Aboriginal Child Removal Essay

1852 Words4 Pages

Aboriginals:
The stolen generations of Aboriginal children were taken away from their families by the government, churches and welfare bodies so they could be brought up in institutions or fostered out into white families with the hope that these children would be integrated into white society. Beginning in the 1830’s and ending in the early 1970’s, many children were taken from their families in an attempt to eradicate the Aboriginal race and culture. The Australian government’s policy and practice of removing the Aboriginal children from their families was violently enforced during that time period, unfortunately this official government policy was in effect until 1969. During my research it appears that the practice of mistreating Aboriginal …show more content…

Aboriginals were taught to reject their Aboriginality and culture so that they would become more like white Australians in the sense of religion and education. Being of native land the Aboriginals were unlikely to be able to establish their right to their native land and they most likely wouldn’t be able to take part within their culture or the spiritual life of their former communities. Unlike the British migrants it was easier for the Aboriginals to find their families and travel to them because they were still in the same country in which they were taken from. Also when they were let go from the whites the Aboriginals still received as much criticism after they had left the orphanages compared to when they arrived in them. No matter how badly the Australian government wanted to make Aboriginals white, you can’t change the colour of someone’s skin so they would never be seen as the same. The British migrants were taken mostly from orphanages and not their own homes and most of them knew where they were going. The migrants travelled all the way from Britain and had Australia described to them as probably one of the best places to travel to and that it would be better place than where they were at that moment. There were also much more British migrants that were taken away from families than Aboriginals. Unlike the Aboriginals the British migrants were considered to be accepted more because of the colour of their skin, which was exactly what the Australian Government wanted for the Aboriginals, but never

Show More
Related

  • Post World War Two Racism, in Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Australian Communities

    1867 Words  | 4 Pages

    Over the years Australia has had many different problems with racism and racism affecting peoples’ lives. Many racial groups have been affected, most significantly the Aboriginals. The end of world war two in 1945 marked a huge change in types of racism. Australia went from the ‘superior’ white Australians dominating over immigrants and aboriginals. To a relatively multicultural and accepting society that is present today.

    Read More

  • Which Policy Had the Largest Impact on the Indigenous Australians

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    There have been many unanswered questions in Australia about Aboriginal history. One of these is which government policy towards indigenous people has had the largest impact on Indigenous Australians? Through research the Assimilation Policy had the largest impact upon Indigenous Australians and the three supporting arguments to prove this are the Aborigines losing their rights to freedom, Aboriginal children being removed from their families, and finally the loss of aboriginality.

    Read More

  • The Impacts of the Sixties Scoop on First Nations People

    1683 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the 1950s and 1960s, the government began abolishing the compulsory residential school education among Aboriginal people. The government believed that Aboriginal children could receive a better education if they were integrated into the public school system (Hanson). However, residential schools were later deemed inappropriate because not only were the children taken away from their culture, their families and their people, but the majority of students were abus...

    Read More

  • Stolen Generation Belonging Quotes

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Stolen Generations refers to the forcible removal of Aboriginal, mostly those who were not full blooded taken between the 1830’s and the 1970’s. They were removed due to their mixed heritage, consisting of Indigenous mothers and European fathers. The Stolen Generations have had a damaging effect on the native owners of Australia, their culture, their identity and most importantly, their sense of belonging,

    Read More

  • The Segregation and Assimilation Policies in Relation to the Impact They Had on the Aboriginal Family Lfe

    2039 Words  | 5 Pages

    As European domination began, the way in which the European’s chose to deal with the Aborigines was through the policy of segregation. This policy included the establishment of a reserve system. The government reserves were set up to take aboriginals out of their known habitat and culture, while in turn, encouraging them to adapt the European way of life. The Aboriginal Protection Act of 1909 established strict controls for aborigines living on the reserves . In exchange for food, shelter and a little education, aborigines were subjected to the discipline of police and reserve managers. They had to follow the rules of the reserve and tolerate searchers of their homes and themselves. Their children could be taken away at any time and ‘apprenticed” out as cheap labour for Europeans. “The old ways of the Aborigines were attacked by regimented efforts to make them European” . Their identities were threatened by giving them European names and clothes, and by removing them from their tra...

    Read More

  • Policies Affecting Indigenous Australians

    1563 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... community and live along side white Australians, while other aboriginals happily moved in to the community and came to live a more civilised life.

    Read More

  • Inequality In Education Essay

    3194 Words  | 7 Pages

    The inequality in Australian education can be attributed to a history of low expectations and discrimination placed on Indigenous people by the government and society. Aboriginal children were denied the right to education until the 1970s due to the discrimitory views of the government and society. The Indigenous population were the sub-standard race of humanity with little to no chance of succeeding in life and these attitudes affected the educational choices offered to them (Ray & Poonwassie, 1992). As the superior race, the Anglo-Celtic Australians, considered themselves both intellectually and socio-culturally more advanced than their inferior Aboriginal neighbours (Foley, 2013). As a consequence of these racially and culturally motivated preconceptions, children of Aboriginal descent were considered unskilled outside of their own and were deemed incapable of excelling in ‘civilised’ white society (Foley, 2013). As a result, the Australian Government, in an effort to civilise and nurture politeness within the Aboriginal people, constructed “structured” (p 139) education training institutions in 1814. However, these problems only provided sufficient schooling for menial work: Aboriginal male children were prepared for agricultural employment, while girls were trained for domesticated services (Foley, 2013). Thus, as a direct consequence of low expectation for life success, Aboriginal children were offered minimal schooling ‘consistent with the perception about the limitations inherent in their race and their expected station in life at the lowest rung of white society’ (Beresford & Partington, 2003, p43). According to Foley (2013) this combination of low expectations and poor academic grounding meant that Indigenous children we...

