Stolen Generation and Stolen children) is a term used to describe those children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian and State government agencies and church missions, under various acts of their respective parliaments, denying the rights of parents and children by making Aboriginal children wards of the state, between approximately 1869 and (officially) 1969. On February 13, 2008, the Federal Government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, issued a formal apology to the Stolen Generations. Apologies had previously been offered by State and Territory governments in the period 1997-2001.

Typically, children who were removed were placed into foster care or into orphanages and similar institutions. No consensus has been reached as to the extent of the removal of children, and the reasoning behind their removal. While in some quarters it has been suggested that a eugenics policy was adopted, in others the removals were said to be done for the well-being of the children.

The Stolen Generation has received significant public attention in Australia following the publication in 1997 of Bringing Them Home - Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families.

The term "Stolen Generations" is still controversial in Australia as of 2008. The use of the term "stole" appeared as early as 1923 in the Adelaide Sun: "The word "stole" may sound a bit far-fetched but by the time we have told the story of the heart-broken Aboriginal mother we are sure the word will not be considered out of place."

Emergence of the child removal policy

The traditional view had been that the purpose of the various laws arose from an observed need to provide protection for neglected, abused or abandoned mixed-descent children. It asserted that mixed-descent children were not wanted or welcome in some Aboriginal groups and communities. In the 1920s, a report by Baldwin Spencer made it known that many mixed-descent children who had been born during construction of The Ghan railway were abandoned at early ages with no one to provide for them. This incident and others spurred the need for state action to provide for and protect such children.

However, other historical documents indicate that the policy of removing Aboriginal children from their parents may have emerged from a belief with its origins in late 19th- and early 20th-century eugenics doctrine that the 'full-blood' tribal Aboriginal population would be unable to sustain itself, and was doomed to inevitable extinction. An ideology adopted by some at the time held that mankind could be divided into a civilisational hierarchy. This supposed that the civilisation of northern Europeans was superior to that of Aborigines, based on comparative technological advancement. Some extreme adherents to these beliefs also considered any proliferation of mixed-descent children (labelled as 'half-castes', 'crossbreeds', 'quadroons' and 'octoroons') to be a threat to the nature and stability of the prevailing civilisation, or to a perceived racial or civilisational "heritage". In the 1930s, the Northern Territory Protector of Natives, Dr. Cecil Cook, perceived the continuing rise in numbers of "half-caste" children as a problem. His proposed solution was:

Generally by the fifth and invariably by the sixth generation, all native characteristics of the Australian Aborigine are eradicated. The problem of our half-castes will quickly be eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race, and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white.

Similarly, the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, AO Neville, wrote in an article for The West Australian in 1930:

Eliminate the full-blood and permit the white admixture to half-castes and eventually the race will become white."

Other adherents to these kinds of beliefs, however, expected that other races could and would advance through the civilisational hierarchy through a process of education and by the adoption of the practices and technology of more advanced cultures and held that 'superiority' was not defined by race or 'blood', i.e. genetics but was a consequence of the myriad of historical, geographic and other factors which drive the development of civilisation.

The earliest introduction of child removal to legislation is recorded in the Victorian Aboriginal Protection Act 1869. The Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines had been advocating such powers since 1860. This Act gave the colony of Victoria a wide suite of powers over Aboriginal and 'half-caste' persons, including the forcible removal of children and, especially, of 'at risk' girls.

By 1950, similar policies and legislation had been adopted by other states and territories. These acts of parliament resulted in widespread removal of children from their parents and exercise of sundry guardianship powers by Aboriginal protectors over Aborigines up to the age of 16 or 21. Policemen or other agents of the state (such as 'Aboriginal Protection Officers') were given the power to locate and transfer babies and children of mixed descent from their mothers or families or communities into institutions. In these Australian states and territories, half-caste institutions (both government and missionary) were established in the early decades of the 20th century for the reception of these separated children.

