program which led to approx. 100,000 Aborigine
children being taken from their families and adopt
ed by White Christian families between the early 1900s and the mid-1970s.
British settlers first arrived in Australia at Sydney Cove in 1788. At that time between 300K and one million nomadic Aborigines inhabited the continent. Many Aborigines were killed by colonists who found them to be a primitive people. By 1876 the entire native population of Tasmania was wiped out.
When Australia became independent in 1901, many in the legislature came to believe that Aborigines (especially the lighter hued variety) should be "assimilated' into white culture. The government believed that the darker Aborigines would die out eventually anyway.
Figures cite that approximately 1 in 5 Aborginal children were taken from their parents. Adult children of The Stolen Generation are said to have higher instances of suicide, chronic depression, alcholism and drug abuse.
The Australian government has refused to apologize publicly for its role in the cultural genocide.