The This Is A Conspiracy Theory Theory

Perhaps the most widely known “Aboriginal History is Fabricated” proponent is Keith Windschuttle. There is a site that provides access to his theories.

Windschuttle argues that there were no forced removals of Aboriginal Children, that the Stolen Generations is an emotional lie. If this had happened, he says in one specific article, Aboriginal members of the Aborigines Welfare Board of NSW in the 1940s and 1950s would have said something. Further, in the 1970s when the Aboriginal Land Rights movement and political activism were gaining momentum, why was no mention made then of the Stolen Generations?

We have archival documents freely available showing that Aboriginals on Reserves or Missions needed permission to marry, or to spend their own money or so on.

I do believe that when the first generation of mixed race children were born, some of them were rejected by Aboriginals, but this practice did not persist and was not universal, and we do know children were taken and that they were selected on the basis of race.

Feeling an overwhelming despair at being rounded up, many Aboriginal parents might have relinquished children in the belief they would be better off. Aboriginals would have been easily tricked if told their children were going on a ride and would be back soon (as happened in Europe). 

Despite Windschuttle’s denials, Aboriginals did resist invasion, but resistance and argument did not, traditionally, come easily to all Aboriginal people and in some respects they still do not come easily today.

If protectors had the power and will to remove children, of course they took some children in an overtly forcible way as well as through manipulation.

Ordinarily I would not stoop to using a personal anecdote as evidence of some widespread ‘fact’, but in this case I will make an exception.

Before the tent embassy was set up in 1972, I went to a Social Security office in Fitzroy (Melbourne) which is a suburb with a relatively high Aboriginal population. A friend had come with me for company, and while I waited in the queue with her daughter, she went off to talk to someone else. While I was waiting in the queue with 4 year old ‘Mary’, an Aboriginal man about 50 years old came close and started telling me in a quiet but urgent tone to ‘hold the little girl’s hand’. He was quite insistent and seemed distressed – though not looking me in the eye – so finally I grabbed ‘Mary’s’ hand. Many years passed before this incident came to make sense to me.

If the Stolen Generations claim - the claim that removals were forced is not true - why was this man so distressed? We were in a room full of white people, in a government office, ‘Mary’ was obviously Aboriginal, and I was not holding her hand. Makes sense to me.

The dirtiest argument I can offer against Windschuttles denial, though, is that this happened to white kids too. It’s a dirty argument because the claims of white people should not be harder to reject. Nonetheless, the theft and subsequent abuse of white children happened in Ireland, England, and Australia. If it could happen to white kids, of course it happened to Aboriginals.