The policy in practice

According to the Bringing Them Home Report, at least 100,000 children were removed from their parents, and the figure may be substantially higher (the report notes that formal records of removals were very poorly kept). It stated:

Nationally we can conclude with confidence that between one in three and one in ten Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities in the period from approximately 1910 until 1970. In certain regions and in certain periods the figure was undoubtedly much greater than one in ten. In that time not one family has escaped the effects of forcible removal (confirmed by representatives of the Queensland and WA Governments in evidence to the Inquiry). Most families have been affected, in one or more generations, by the forcible removal of one or more children.

The report closely examined the distinctions between "forcible removal", "removal under threat or duress", "official deception", "uninformed voluntary release", and "voluntary release". It noted that some removals were certainly voluntary. Mothers may have surrendered their children for any number of reasons (due to sickness, poverty, living arrangements, racism, etc). There was also evidence that some Aboriginal parents voluntarily released their children, in the hope that at least in this way they would be able to retain contact with their children and some knowledge of their whereabouts.

Conversely, evidence indicated that in a large number of cases children were brutally and forcibly removed from their parent or parents, possibly even from the hospital shortly after their birth. Aboriginal Protection Officers often made the judgement on removal. In some cases, families were required to sign legal documents to relinquish care to the state, though this process was subverted in a number of instances. In Western Australia, the Aborigines Act 1905 removed the legal guardianship of Aboriginal parents and made their children all legal wards of the state, so no parental permission was required.

The report also identified instances of official misrepresentation and deception, such as when caring and able parents were incorrectly described by Aboriginal Protection Officers as not being able to properly provide for their children, or when parents were told by government officials that their children had died, even though this was not the case. One first hand account referring to events in 1935 stated:

I was at the post office with my Mum and Auntie [and cousin]. They put us in the police ute and said they were taking us to Broome. They put the mums in there as well. But when we'd gone [about ten miles (16 km)] they stopped, and threw the mothers out of the car. We jumped on our mothers' backs, crying, trying not to be left behind. But the policemen pulled us off and threw us back in the car. They pushed the mothers away and drove off, while our mothers were chasing the car, running and crying after us. We were screaming in the back of that car. When we got to Broome they put me and my cousin in the Broome lock-up. We were only ten years old. We were in the lock-up for two days waiting for the boat to Perth.

The report discovered that removed children were, in most cases, placed into institutional facilities operated by religious or charitable organisations, although a significant number, particularly females, were "fostered" out. Children taken to such places were frequently punished if caught speaking local indigenous languages, and the intention was specifically to prevent them being socialised in Aboriginal cultures, and raise the boys as agricultural labourers and the girls as domestic servants. Many Europeans at the time worked in similar occupations.

A common aspect of the removals was the failure by these institutions to keep records of the actual parentage of the child, or such details as the date or place of birth. As is stated in the report:

... the physical infrastructure of missions, government institutions and children's homes was often very poor and resources were insufficient to improve them or to keep the children adequately clothed, fed and sheltered.

The report said that among the 502 inquiry witnesses, 17% of female witnesses and 7.7% of male witnesses reported experiencing a sexual assault while in an institution, at work, or with a foster or adoptive family.

Social impact on members of the Stolen Generation

The social impacts of forced removal have been measured and found to be quite severe. Although the stated aim of the "resocialisation" programme was to improve the integration of Aboriginal people into modern society, a study conducted in Melbourne and cited in the official report found that there was no tangible improvement in the social position of "removed" Aborigines as compared to "non-removed", particularly in the areas of employment and post-secondary education. Most notably, the study indicated that removed Aboriginal people were actually less likely to have completed a secondary education, three times as likely to have acquired a police record and were twice as likely to use illicit drugs. The only notable advantage "removed" Aboriginal people possessed was a higher average income, which the report noted was most likely due to the increased urbanisation of removed individuals, and hence greater access to welfare payments than for Aboriginal people living in tribal communities.

