Thursday, September 27, 2018

When did the myth of a stolen generation begin?

There are legal claims supporting the Aboriginal Stolen Generations claim, and money is paid, but evidence supporting the broad claim is slim or non existent. Bad and sad things happened to Aboriginal peoples, but the claim of a stolen generation, or generations, is wrong. Aboriginal children were not taken from Aboriginal parents and placed in foster care as a government policy to ethnically cleanse Australian Aborigines. In some instances, half cast children that were exposed were placed in foster care in missions. Teen pregnancy was more broadly interpreted as a social problem where the child was raised by more mature parents, but that was not solely an Aboriginal issue. The claims are political, helping one of the two major parties in Australia to be elected when they have never addressed an actual issue. Sadly, dysfunctional Aboriginal culture has placed children in danger, so that terrible things have resulted directly as a result of the myth of a stolen generation.
The myth began following the Mabohigh court decision. The decision provided for native title where it wasn’t extinguished. This became a method for activists to prevent mine development, as much of Australia is desert and not developed. The court decision involved ‘reading between the lines’ of the constitution and applying an interpretation at odds with the court being independent of legislators. Subsequently, some members of the high court, lauded for their decision, were ‘disgraced’ over unrelated personal choices. Deanebecame Governor General and was too partisan in that position. In 2001, Deane was awarded the “Sydney Peace Prize.” Other recipients of that prize include Noam ChomskyHans BlixJohn Pilger, and Black Lives Matter. Another judge, McHugh, wrote the decision which shut down Grey Hound racing in NSW for a time. Mary Gaudronhad excelled through ALP appointments, and retired early to take on a position, now heading, the International Labor Organisation. John Tooheyhad been appointed by Bob Hawke to replace Lionel Murphy, whose apparent corruptionhas been sealed from public view for thirty years (until 2015). The chief problem with the decision was that it did not address the social problems for Australian Aborigines and entrenched the bodies exploiting Aborigines for political purposes.
Mabo had not begun the myth, but the myth began to take shape after notable failures with an inquiry regarding Aborigines in Detention. The issue had become a hot potato, politically, and when Kevin Rudd, acting for the ALP in Queensland (circa 1988), destroyed documents relating to an Aboriginal child gang raped while in detention it became important to move the issue into something else (CF Heiner Affair). Conservative opponents sought to investigate the Heiner Affair but were unable to do so as in Queensland it was considered a legal principle that the law could not investigate the government on political matters.
The myth was established prior to the circa 2002 rape of an Aboriginal girl, 10years old. She had had ‘consensual’ sex with nine older boys. She had been ‘aware’ of what she was doing, claimed the judge, the girl had been raped when she was seven years old. Her parents were allegedly not present often in her life, and not sober. The girl had been placed in foster care with a good caring foster family, but a social worker, concerned at the Stolen Generation implication had her removed from the good family and placed back with dysfunctional relatives. The effects on the child were telling, regarding the policy. The child was isolated from her peers in age, and placed in care with adult supervision of several professionals who were engaged to normalise her behaviour.
A book written by an activist historian in 1980 is credited with coining the expression Stolen Generations (Professor Peter Reade from ANU). It was the 1995 work “Telling Our Story” by Bob Riley, an activist with Aboriginal Legal Service, that the issue began to enlarge. The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity commission began an inquiry in May 1995. By April 1997, they released the “Bringing them home” report. It was in time for the new conservative national government lead by John Howard and allowed a national campaign that began on 26th May 1998, called National Sorry Day.
Following the Aurukun affair in 2007, the conservatives began an intervention into the top end of Australia, dealing with widespread dysfunction in which some 90% of Aboriginal children were raped and drug use was endemic. Following his election as PM in 2013, Tony Abbott engaged broadlywith the Aboriginal community in the top end.

others disagree 

The question is asked, "Was the stolen generations a genocide?"

No comments: