[12], In the Northern Territory, the segregation of Indigenous Australians of mixed descent from "full-blood" Indigenous people began with the government removing children of mixed descent from their communities and placing them in church-run missions, and later creating segregated reserves and compounds to hold all Indigenous Australians. The idea expressed by A. O. Neville, the Chief Protector of Aborigines for Western Australia, and others as late as 1930 was that mixed-race children could be trained to work in white society, and over generations would marry white and be assimilated into the society. Rudd followed the apology with a 20-minute speech to the house about the need for this action. [89][90][91], Organisations such as the Apology Alliance and Adoption Loss Adult Support have actively campaigned for a parliamentary apology similar to that given for the Aboriginal Stolen Generations. The exact number of children removed is unknown. %PDF-1.6 %���� 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 more than 600 more. And just over half (56%) are women. As of 2020[update] the Foundation had provided funding for more than 175 community organisations to develop and run healing projects, "to address the ongoing trauma caused by actions like the forced removal of children from their families". [31] One witness said 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. So the Stolen Generations has also had a devastating effect on the continuation of deep cultural knowledge. The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. [65], There is some opposition to the concept of the term "Stolen Generations". Statistics Its estimated that between the years of 1889 and 1969 more than 6,200 children were stolen in NSW alone. We were in the lock-up for two days waiting for the boat to Perth. Between the commissioning of the National Inquiry and the release of the final report in 1997, the government of John Howard had replaced the Paul Keating government. [26], The children were taken into care purportedly to protect them from neglect and abuse. Children who were not removed are still affected by the removal of their brothers and sisters. Now, for the first time, … That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. But the policemen pulled us off and threw us back in the car. The removals of those referred to as "half-caste" children were conducted in the period between approximately 1905[1] and 1967,[2][3] although in some places mixed-race children were still being taken into the 1970s.[4][5][6]. For other uses, see, Indigenous Australian children forcibly acculturated into White Australian society, Effects on the removed and their descendants, Historical debate over the Stolen Generations, Nomenclature and debate over the use of the word "stolen", Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. 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