The Stolen Generation and Returning Home Info by: Rebecca Kelly

Aboriginal children were forcibly removed until 1970. This was part of the Government policy starting from the Aborigines Protection Act and appointing the Aborigines Protection Board. A ' Chief Protector' of Aboriginal people who had the power to control every single movement of Aboriginal people and was the legal guardian of all the children who were send to missions.

The forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families was official Government policy from 1909 until 1969. The removal policy was managed by the Aborigines Protection Board.

Please see on the left a link to the 'Bringing them home report' so you can learn this history.

The idea of 'Return' is discussed in many of these websites and in many reports and literature. This is about those people who were removed from their families, or who were forced onto missions having the leave the home land, try to find a way back. Many people who were removed at a young age still cannot locate their home country or any family members. Many who were from regions all over Australia were talked to missions that were near cities and were very different to where they came from. Aboriginal people who want to find out their history and in a sense, give them back their Identity do this as they want to know where they came from. The culture may have been lost but it gives these people a change to try and find it again and keep a hold of this so they can pass it down to their children (including the language in many cases). Tracing back the steps helps with the healing process and we must think about how we would feel if this had happened today to our children or younger brother or sisters. We must learn from the past so no future Government can ever repeat this horrendous wrong doing.

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I enjoyed this assignment, the logistics of getting together with other people when completing an external course proved difficult, Erin and I were able to meet once to organise and the three of us were in constant email contact since early in the course. I designed and opened the Blog page and as I had never done anything like this I found it a fun and different exercise, rather than having to just write an essay. The topic of week 12 is very relevant, and as part of the stolen generation; this is a real issue that is constantly in the media and has an array of information available to research this topic. Over the course so far I have come to appreciate a lot more written texts and films that have been written/produced by Aboriginal people. It has opened my eyes to the array of literature out there that I was not aware of and I have passed this knowledge on to my friends and family urging them to read the books and watch the movies I have seen so we can discuss them together. I look forward to incorporating a lot more books in my future that have been written by Aboriginal people as everything I have read so far I have enjoyed immensely and as an avid reader this is a good sign.