It detailed the laws, policies and practices that allowed children to be taken from their families, and included many case studies that contest the claim made by many non-Indigenous Australians that the removal of children was in their own interests. The report contained 54 recommendations to redress the wrongs done to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
A key recommendation of the Bringing them home report was the need for an official acknowledgement of, and apology for, the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Watch this video about the impact and trauma of being removed from families. It was produced by the Australian Human Rights Commission to make the Bringing them home report as accessible as possible.
In thousands of Australians participated in the Sorry Book campaign which culminated in the first National Sorry Day on 26 May Between and all state and territory parliaments officially apologised to the Stolen Generations, their families and communities for the laws, policies and practices which had governed forcible removal.
For almost ten years the Australian Government rejected any suggestion of a national apology. Thousands more walked across bridges around the country. In , Prime Minister Kevin Rudd began consulting with Indigenous Australians about what form a national apology should take. The Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act Qld allows the Chief Protector to remove local Aboriginal people onto and between reserves and hold children in dormitories. Until the Director of Native Welfare is the legal guardian of all 'aboriginal' children whether their parents are living or not.
Australia becomes a Federation. The Constitution states that Aboriginal People will not be counted in the census, and that the Commonwealth has the power to make laws relating to any race of people In Australia with the exception of Aborigines.
The federated states therefore retain exclusive power over Aboriginal affairs until the Constitution is amended in The Aborigines Act WA is passed. Under this law, the Chief Protector is made the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and 'half-caste' child under 16 years old. In the following years, other states and territories enact similar laws. The Aborigines Protection Amending Act NSW gives power to the Aboriginal Protection Board to separate Indigenous children from their families without having to establish in court that they were neglected.
From until the head teacher on Cape Barren is appointed as a special constable with the powers and responsibilities of a police constable, including the power to remove a child for neglect under child welfare legislation. Australian Aborigines Conference held in Sydney. The Board is renamed the Aborigines Welfare Board and is finally abolished in It comes into force in A national referendum is held to amend the Constitution.
Australians confer power on the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people. There were a number of government policies and legislation that allowed for the removal of Aboriginal children. One of the earliest pieces of legislation in relation to the Stolen Generation was the Victorian Aboriginal Protection Act , this legislation allowed the removal of Aboriginal people of mixed descent from Aboriginal Stations or Reserves to force them to assimilate into White Society.
Once a child was removed from their family, they were forced to assimilate into the White Society. This included being forbidden to speak their traditional language or participate in any form of cultural practice or activity, and having to adopt new names and identities.
Many of these children were informed that their families had either given them up or had died. To increase the success of removal policies, the authorities would often send the children vast distances from their Countries and families.
For some of the children that were removed and forced to assimilate into White Society, they developed a shame of their Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage.
However , he also said that the government would not give any money to the victims. He claimed that it was in the interests of government to raise the children in the best way. Up to now only one member of Australia's Stolen Generation has received money from the government. Bruce Trevorrow was taken to hospital on Christmas Day in His father never saw him again and the government sent him to a white foster family. He came back to his mother when he was ten years old.
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