Twelve years later the first free settlers started to come into the island and finally in 1901 Australia becomes a nation.
Australia defines itself as a multicultural country. It is a melting pot in which around 20% of the population is foreign born and 40% have mixed cultural origins. Since 1945 around 6 million foreign settlers and 600,000 refugees entered the country. The country has lots of programs in order to enable the positive integration of those foreigners into the society.
There have been some immigration policies that have shaped Australia’s present:
From 1901-1973:
- White Australia Policies: They only accepted people coming from Europe
- New policy accepted “distinguished” non-European People
Today:
- Humanitarian Stream: Refugees; the importance of reuniting families
- Skill Stream: Contribution to Australia’s development.
But besides all the Multiculturalism Australia prays and besides the “embracing diversity culture” there is an (commonly) untold history about aborigines’ discrimination. It looks like Australia loved multicultural societies… as long as they came from abroad… The history of “The Stolen Generation”
Aborigines and half-caste Childs were removed from their families to receive a “proper” education, get a better future and keep the purity of the white race. The removals occurred approximately between 1869 and 1970.
1869: The Victorian Board for the Protection of Aborigines is established. The Board allowed the Governor to order the removal of aborigines Childs to a reformatory or to industrial schools. The Board was able to remove children from station families and send them to dormitories. Similar legislations were accepted in other colonies such as New South Wales (1883), Queensland (1897), Western Australia (1905) and South Australia (1911).
1897: The Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act: It allowed the “chief protector” to remove aborigines from reserves. The power was held by the Director of Native Welfare (1939-1971), he was the legal guardian for all aboriginal children, and it didn’t matter if their parents were living or not.
1911: South Australian Aborigines Act: the Chief Protector became the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and Half-Caste child under age 21; he can also control where the child lives.
1915: The NSW Aborigines Protection Board is given powers to remove Aboriginal children without a court hearing.
1994: “Going Home” Conference: It was held in Darwin where around 600 people that were removed since childhood met to share experiences, tell their history and talk about the effects the policy had on Aboriginal people.
1995: National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, it is established to examine the effects of separation and identify possible solutions and find justification for any compensation.
1997: Bringing Them Home Report: It made recommendations, possible compensations and an apology to Aborigines. The Report made several key findings; one of the most shocking ones was that the removal of indigenous people continued.
The State Governments of Australia formally apologize to Indigenous People.
1998: Inaugural “sorry day”; it offered the community the opportunity to be involved in activities to acknowledge the impact of the policies of forcible removal on Australia's Indigenous populations. The day has been an event since then.
Finally in the year 2008 the Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered a formal apology to Aboriginal people.
QUESTION
When removed from their families, the children were prepared for “a better life”, how is that true or false when considering different perspectives?
Considering it from the perspective of the Aborigines it was completely false, because they were being removed from their families, preventing those kids from receiving love and growing in a real family. Kids became orphans that were imposed with rules, education and religion they didn’t knew. From their perspective (aborigines) they were not doing anything wrong so there was no reason at all for “kidnapping” their children. As one of the girls in the movie said, they were “sick” people that were doing nothing more than stealing their freedom and their essence.
From the perspective of the white people, they were right, they were providing a better future for the Aboriginal and half-caste children. They were giving the kids a place to sleep, food, clothes and they were being taught about all the good things a person needs to know to have a good future such as speaking English, praying to God and eating properly. The white people were truly convinced about the importance of mixing native children with white people in order to eliminate all that background that made aborigines an “inferior” ethnicity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Movie: Rabbit Proof Fence