After reading a letter in last week’s edition from Mr Robert .J Jelly, I felt compelled to write to you about the topic of the Stolen Generation and the Prime Minister’s apology to them. Mr Jelly, you clearly do not realise what irony your last statement carries. You may rest assured that the suffering of aboriginal people has not been heard nearly as much as it deserves! I hope to shed some light on the truly awful crimes committed against the Aboriginal people in this extremely sad chapter of Australia’s history.
When talking about this topic, we must be aware that the abhorrent mistreatment of aboriginal families during the removals of the 1900s is only part of the longer history of the treatment of indigenous people since 1788. It is imperative that we are sensitive to the many injustices and human rights infringements done to these people and realise that when there is talk of ‘bridging the gap’ between Aboriginal people and the rest of the population, it is not only wounds caused during the removal period that need to be reconciled.
The first issue Mr Jelly broached In his letter is that of treatment of the children who were removed. He argued that they were treated no worse than white children who were removed from their families, but this is a lie. Many of the children suffered horrible abuse at the hands of their ‘carers’. In 1928 the Australian Aboriginies Progressive Association had been calling for the end of forced removals and released a statement saying “…girls of tender age and years are torn away from their parents…and put into service in an environment as near to slavery as it is possible to find”. As Mr Jelly well knows, this describes the removals as violating a human right: “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”. The treatment these people received disgusts me and it cannot be justified.
In regards to your argument that children were removed from their loved ones for their own good; it cannot be argued that this situation is for the best of any child, nor is it one of the “compassionate and meaningful” lessons Mr Jelly mentioned: “sometimes at night we’d cry with hunger. We had to scrounge around in the town dump, eating old bread, smashing tomato sauce bottles, licking them”. This is the testimony of an aboriginal person who was removed as a child, and their story is not uncommon among survivors, in fact it is one of the less horrific. The removal of these children was very rarely to do with protecting them, but rather an expression of racist hatred. This is obvious when looking at the removal documents. A large portion of the reasons given for removal either comprised of reasons such as ‘being female on an aboriginal reserve’ and ‘being aboriginal’, or often no reason was given at all. It was a purposeless, fear-driven and merciless policy.
Mr jelly was right in saying that those who physically harmed aboriginal children are now most likely gone; it is the behaviours they practised and imprinted upon the stolen generations that live on, behaviours that continue to harm aboriginal children today. We only need to look at the physical and mental health of survivors and their children and grandchildren to see this effect. healthinfo.net states that historical events can impact mental health, and that aboriginal children have “more than twice the risk of [“having ‘clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties'” than] children whose carer had not been forcibly separated. These children also had twice the rates of alcohol and other drug use”.
Taking all this into account, it becomes obvious that a government response to this issue is highly necessary, not only to apologise for the cruelties that occurred, but also to work towards healing the wounds of the past and ensuring the next generation of Aboriginal people don’t have to continue to suffer from the wrongdoings of non-aboriginal people.
The Government’s ‘Bringing Them Home’ report (1997) was a landmark in this process, it began:
“Grief and loss are the predominant themes of this report… Much of its subject matter is so personal and intimate that…These matters have only been discussed with the Inquiry with great difficulty and much personal distress. The suffering and the courage of those who have told their stories inspire sensitivity and respect”.
The report detailed stories of survivors, acknowledgement necessary and long overdue. The report triggered a variety of movements that aimed to raise awareness of this issue and show support to the Aboriginal community, including the People’s Walk for Reconciliation in 2000. People of all races and backgrounds walked across the Harbour Bridge in this event, proving that this is not an issue to be fought by just the victims, but all Australians.
In closing, I believe that it is a responsibility of all Australians to continue to commemorate, commiserate and bring about further positive change for and with the Aboriginal people in the same spirit of Kevin Rudd’s apology. We must also make efforts to prevent polIcies and events such as the removal policy from occurring again, and this comes through understanding and campaigning. I implore you Mr Jelly, next time you write a letter, do your research and consider the individuals to whom your opinions are not only untruthful, but extremely hurtful and ignorant.
Sincerely,
Bel Trouncer – Moss Vale