Assessment Resource Centre (ARC)

To Whom It May Concern

We have been studying the Stolen Generations in History and I disagree with Mr J Smith's letter. He writes that this was a policy that had good intentions and did not harm Aboriginal people. This is not true.

The Stolen Generations are the Aboriginal children who were removed from their families in the 1920s to the 1960s. This happened because there was an increase in the number of aboriginal people of mixed blood (called half caste people) and the government believed that this was a threat to white Australia. They thought that over two or three generations the Aboriginal and non Aboriginal population would merge together and that this would solve the so called Aboriginal problem. I have studied a letter written by Prime Minister Bruce in 1927 that supports this argument. He wrote '... they would not know in later life that they had aboriginal blood and would probably be absorbed into the white community.'

Children were taken from their families in two ways: by force and by the law. In New South Wales the Aborigines Welfare Board had had control over Aboriginal children.

The effects of removal were: loss of culture and language, loss of family, physical and emotional abuse, cruelty and neglect and loss of identity. They also suffered poor living and working conditions. I have studied 'Bringing Them Home', which was the report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. People like J Smith should read this report and learn about the terrible experiences that Aboriginal children had as a result of being removed from their families. They lost their identity as Aboriginal people and felt like they did not belong to either the white or Aboriginal communities. One person in the report describes it as feeling white on the inside but black on the outside.

Yours Sincerely

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