By around the age of 18 the children were released from government control and where it was available were sometimes allowed to view their government file. According to the testimony of one Aboriginal person:

I was requested to attend at the Sunshine Welfare Offices, where they formerly discharged me from State wardship. It took the Senior Welfare Officer a mere 20 minutes to come clean, and tell me everything that my heart had always wanted to know...that I was of 'Aboriginal descent', that I had a Natural mother, father, three brothers and a sister, who were alive...He placed in front of me 368 pages of my file, together with letters, photos and birthday cards. He informed me that my surname would change back to my Mother's maiden name of Angus.

The Bringing Them Home report condemned the policy of disconnecting children from their "cultural heritage". Said one witness to the commission:

I've got everything that could be reasonably expected: a good home environment, education, stuff like that, but that's all material stuff. It's all the non-material stuff that I didn't have — the lineage... You know, you've just come out of nowhere; there you are.

On the other hand, some Aboriginal people do not condemn the government’s past actions, as they see that part of their intention was to offer opportunities for education and an eventual job. According to the testimony of one Aboriginal person:

I guess the government didn't mean it as something bad but our mothers weren't treated as people having feelings...Who can imagine what a mother went through? But you have to learn to forgive.

Historical debates over the Stolen Generation

Main article: History wars

Despite the lengthy and detailed findings set out in the Bringing Them Home report, the nature and extent of the removals documented in the report have been debated and disputed within Australia, with some commentators questioning the findings and asserting that the Stolen Generation has been exaggerated. Sir Ronald Wilson, former President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission and a Commissioner on the Inquiry, has admitted that none of the more than 500 witnesses who appeared before the Inquiry were cross-examined. This failure to cross-examine has been the basis of criticism by the anthropologist Ron Brunton as well as by the Federal Government. An Australian Federal Government submission has questioned the conduct of the Commission which produced the report, arguing that the Commission failed to critically appraise or test the claims on which it based the report and fails to distinguish between those separated from their families "with and without consent, and with and without good reason". Not only has the number of children removed from their parents been questioned (critics often quote the ten percent estimate, which they say does not constitute a 'generation'), but also the intent and effects of the government policy.

Some conservative journalists, such as Andrew Bolt, consider the Stolen Generation is a "preposterous and obscene" myth or "theory" and "propaganda" and that there was actually no policy in any state or territory at any time for the systematic removal of "half-caste" Aboriginal children. Professor of politics at La Trobe University, Robert Manne, has responded that Bolt's failure to address the wealth of documentary and anecdotal evidence demonstrating the existence of the Stolen Generation amounts to a clear case of historical denialism. Bolt argues that a key issue of the debate over the existence of a "Stolen Generation" is the identification of particular persons as having been 'stolen' and further that it would require that it be substantiated that children had been 'stolen' in such numbers as to justify inferring the existence of a policy to do so, as opposed to such cases being aberrations. He and other sceptics of the existence of such a child removal policy would require that the circumstances of the removal of such children be subjected to the standard of scrutiny found in a court of law or a similar investigatory standard, and that it be shown that they were 'stolen' and not abandoned, given up or removed for legitimate reasons. Many documents in state archives detail the policies and events that come under the term "Stolen Generation".

In April 2000, controversy stirred when the then Aboriginal Affairs Minister in the conservative Howard Government, John Herron, tabled a report in the Australian Parliament that questioned whether or not there had been a "Stolen Generation", on the semantic distinction that as "only 10% of Aboriginal children" had been removed, they did not constitute an entire "generation". The report received media attention and there were protests. Dr Herron apologised for the "understandable offence taken by some people" as a result of his comments, although he refused to alter the report as it had been tabled, and in particular the (disputed) figure of 10%.