    Read More

  • The Assimilation Policy and Its Impact on the Indigenous Australian Society

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    The assimilation policy was a policy that existed between the 1940’s and the 1970’s, and replaced that of protectionism. Its purpose was to have all persons of aboriginal blood and mixed blood living like ‘white’ Australians, this established practice of removing Aboriginal children (generally half-bloods) from their homes was to bring them up without their culture, and they were encouraged to forget their aboriginal heritage. Children were placed in institutions where they could be 'trained' to take their place in white society. During the time of assimilation Aboriginal people were to be educated for full citizenship, and have access to public education, housing and services. However, most commonly aboriginal people did not receive equal rights and opportunities, for example, their wages were usually less than that paid to the white workers and they often did not receive recognition for the roles they played in the defence of Australia and their contribution to the cattle industry. It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that expendi...

    Read More

  • The Stolen Generation of Aboriginal Decent

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within Australia, beginning from approximately the time of European settlement to late 1969, the Aboriginal population of Australia experienced the detrimental effects of the stolen generation. A majority of the abducted children were ’half-castes’, in which they had one white parent and the other of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. Following the government policies, the European police and government continued the assimilation of Aboriginal children into ‘white’ society. Oblivious to the destruction and devastation they were causing, the British had believed that they were doing this for “their [Aborigines] own good”, that they were “protecting” them as their families and culture were deemed unfit to raise them. These beliefs caused ...

    Read More

  • Indigenous Australians Rights And Freedoms In Australia

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    The rights of Indigenous Australians were restricted by the Government policy of protection and assimilation. The Aboriginal Protection Act was passed in 1869, which gave power over the lives of Aboriginal people to the government, such as where they could live or work. They removed mixed decent Aboriginal children from their families in an attempt to assimilate them into white society. The Child Welfare Act 1939 abandoned this policy and gave Indigenous parents the right to take their children back. But the children were moved far away, and even if they were found and returned, many of them were mistreated and didn’t return the same to their families. This had devastating effects on Indigenous parents, and many white Australians didn’t understand this impact at the time.

    Read More

  • Educational Policies and Aboriginal Australian History

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    Parbury (1999:64) states that Aboriginal education “cannot be separated” from the non-Aboriginal attitudes (racially based ethnocentricity that were especially British ie. white and Christian) towards Aborigines, their culture and their very existence. The Mission Schools are an early example of the connection between official education policies and key events in Aboriginal history. Aboriginal children were separated from their parents and placed into these schools which according to McGrath (as cited by Parbury, 1999:66) it was recommended that these establishments be located ‘as far as possible’ from non Aboriginal residents so as to minimize any heathen influence that Aboriginal children might be subject to from their parents. Mission Schools not only prepared Aboriginal youth for the manual labour market but also, adds Parbury (1999:67) their aim was‘to destroy Aboriginal culture and replace it with an Anglo-European work and faith ethic.’ Despite the NSW Public Instruction Act (1880) which made education free, secular and compulsory for all children Aboriginal children could be excluded from public schools based on prevailing dominant group attitudes. Consequently, the NSW Aborigines Protection Act (1909) was introduced as a result of a perceived public education crisis and Laws had already been passed, similar to protectionist type policies. This Act gave the State the power to remove Aboriginal children from their families whereby this period of time has become known as ‘Stolen Generations.’ It was during this time that Aboriginal children were segregated from mainstream schools. (Parbury, 1999; Lippman, 1994).

    Read More

  • The Effects of European Immigration on Australian Aboriginal Culture

    2744 Words  | 6 Pages

    Broome, Richard. Aboriginal Australians: Black Response to White Dominance 1788. George Allen and Unwin: Sydney. 1982.

    Read More

  • The Construction of Australian Identities

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Whiteness” is one of the core and crucial national identity of Australians. The construction of “whiteness” as an identity is apparently linked to Australian’s colonial history. Robinson (2004) suggested that “Whiteness is not a basic categorical object and being socially constructed. Instead the concept 'white' denotes nothing more than skin colour. It is the Indigenous 'other' who is the focus of racialisation and its effects.” (ppg 145) His statement implies that Aboriginals are the major community being silenced and discriminated in the Australian society. There is a prevailing belief among Australians that “White represents the norm, the natural order of things, or self while non- White represents the Other who may threaten, degrade, pollute or contaminate the White race” (Kamp, 2008,ppg.413). Those who are considered as “white” are mainly determined by sharing common interests and culture with the British colonizers.

    Read More

  • Aboriginal People Essay

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    The way a society is organised can create conflicts or creating some difficult conditions for survival for others, which can increase the chances of having conflict between different cultures and societies.

    Read More

  • State Children Act 1936

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, the Moseley Royal Commission (Moseley, 1935), established to ascertain the treatment of aboriginal people, described the aboriginal living conditions in Northern Kimberley as being either in ‘the bush in their natural state’ or in ‘pastoral stations’ with the tribes fashioning shelters out of recycled petrol-cans, bags, and bush material. This is still reflective of the conditions that the State Children Act (1907) deemed to be unacceptable and when considering this in the aspect of child welfare and protection questions arise as to whether this aspect of aboriginal culture can be observed as in the best interests of a child. However, Moseley (1935) continues his report on these conditions with a statement that ‘the children… [were] trained from an early age to make [such improvised materials] useful’ and that they ‘wanted for nothing and displayed no signs of unhappiness’. This raises a fundamental issue regarding the ‘Stolen Generation’ practice; whilst the children were deemed to be in ‘undesirable’ conditions by the white settlers, it could be suggested that the children’s state of happiness undermines their ‘destitute’ state of

    Read More

More about Aboriginal Child Removal Essay

Open Document