Friday, May 30, 2014

THE STOLEN GENERATIONS......APOLOGY...

 

The stolen generations

The stolen generations, children whose were taken away from their families  throughout the early 1900s. The half- caste children from aboriginal mothers and white fathers were removed in order to be exposed to “Anglo Values” and work habits, they learned to being employed by colonial settlers.

The objective behind the removal of these children was the racial assimilation. I think that this  acts were wrong , because  the children are innocent people and  we must to protect  them and nobody can say that  sons were better without  their  mothers  or without  their parents. I’m  a mother  and  I can imagine the pain  that  those mothers felt  when  their sons were stolen.

Nevertheless , there are varied   life’s  stories about the stolen generations, we read  a  dramatic  one ,“rabbit proof fence”, so  I found   a different  experience…

I was very fortunate that when I was removed, I was with very loving and caring parents. The love was mutual ... I know my foster parents were the type of people that always understood that I needed to know my roots, who I was, where I was born, who my parents were and my identity ... I remember one day I went home to my foster father and stated that I had heard that my natural father was a drunk. My foster father told me you shouldn't listen to other people: `You judge him for yourself, taking into account the tragedy, that someday you will understand'.
Confidential submission 252
, South Australia: woman fostered at 4 years in the 1960s.
Other children suffered trauma, abuse….
I led a very lost, confused, sad, empty childhood, as my foster father molested me. I remember once having a bath with my clothes on `cause I was too scared to take them off. I was scared of the dark `cause my foster father would often come at night. I was scared to tell anyone `cause I once attempted to tell the local Priest at the Catholic church and he told me to say ten Hail Mary's for telling lies. So I thought this was how `normal' non-Aboriginal families were. I was taken to various doctors who diagnosed me as `uncontrollable' or `lacking in intelligence'. Confidential submission 788, New South Wales: woman removed at 3 years in 1946; experienced two foster placements and a number of institutional placements.
In 2012 the prime minister Kevin ruud gave  a public apology  to the stolen Generations, I want to share with you the video .
What do you think about the speech?....... I think that it’s  a political strategy …..but  it was fine and necessary  .


3 comments:

  1. Hi Maria Zulema
    Very interesting your blog entry. I like it ! . I am also a mom. And I think what happened to these children has no forgivenessbecause the pain and fear suffered by those families especially children can not erase from their minds with a simple and pathetic forgiveness. How can people exist so cruel? I think the discourse is only political strategy, but that would be painful. But you just have to think that you will be in the consciousness of each of the people, the pain and suffering caused to these innocent children.

    Regards

    Camila

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  2. This "apologies" is very interesting, I wrote too something about this topic. when the half castle was taken and bring to moore rivers and the other places, the most probably that this experence could be traumatic and when you look with an emotional perspective. I think too that this experience not can be forgotten.

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  3. Hi Zulema, you wrote a very interesting entry! I think a speech can't fix all that horrible mistakes, and I agree with you when you say it is a political strategy. It would be awesome if every single speech given were true. Maybe if all speeches of this kind were true, we could have some hope in mankind. Nowadays you find a lot of treaties, organizations whose objective is to protect human rights and all that stuff. But you still hear about children kidnaping and a lot of abuses. If only all the speeches were true... Sometimes people just says what other people wants to heard. That's something very useful in politics.

    Soon I'll read rabbit proof fence, it looks very interesting.
    Regards!

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