Some commentators such Sir Ronald Wilson have alleged that the Stolen Generation was nothing less than a case of attempted genocide, because it was widely believed at the time that the policy would cause Aborigines to die out. Similarly, Manne has argued that the expressed intentions of government officials such as A.O. Neville to merge the Aboriginal race into the white population by means of "breeding out the colour", and therefore eventually resulting in the former being "forgotten", bore strong similarities to the views of the Nazis in 1930s Germany. Manne points out that, though the term 'genocide' had not yet entered the English language, the policies of Neville and others were termed by some contemporaries as the 'die out' or 'breed out' policy, clearly indicating it's proposed intent. Conservative Australian historian Keith Windschuttle disagrees with this perspective, arguing that no genocide has ever taken place in Australia. In 2008 it was announced that the second volume of Windschuttle's work The Fabrication of Australian History, would be published, entitled The Fabrication of Australian History, Volume 2: The "Stolen Generations. It will address the issue of the removal of Aboriginal children..

Public awareness and recognition

Historian Professor Peter Read, at the time at the Australian National University, was the first to use the phrase 'stolen generation'. It was used by him first as a title for a magazine article which was followed by a book, The Stolen Generations (1981). Widespread awareness of the Stolen Generation, and the practices which created it, only began to enter the public arena in the late 1980s through the efforts of Aboriginal and white activists, artists and musicians (Archie Roach's "Took the Children Away" and Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" being examples of the latter). The extensive public interest in the Mabo case had the side effect of throwing the media spotlight on all issues related to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia, and most notably the Stolen Generation.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families commenced in May 1995, presided over by Sir Ronald Wilson, the president of the (Australian) Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, and Mick Dodson, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). During the ensuing 17 months, the Inquiry visited every state and Territory in Australia, heard testimony from 535 Aboriginal Australians, and received submissions of evidence from over 600 more. In April 1997 the official Bringing Them Home Report was released.

Between the commissioning of the National Inquiry and the release of the final report in 1997, the conservative government of John Howard had replaced the Keating government. The report proved to be a considerable embarrassment for the Howard administration, as it recommended that the Australian Government formally apologise to the affected families, a proposal actively rejected by Howard, on the grounds that a formal admission of wrongdoing would lead to massive compensation litigation. Howard was quoted as saying "Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies." As a result Commissioner Dodson resigned from the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, saying in a newspaper column that "I despair for my country and regret the ignorance of political leaders who do not appreciate what is required to achieve reconciliation for us as a nation."

As a result of the report, formal apologies were tabled and passed in the state parliaments of Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, and also in the parliament of the Northern Territory. On 26 May 1998 the first "National Sorry Day" was held, and reconciliation events were held nationally, and attended by over a million people. As public pressure continued to increase, Howard drafted a motion of "deep and sincere regret over the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents" which was passed by the federal parliament in August 1999. Howard went on to say that the Stolen Generation represented "...the most blemished chapter in the history of this country."

In July 2000, the issue of the Stolen Generation came before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva who heavily criticised the Howard government for its manner of attempting to resolve the issues related to the Stolen Generation. Australia was also the target of a formal censure by the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Global media attention turned again to the Stolen Generation issue during the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. A large "Aboriginal tent city" was established on the grounds of Sydney University to bring attention to Aboriginal issues in general. The Aboriginal athlete Cathy Freeman (who was chosen to light the Olympic Flame and went on to win the gold medal for the 400 metre sprint) disclosed in interviews that her own grandmother was a victim of forced removal. The internationally successful rock group Midnight Oil obtained worldwide media interest when they performed at the Olympic closing ceremony wearing black sweatsuits with the word "SORRY" emblazoned across them.

Prior to the Sydney Olympics a mockumentary called The Games was broadcast on ABC TV. In the episode shown on 3 July 2000 the actor John Howard made a recording "for international release" of an apology to the Stolen Generation, ostensibly on behalf of the Australian people.

Australian Federal government apology

Crowds viewing a public broadcast of the Federal government's apology in Elder Park, Adelaide.

