over the Indigenous population. Though couched in seemingly high-minded phrases about enabling mixed descent Aborigines to "take their place in the white community on an equal footing with the whites "and" improving their lot ", the authorities began from the implicit notion that there was nothing of value in Aboriginal culture. Aboriginality was to be destroyed by removing "half-caste" children from their communities, their language and their cultural heritage. Assimilation was not a sharp break from what had gone before, simply a refinement.
Moreover, the practices which occurred under assimilation were racist through and through. To return to Millicent's story: the reason given for taking the children was that "the authorities decided us kids could pass as whitefellas". But at the notorious Sister Kate's Home in Western Australia where Millicent spent her childhood, she got a very different message:
"They said it was very degrading to belong to an Aboriginal family and that I should be ashamed of myself, I was inferior to whitefellas. They tried to make us act like white kids, but at the same time we had to give up our seat for a whitefella because an Aboriginal never sits down when a white person is present. "
All States had child welfare legislation which allowed children - Black or white - to be taken from their parents if the children were deemed to be "neglected", "uncontrollable" or "destitute". Prior to 1937, however, most States preferred to use the protectionist legislation when taking Indigenous children, because that way they didn't have to justify anything before a court. The authority of the Chief Protector or the Board was sufficient.
But even after 1940, when child welfare legislation was used instead, "Proof of neglect" could easily be dispensed with. In many cases, "Aboriginality" was sufficient "proof", and the poverty in which Aborigines were forced to live made them targets because it could be argued the children were "destitute". Girls who ran away from situations of sexual abuse or got pregnant were labelled "uncontrollable". The separations were carried out with extreme brutality, traumatising the children and their parents for life.
"Early one morning in 1952 the manager from Burnt Bridge Mission came to our home with a policeman. I could hear him saying to Mum, 'I am taking the two girls and placing them in Cootamundra Home.' My father was saying, 'What right have you?' The manager said he can do what he likes, they said my father had a bad character (I presume they said this as my father associated with Aboriginal people). They would not let us kiss our father goodbye, I will never forget the sad look on his face ... That was the last time I saw my father, he died within two years after ... Next morning we were in court. I remember the judge saying, 'These girls don't look neglected to me'. The manager was saying all sorts of things. He wanted us placed in Cootamundra Home. So we were sent away ... "
Children were routinely taken from their mothers at birth. Her consent was sometimes waived, sometimes forced from her with threats, or she was simply told the child died.
"My mother told us that the eldest daughter was a twin ... And in those days, if Aboriginals had twins or triplets, they'd take the babies away. Mum swore black and blue that boy [the twin] was alive. But they told her that he had died. I only found out a couple of years ago - that boy, the nursing sister took him. A lot of babies were not recorded. "p> Often, too, the parents and children were tricked:
"I was at the post office with my Mum and Auntie [And cousin]. They put us in the police ute and said they were taking us to Broome ... But when we'd gone [about ten miles] they stopped and threw the mothers out of the car. We jumped on our mothers 'backs, crying, trying not to be left behind. But the policeman pulled us off and threw us back in the car. They pushed the mothers away and drove off, while our mothers were chasing the car, running and crying after us ... When we got to Broome they put me and my cousin in the Broome lock-up. We were only ten years old. We were in the lock-up for two days waiting for the boat to Perth. "p> Children who were left temporarily in "homes" or even hospitals simply disappeared.
"A mother [single teenager] had a child in a home, and went out to provide some sort of basis for rearing the child ... when the mother came back, they told her that the child had died. And 25 years later we have a request from a person to find his mother ... (she) now has gone through the grieving of the person dying and now coming to terms with his resurrection. "
Siblings who were stolen were often placed separately, or even when placed together, their identities and kinship were not revealed. The inquiry gives the example of one witness...
