Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations and Descendants
Executive Summary
Forcible removals of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have had long-term, intergenerational traumatic impacts on individuals and their families and descendants. Rates of Indigenous child removal have increased, not lessened. There have been ‘year on year increases’ and a 10.8 times greater likelihood of being in care than for non-Indigenous children. The 1997 Bringing Them Home Report found that any treatment and healing for survivors of forcible removal must emphasise local Indigenous healing and well-being perspectives. In 2018, Bringing Them Home 20 Years On: An Action Plan for Healing observed:
[m]ost Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been affected by the Stolen Generations. The resulting trauma has been passed down to children and grandchildren, contributing to many of the issues faced in Indigenous communities, including family violence, substance abuse and self-harm.2
Research and formal inquiries have documented adverse consequences experienced both by members of the Stolen Generations and by their descendants. Compared with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were not removed, or who did not have family members removed, the Stolen Generations and their descendants experience:
- higher rates of incarceration, interaction with police and arrest;4
- higher rates of institutional abuse, including sexual abuse;5
- poorer physical and mental health outcomes;6
- lower rates of employment, financial security and home ownership;7
- higher rates of homelessness;8
- higher rates of discrimination;9
- weakened connection to culture, including lower rates of speaking an Indigenous language;10
Other evidence of this harm was documented by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which heard disclosures by people who had been subjected to cultural, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and the Yoorook Justice Commission, which heard evidence of ongoing injustices experienced by First Peoples in Victoria.
Indigenous child-rearing practices differ from non-Indigenous practices; for example, researchers have found that ‘caregivers actively sought to model collectivist social values for children’ such that ‘a function of attachment to provide the basis for developing social competence’.
A key focus for improvement is support for services supplied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations (‘ACCOs’). Thus the Family Matters Report calls for increased funding for ACCO-led prevention programs across the spectrum of support services: ‘Each year, the … Report has consistently identified that changing the trajectory will require a comprehensive approach.’
Peeters, Hamann and Kelly note that ‘culture, identity and reconnecting with family, community and country are central to the healing journey’. Further, truth telling, as the ‘act of sharing and acknowledging the historical and current experiences, perspectives, and truths of marginalised or oppressed groups including First Peoples’ is established as ‘an evidence based mechanism for individual and collective healing within Indigenous communities’.