Stolen Generation

Stolen Generation is the term commonly used to mean the Australian Aboriginal children who were removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions between approximately 1900 and 1972. Originally considered child welfare, the practice is today perceived by many as a gross human rights violation, having wrought extensive family and cultural damage.

Related Topics:
Australia - Aboriginal - Australian government - Church - 1900 - 1972 - Welfare - Human rights - Cultural

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The nature of the removals, their extent, and its effects on those removed, is a topic of considerable dispute and political debate within Australia to the point that the term "Stolen Generation" is often referred to in the (often conservative) media as the "so-called Stolen Generation".

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

According to a government enquiry on the topic, at least 35,000 children were removed from their parents, and the figure may be substantially higher (the report notes that formal records of removals were very poorly kept). Percentage estimates were given that 10–30% of all Aboriginal children born during the seventy year period were removed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Similar actions were undertaken in the United States, where Native children such as Apaches were taken and put up for adoptions, and in Canada where children were sent to residential schools.

Related Topics:
United States - Apache - Canada - Residential school

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Caucasian children living in Australia were sometimes removed from their families, as were British children during WWII, particularly those whose families were poverty-stricken and poorly educated.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~