The Stolen Generations

The government of Australia wanted a "White Australia." The only problem was the indigenous people of Australia, the Aboriginals. In the 1930's, indigenous Australians still lived the traditional aboriginal way like they had lived for thousands of years before. White Australia frowned on this and thought that this gave Australia a bad image.

At first, the government adopted a policy called the Protection policy. This was a paternalistic policy. This involved putting Aboriginal people on reserves and basically not letting them do anything without the say so of the reserve manager.

Then came a policy called the assimilation policy. Aboriginals were expected to fit in and adopt the culture of the majority. This did not work and indigenous Australians kept living their way.

The government then proceeded to take Aboriginal children away from their families. A reserve manager or a police officer would claim that the child was in danger and take them to live with a white family in an effort to raise the child "white" so they would have a white spouse and breed out the indigenous gene. Aboriginal parents were not told where the children were going so they couldn't save them.

Aboriginal children, in some cases received emotional, physical and sexual abuse when in a white family. They were taught that their aboriginality was something to be ashamed of which resulted in low self-esteem. These children were left with no sense of identity or belonging when they grew up which results in common psychological damage among the Stolen Generations. Quite a few children of the Stolen Generation turned to drugs and alcohol.