On December 11, 2007, the newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that an official apology would be made to Indigenous Australians by the federal government. The wording of the apology would be decided in consultation with Indigenous leaders. On January 27 2008 Rudd announced that the apology would be made on or soon after the first day of parliament in Canberra on February 12. The date was later set to February 13, when it was ultimately issued.

Conservative party stance to apology

For the more than a decade since the Bringing Them Home report on the forced separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children was handed to Australia's then conservative Liberal Party Prime Minister, John Howard, the stance of both the party, and especially the then Prime Minister, had been of unequivocal opposition to the issuance of any formal official government apology.

The announcement of an apology from the newly-elected Australian Labor Party federal government, headed by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, led to a split reaction from the Liberal Party, at first. Liberal Party leader Brendan Nelson initially said that an apology would risk encouraging a "culture of guilt" in Australia, although other Liberal MPs expressed their support for an apology, as did prominent Liberal Party members such as Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Costello, Bill Heffernan and former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. Former Liberal minister Judi Moylan said:

I think as a nation we owe an apology. We shouldn't be thinking about it as an individual apology — it's an apology that is coming from the nation state because it was governments that did these things.

Nelson himself later declared he supported the apology. Following a party meeting, the Liberal Party as a whole expressed its support for an apology, which thereby achieved bipartisan consensus. Brendan Nelson stated:

I, on behalf of the Coalition, of the alternative government of Australia, are [sic] providing in-principle support for the offer of an apology to the forcibly removed generations of Aboriginal children.

The text of the apology did not make reference to compensation to Aboriginal people as a whole or to members of the Stolen Generation specifically.

Lyn Austin, chairwoman of Stolen Generations Victoria, has stated her view on why she believes an apology is necessary, recalling her experiences as a stolen child:

I thought I was being taken just for a few days. I can recall seeing my mother standing on the side of the road with her head in her hands, crying, and me in the black FJ Holden wondering why she was so upset. A few hundred words can't fix this all but it's an important start and it's a beginning. [...] I see myself as that little girl, crying myself to sleep at night, crying and wishing I could go home to my family. Everything's gone, the loss of your culture, the loss of your family, all these things have a big impact.

Apology text

On February 13, 2008, 9:30,the following motion was put to the House of Representatives by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as an apology to indigenous Australians.

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

Prime Minister Rudd followed the apology with a 20-minute speech to the house about the need for the apology. His speech was widely applauded among both indigenous Australians and the non-indigenous general public.

Opposition Leader's parliamentary reply and reaction

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson then also delivered a 20-minute speech in which he endorsed the government apology, after which the House of Representatives unanimously adopted the proposed motion, although some members of the opposition made themselves absent in protest at the apology.

Crowds turn their backs part way through Brendan Nelson's apology reply.

Sections of opposition leader Brendan Nelson's reply, however, drew heavy criticism and anger.

People watching Nelson's reply speech protested nationwide. Thousands of people who had gathered in Canberra and Melbourne turned their backs on the Opposition Leader; in Perth people booed and jeered until the screen was eventually switched off; those watching in Parliament House's Great Hall began a slow clap, finally turning their backs, with similar scenes and walk-outs in Sydney and elsewhere.

Senate consideration

Later that day, a motion for an apology in identical terms was considered by the Senate. The Leader of the Greens, Senator Bob Brown, attempted to amend the motion to have it include words committing parliament to offering compensation to those who suffered loss under past indigenous policies, but was opposed by all the other parties. The Democrats opposed the Greens' amendment for compensation, saying the apology should be allowed to stand on its own. The original motion was passed unanimously.

Legal status and compensation

The legal circumstances regarding the Stolen Generation remain unclear. Although some compensation claims are pending, it is not possible for a court to rule on behalf of plaintiffs simply because they were removed, as, at the time, such removals were authorised under Australian law. Australian federal and state governments' statute law and associated regulations provided for the removal from their birth families and communities of mixed-race Aboriginal children, or those who appeared mixed.

