stolen generation

« The Bringing Them Home report condemned the policy of disconnecting children from their "cultural heritage".

Said one witness to the commission: I've got everything that could be reasonably expected: a good home environment, education, stuff like that, but that's all material stuff.

It's all the non-material stuff that I didn't have — the lineage… You know, you've just come out of nowhere; there you are.

On the other hand, some Aboriginal people do not condemn the governments past actions, as they see that part of their intention were to offer opportunities for education and an eventual job.

According to the testimony of one Aboriginal person: I guess the government didn't mean it as something bad but our mothers weren't treated as people having feelings…Who can imagine what a mother went through? But you have to learn to forgive.

I was put in a mission dormitory when I was eight, nine.

I cried for two nights, and then I was right with the rest of those kids.

We weren't stolen; our family was there.

It was a good system.

Or a better system than now.

At least my generation learnt to read and write properly.. »