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G4EBT > STOLEN 30.12.06 21:39l 199 Lines 6604 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 563986G4EBT
Read: DK5RAS GUEST
Subj: "Stolen Generation" VK6BE
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Sent: 061230/1931Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:11921 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:563986G4
From: G4EBT@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : STOLEN@WW
Bob, VK6BE wrote:
> Regarding the Stolen Generation, maybe you don't know that there are
> programmes these days where aboriginal children are given the chance to
> leave their families for education programmes.
Yes I do know Bob, but I did say I don't wish to discuss on here.
> Ease off on John Howard, David.
Huh?
Which bit of this don't understand:
>In fairness, John Howard can't meaningfully "apologise" on behalf of
those
>over whom he had no influence from days gone by.
>These things weren't John Howard's doing. He's Prime Minister for the
>time being - not for the times gone by.
>I repeat that this is a legacy of British colonialism which the present
>generation is striving hard resolve, (At considerable cost to taxpayers).
That sounded quite supportive of Howard to me.
> Your picture of weeping children being snatched from their mother's
> arms is a touching picture David,
But not one you empathise with? (Matthew 7:12 might help).
FYI, I wasn't reading from the script of "Rabbit Proof Fence".
Do try to read the reports.
>As a teacher I visited one of the Missions run by a church and the
picture
>there was of happy aboriginal kids having advantages they would never
>have in their home environment.
I don't doubt that, but just because some benefited from the experience
doesn't make the policy right as a whole. I think you concede that Bob.
It was blatantly racist.
A 1937 Federal Government conference on Native Welfare concluded in its
final report that: "...the destiny of natives of Aboriginal origin, but
not of the full blood, lies in their ultimate absorption by the people of
the Commonwealth, and it therefore recommends that all efforts be directed
to that end."
The stated aims were:
"To culturally assimilate mixed-descent Aborigines into contemporary
Australian society so as to aid in the biological assimilation of the
native race".
"Generally by the fifth and invariably by the sixth generation, all native
characteristics of the Australian Aborigine are eradicated. The problem of
our half-castes will quickly be eliminated by the complete disappearance
of the black race, and the swift submergence of their progeny in the
white."
White supremacist racism personified. "Complete disappearance of the black
race" sound like a biological conjuring trick.
Author: Dr Cecil Cook - Aboriginal Protector, Northern Territory.
"Aboriginal Protector?" That must be the oxymoron of all time!
>I am not saying the scheme was right or fair but it is easy to be
>judgemental in hindsight.
We seem to be on the same wavelength!
I wrote:
>We help shape our children's morals and outlook on life - we have no
>control over how our forbears behaved when morals and ethics differed
>from those of today.
Agreed?
>Thus, an "apology" as such is meaningless, but an expression of regret
>for what happened, and a determination to move things on is meaningful.
>We can't change the past - we can influence the future.
Agreed?
>We also had the condemnatory film of kids leaving Liverpool bound for
>the "colonies". The choice of children there was not by Australia.
I missed that film.
>Your own authorities were behind that scheme.
Yes, I know.
Under the 1922 "Settlement of the Empire" Act many destitute UK kids
were sent to farm schools in Oz run by Barnardo's and Kinglsey Fairbridge.
>White or aboriginal what was the difference?
The difference is that kids leaving Liverpool weren't forcibly removed
from their parents for racist breeding purposes.
> Who wrote the report? Who commissioned it?
In 1995 the (then) Attorney-General, the Hon. Michael Lavarch MP,
commissioned a formal inquiry entitled "The National Inquiry into the
Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their
Families".
This inquiry began in May 1995, presided over by Sir Ronald Wilson,
president of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities
Commission, and Mick Dodson, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social
Justice Commissioner at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
(HREOC).
Over the ensuing 17 months the Inquiry visited every state and Territory
in Australia, heard testimony from 535 Aboriginal Australians, and
received submissions of evidence from over 600 more.
Impressive eh?
In April 1997 the official report "Bringing Them Home - Report of the
National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Children from Their Families" was released.
>Was there bias?
You decide.
>Do you know these things?
Yes. You would too if you approached it with an open mind instead of
rushing to judgement.
> Touching picture, David, but fiction.
No. Incontrovertible facts.
According to the Australian government enquiry at least 100,000 children
were removed from their parents but the figure may be substantially
higher.
It's estimated that between 10 - 30% of all Aboriginal kids were removed
during the 60 years up to 1970. QL and WA government reps who gave
evidence to the inquiry stated:
Quote:
Nationally we can conclude with confidence that between one in three and
one in ten Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families
and communities in the period from approximately 1910 until 1970.
In certain regions and in certain periods the figure was undoubtedly much
greater than one in ten. Not one family has escaped the effects of
forcible removal. Most families have been affected, in one or more
generations, by the forcible removal of one or more children.
End quote
>Prove the case. You can't.
I've loaded several bulletins well above the plimsoll line with proof from
your own government. Proof enough I think, but if you remained
unconvinced, I don't mind - John Howard et al accept it.
>It may not suit your agenda.
I don't have an "agenda".
I'm just interested in human rights and wrongs, social, economic and
political history, and the shared heritage of Britain and the rest of
the Commonwealth, which I know most find deadly dull.
Ignore it if you want.
I'm a bit of a dreamer and I know it's a ridiculously unattainable goal,
but I believe that a life of opportunity and dignity, free from
discrimination and disadvantage, should not simply be an ideal but a
basic human right - one that all members of the human race share.
Silly of me, I know, but there's no fool like an old fool.
(Except perhaps one who's even older:-)
73 - David, G4EBT @ GB7FCR
Message timed: 19:07 on 2006-Dec-30
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