It was believed that, due to white superiority and black inferiority, the “full-blooded” Aboriginal people would naturally die out and that the children of mixed, Aboriginal and white, parentage, also called “half-caste” children, should be assimilated into white society because of their lighter skin. Those children were taken from their families and forced to adopt a white culture and forbidden to speak their traditional languages. Their names were changed and they were placed in various institutions where neglect and abuse were common. Some children were adopted by white families, but many of them were used for domestic work.
Many children were psychologically, physically and sexually abused while living in state-sponsored institutions or with their adoptive families. Children were told that their birth parents had died or had abandoned them. Their education was very basic as they were expected to work as manual labourers and domestic servants. Most of them experienced high rates of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and suicide as well as poor health and socioeconomic outcomes later on in life. Many siblings were separated and many First Nations people are still searching for their parents and siblings.
On 13 February 2008, the Australian Government formally apologized to the Stolen Generations.
Watch the emotional “Intergenerational Trauma Animation” made by healingfoundation.org.au, or watch Rabbit-Proof Fence, a 2002 Australian film based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara, loosely based on a true story about her mother, Molly, who was a part of the Stolen Generations.