The apology is not expected to have any legal impact on claims for compensation.

Cases

Cubillo and Gunner

In the Federal Court of Australia cases of Cubillo and Gunner, their claims failed. The presiding judge, Justice Maurice O'Loughlin, noted in his summary judgment that he was not ruling that there would never be valid cases for compensation with regard to the Stolen Generation, only that in these two specific cases he could not find evidence of illegal conduct by the officials involved. Investigations revealed that Cubillo, aged eight years, was removed from a remote station in 1947 when her father went missing and her mother and grandmother were dead. Gunner, it turned out, had been sent to Alice Springs to get an education with the consent of his mother.

Bruce Trevorrow

On 1 August 2007, in a decision in the Supreme Court of South Australia by Justice Thomas Gray, Bruce Trevorrow, a member of the Stolen Generation, was awarded $525,000 compensation ($450,000 for general damages and $75,000 for exemplary damages) after a 10-year court battle with the South Australian government. The SA government has announced that it will pay the compensation awarded to Mr Trevorrow but at the same time, seek to review in the High Court to clarify the court's findings of law and fact.

The West Australian newspaper reported Bruce Trevorrow's story as follows:

Mr Trevorrow was separated from his mother in December 1957 after he was admitted to Adelaide's Children's Hospital with gastroenteritis. More than six months later, his mother wrote to the state's Aboriginal Protection Board, which had fostered him out, asking when she could have her son back. "I am writing to ask if you would let me know how Bruce is and how long before I can have him back home," she wrote in July 1958. "I have not forgot I got a baby in there". The Court was told the board lied to her, writing her son was "making good progress" and that the doctors still needed him for treatment.

The Sun Herald newspaper's Andrew Bolt reported:

As Gray ruled: "Mrs Angas may have been well-intentioned . . . but was well aware, or ought to have been aware, that the removal of the plaintiff from his family, and his placement with the Davies family, was undertaken in circumstances that were understood to be without legal authority, beyond power and contrary to authoritative legal advice."

That illegality, said Gray, was why Bruce Trevorrow deserved a payout.

The picture the judge paints over many pages is compelling: South Australia never had any laws – or policies – authorising anyone to steal Aboriginal children for racist reasons."

Films and books

Rabbit-Proof Fence

The 2002 Australian film Rabbit-Proof Fence was based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It concerns the author's mother and two other young mixed-race Aboriginal girls who ran away from Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, in order to return to their Aboriginal families. In a subsequent interview with the ABC, Doris recalled her removal from her mother at age three or four, arriving at the settlement in 1931. She was not reunited with her mother until she was 25 and, until that time, she believed that her mother had given her away. When they were reunited, Doris was unable to speak her native language and had been taught to regard Indigenous culture as evil.. Interviews have revealed that the movie was not true to real-life events in many ways, exaggerating the portrayal of poor treatment.

Documentary Kanyini

The principal persona of Melanie Hogan's film Kanyini, Bob Randall, is an elder of the Yankunytjatjara people, and one of the listed traditional owners of Uluru. He was taken away from his mother as a child. He remained at the government reservation until he was 20, working at various jobs, including as a carpenter, stockman and crocodile hunter. He helped establish the Adelaide Community College, and lectured on Aboriginal cultures. He served as the director of the Northern Australia Legal Aid Service, and established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander centres at the Australian National University, University of Canberra and University of Wollongong. He was named 'Indigenous Person of the Year' in 1999 and inducted into the Northern Territory musical hall of fame for songs such as Brown Skin Baby, Red Sun and Black Moon (about the Coniston massacre). He is also the author of two books: his autobiography Songman and a children's book, Tracker Tjginji.

