The lost or stolen generations were children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families from 1909 to 1969 and brought to state-owned children’s homes or they were given up for adoption. 20% of all aboriginal children at that time were victims of this terrible act.
When the aborigines lost their land and the access to water, the government put them into reservations where they were depending on food deliveries conducted by the Australian government. As more and more mixed children were born from relationships between whites and indigenous people, the government saw the need to act immediately. They removed these children from their aboriginal families in order to transform them into useful members of society. Thousands of children were taken away from their mothers in consequence.
Only at the turn of the millennium, it became clear what kind of social disaster this wrongful act caused. The stolen children were removed from their homes and lived under terrible conditions. They had to endure racism and discrimination. And yet there are only a few cases that managed to get compensation for their pain and suffering. The former prime minister Kevin Rudd openly apologized to the Aborigines for the wrongs that were done to them.
