What are the Stolen Generations

In Australia, on 26 May 1997, Federal Parliament tabled it’s landmark, ‘Bringing them Home – ‘Stolen Children’ Report 1997. A 700-page report detailing Australia’s National Inquiry into the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and communities. Between 1910 – 1970’s, it is estimated that as many as 1 in 3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were separated from their families, their communities, their language, their culture – their kin.

These children were often taken by police, and government officials as part of state sanctioned policies, and placed in institutions and foster homes. The children were denied all access to their culture, they were not allowed to speak their language and they were punished if they did. Some found their way back home; many never made it. The impacts of this are still being felt today.

On 13 February 2008, Australia’s then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd delivered his landmark apology on behalf of the Australian Government for the treatment of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and more specifically the Stolen Generations. A commitment to ‘right’ a ‘wrong’ and acknowledge the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children taken – Australia’s Stolen Generations.

The term Stolen Generations is used in reference to the many thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples taken from their families and communities. It acknowledges the hardship and intrinsic racism that has been interwoven into Australia’s history and treatment towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Read more about Stolen Generations redress options.