See also

• History of Australia
• History wars
• Moseley Royal Commission
• White Australia policy

Notable persons

• Ken Colbung, Political activist and leader.
• Katherine Mary Clutterbuck (Sister Kate)
• Belinda Dann, Born as Quinlyn Warrakoo, forced name change to Belinda Boyd. Deceased at 107 years of age making her the longest lived member of the stolen generation.
• Polly Farmer, Australian rules footballer.
• Sue Gordon, Perth Children's Court magistrate.
• Helen Moran, Co-chair of National Sorry Day Committee
• Professor Sally Morgan editor of Echoes of the past: Sister Kate's home revisited (Centre for Indigenous History and the Arts 2002) with Tjalaminu Mia, photography by Victor France, she also authored My Place.
• A. O. Neville
• May O'Brien, W.A. educator and author
• Doris Pilkington Garimara, Author of Rabbit Proof Fence.
• Bob Randall, Indigenous Australian of the Year.
• Rob Riley (deceased), CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Service 1990-1995, author of Telling Our Story which instigated the National Inquiry into Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families.
• Archie Roach, Musician
• Cedric Wyatt, Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in WA.

Comparisons

• Americanization (of Native Americans)
• Canadian residential school system
• Native schools of New Zealand

External links

Bibliography and guides

• Stolen Generations Bibliography: A select bibliography of published references to the separation of Aboriginal families (and) the removal of Aboriginal children Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)
• Background note: "Sorry": the unfinished business of the Bringing Them Home report, Australian Parliamentary Library, 4 February 2008

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

• Response to government to the national apology to the Stolen Generations' by Tom Calma - 13 February 2008
• Resources on Bringing Them Home
  • Bringing Them Home (at Austlii [1])
  • Education module on the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families (2007)
• Apologies by State and Territory Parliaments (1997-2001)

Government

• An Index to the Chief Protector of Aborigines Files 1898 - 1908
• Guide to Institutions Attended by Aboriginal People in Western Australia Compiled by researchers employed by the State Solicitor’s Office
• Sister Kate's on the WA Government Heritage Register
• West Australian Government history of Noongar in the South West
• Aboriginal Western Australia and Federation
• Senator the Hon John Herron, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs to the Senate Legal And Constitutional References Committee, "Inquiry Into The Stolen Generation" Federal Government Submission, March 2000

Academic

• A Trans-Generational Effect of The Aborigines Act 1905 (WA): The Making of the Fringedwellers in the South-West of Western Australia
• Essay by Robert Manne
  • Robert Manne's list
• White Over Black: Discourses of Whiteness in Australian Culture in Borderlands eJournal Focuses on debates about representing Australia’s colonial history, specifically in regard to child removal.
• Mark Stephen Copland, Calculating Lives: The Numbers and Narratives of Forced Removals in Queensland 1859 - 1972 Electronic full-text version of PhD Thesis.
• The systematic removal of indigenous children from their families in Australia and Canada: the history – similarities and differences
• The stolen generations: implications for Australian civilization, citizenship and governance

News reports

• The agony of Australia's Stolen Generation - The first of Australia's Stolen Generations to win compensation. BBC News
• WA's Black Chapter
• "Australia's 'stolen' children get apology but no cash", Barbara McMahon, The Observer, January 13, 2008
• "A sorry way to right a terrible wrong", Anne Summers, Sydney Morning Herald, January 12, 2008

Other

• Rob Riley, CEO ALS 1990-1995 Telling Our Story ALSWA
• Essay by Kenneth Maddock Argues that the child removal policy was not genocidal
• Why are we not so sorry? by Australian League of Rights
• Home page of the Kimberley Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation
• Biographical Entry - The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
• Sue Gordon becomes a force for her people
• Fremantle Arts Centre Press - My Place by Sally Morgan
• History News Network article on Rabbit Proof Fence and Sister Kates
• Genocide in Australia by Colin Tatz, AIATSIS Research Discussion Papers No 8
• Journey of Healing: Rabbit Proof Fence