The “Stolen Generation”

From the beginnings of European settlement, the Aboriginal people were treated by whites as "savages inimical (враждебный) to civilization ". This type of thinking was given a perceived scientific rationality by the ideas of Social Darwinism, which put whites at the pinnacle (вершина) of an evolutionary scale, with apes at the bottom, followed closely by the Australian aborigines. However, although miscegenation (браки между белыми и цветными) was looked upon with distaste, inevitably whites (usually males) would sexually liaise (иметь связь) with Aborigines, resulting in the births of what came to be termed as 'half-caste' children (полукровки). The Aboriginal mothers most often raised these children with little if any assistance from their white fathers.

As the numbers of 'half-caste' children steadily rose, white public aversion (отвращение) became apparent over the practice of leaving such "children with 'British blood' to the 'blacks'". This concern was what came to be known as the 'half-caste problem'. While it was believed that the 'full-blood' Aborigines would eventually die out, the solution to the 'half-caste problem' was seen to be their selective 'assimilation' into the white community through government policies. Of the various aspects that constituted 'assimilation' policies (such as the prevention of whites from marrying Aborigines and the banning of whites from entering Aboriginal reserves), the removal of 'half-caste' children from their Aboriginal families was perhaps the most poignant (горький) and regrettable.

The Stolen Generation are the Australian Aboriginal children who were removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions between approximately 1900 and 1972. According to a government enquiry on the topic, at least 100,000 children were removed from their parents. Percentage estimates were given that 10–30% of all Aboriginal children born during the seventy year period were removed.

The aim of the policy was two-fold: one was to assimilate mixed-descent Aborigines into the European society and culture. (Full-blooded Aborigines were considered too uncivilized to be assimilated.) The other was to ensure mixed-descent Aborigines would intermarry with Europeans rather than with Aborigines. Although the Social Darwinist ideology held that the Aboriginal race would sooner or later die out, it was decided that the process was to be hastened (ускорить) by eventually breeding the Aboriginal race out of existence.

Australian Aboriginal child removal by whites had practiced ever since the early days of settlement. During the nineteenth century, employers took Aboriginal children away from their families to be brought up as laborers on farms. These children were often maltreated (жестоко обращаться) or abused and were rarely paid any wages for the work that they did. They were also often swapped (обменивать) and sold from employer to employer. Therefore, some Aboriginal Protectors wanted the government to assume the responsibility for child removal to protect the children from the bad treatment of white employers, as well as from the “unsavory (отвратительный) conditions of Aboriginal camps”. The children were instead to be removed to government sanctioned missions. Thus, in 1897, the Aborigines Protection and Restriction on the Sale of Opium Act was passed which gave authorities greater powers to remove children.

In 1937, the Initial Conference of Commonwealth and State Aboriginal Authorities was held in Canberra. It was here that assimilation and child removal became official policies of the federal government.

Removals were voluntary in some cases, as some mothers surrendered (отдавали) their children as they believed that they were unable to raise them for some reason. However in a large number of cases children were forcibly removed from their parents. In general the practice was to remove children between the ages of two and four, although in some cases, children were removed just hours after birth.

In many cases gross violations of human rights occurred. Children were in some cases forcibly removed from their mothers' arms while still in the hospital. Deception and brutality was used to remove the children. One account referring to events in 1935 stated:

"I was at the post office with my Mum and Auntie. They put us in the police vehicle and said they were taking us to Broome. They put the mums in there as well. But when we'd gone about ten miles 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."

In a number of cases welfare officers were confronted violently by Aborigines as they attempted to take children away from the mothers, and children were often hidden whenever strangers appeared in the neighborhood.

Removed children were in most cases placed into institutional facilities operated by religious or charitable organizations. 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. The physical infrastructure of institutions was often very poor and resources were insufficient to keep the children adequately clothed, fed and sheltered. Incidence of sexual abuse were high, overall 17% of females and 8% of males reported experiencing some form of sexual abuse. In several cases parents were told by government officials that their children had died, even though this was not the case.

The social impacts of forced removal have been found to be quite severe. Although the stated aim of the "re-socialization" program was to improve the integration of Aboriginals into modern society, a study conducted in Melbourne 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 education. Most notably, removed Aboriginals 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 drugs. The only notable advantage "removed" Aboriginals possessed was a higher average income, which was most likely due to the greater access of removed individuals to welfare payments than for Aboriginals living in tribal communities.

Removal of Aboriginal children was still taking place well into the 1960s and ‘70s, especially if they were light-skinned. Mothers smeared (мазать) their children with black clay, or held them over a fire to try to darken their skin, or hid them in hollow logs (полые бревна) to avoid "welfare" workers from taking their children.

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 activists, artists and musicians.

In 1992, as media attention and public interest began to mount, the Prime Minister, Paul Keating made the first formal acknowledgement of the Stolen Generation, by saying in a speech that "... we took the children from their mothers ... It was our ignorance and prejudice."

On 26 May 1998 the first "National Sorry Day" was held, and reconciliation (примирение) events were held nationally, and attended by over a million people. As public pressure continued to increase, Prime Minister Howard drafted a motion (предложение, ходатайство) 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 said that the Stolen Generation represented "...the most blemished (позорный) chapter in the history of this country."

In May 2000, a "Walk for Reconciliation" was staged in Sydney, with up to 400,000 people marching across the Sydney Harbour Bridge as a gesture of apology. A similar walk was staged in Melbourne later that year.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians joined people's walks and other reconciliation activities across the country.

On February 13, 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Indigenous Australians.