Indigenous Community Assignment

Running Head: Indigenous community 1
Indigenous community

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Introduction:
Between the period of 1910-1970, there were number of indigenous children’s who were
forcibly removed from their families because of the policies farmed by government. There were
generations of children’s who were removed under these policies are known as stolen
generations.
The policies related to removal of child left severe trauma and loss which affect the
indigenous communities on continuous basis. It was considered as one of the darkest chapters of
Australian history. Even babies were stolen from their families for the purpose of placing them in
girls and boys home, missions, and foster. Later, children’s were released in the white society at
the age of 18 years, and these aboriginal people were collectively called as Stolen Generations’
because numbers of generations were affected from these policies (Australian Together, 2017).
This essay shows the various sides of “Stolen Generation”, and its effect on the lives of
indigenous people. Structure of this essay includes brief discussion of the event, its effect, and
understanding of the event. Next section of this essay state the arguments that support the
teaching and learning of Indigenous Australian cultures and also assess the impact of stolen
generation on teaching and learning with Indigenous cultures.
About “Stolen Generation”:
The stolen generations are considered as those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander who
were taken away from their families in their childhood because of the policies framed by the past
government. These children were removed by the governments, churches and welfare bodies
from the families of children. Some of these children were brought up in institutions and
fostered, or some were adopted by white families. The operation of removal of aboriginal

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children took place in the early days of British colonization in Australia. Government policies
related to aboriginal people were implemented through different laws in different states and
territories of Australia. These laws reflects that various aspects of the lives of the indigenous
people were controlled by the government such as marriages in indigenous community, work,
wages, housing, health care, etc (Behrendt, 2012).
Records related to stolen generations and their families were maintained by the
government, churches, and missions. These institutions held large amount of data about these
peoples, but over time these records were lost because of the fire, flood, and poor record
management. Because of the lost records and changes in the government department it becomes
very difficult for the stolen generations to trace their family connections and find their family
members.
Generally, babies were stolen at birth and their mother doesn’t even get the chance of
seeing them for first time, and these babies were known as blanket babies. These babies were
known as blanket babies because nurses covered these babies in the blanket for the purpose of
hiding these babies from their mothers. These new born babies were raised by the foster parents
or carers of mission, and these babies were completely cut off from their aboriginality. They
were punished when they caught by the authorities in talking in their aboriginal language. Some
of these children’s never learned anything about their traditional values, and received little or no
education. Girls were trained to become domestic servants and boys were trained to become
stockmen.