Perhaps the question of ‘why’ children were taken - because half-castes were defective, or because they were being rescued - completely misses the point.
Whitefellas have always known that children [not their irresponsible parents] could be charged in court with neglect. Whitefellas have always understood the law affords protection to everyone – especially those who can afford it. But Aboriginals never had an opportunity to digest these legal notions the rest of us took for granted.
Every Aboriginal person in Australia has been touched, in some way, by the whole sorry business. Peoples with little understanding of the foreigners, who displaced them and, in many ways, abused them, could only conclude that whitefellas and whitefella law are totally cruel, arbitrary and inhuman.
It is only reasonable that the Aboriginal perception of the whole business is that their children were ‘stolen’. As we try to close the gap today, it is this perception, this Aboriginal truth we are dealing with - not interpretations of the motives of white bureaucrats a century ago.
In the British mindset, cruelty to children and excessive discipline were ‘normal’. Unfortunately for Aboriginal children [and their families], the trauma would be exacerbated mightily by culture shock, the often disgusting conditions, and the constant message that anyone black was somehow ‘faulty’.
It's a cliché that if we do what we have always done, we will get what we have always got. For the sake of all concerned, we need to stop squabbling and work out what we can do differently to help Aboriginals, that might actually be constructive.
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