Modern Aboriginal History & Stolen Generations
This artwork was inspired by a visit to the Aboriginal section of Melbourne Museum. One section of the museum has a large report, along with photos, of individuals of the stolen generations. I was in tears after reading many of their stories. Outside the museum is a large display of Aboriginal craft, knowledge & culture. I took many photos of these including two that I have used in this piece, ‘The light at the end of the tunnel.” These are of a walkway (or tunnel) that was decorated with Aboriginal rock art & a plague commemorating the Stolen Generations & the official Apology given by Kevin Rudd, which for the first time included the word ‘sorry’. I combined these, along with a photo of a photo, I had taken a little earlier to form my story which expresses my feelings on our recent history and future hopes.
When I examined the photographs I had taken, I discovered one of photos of the cave tunnel had a dark interior. Immediately I saw this, I got the idea for this work which expresses my emotions towards the stolen generations. Being Tasmanian I am a direct descendant of at least two persons (my great grand parents) removed from their families & culture. As a consequence I feel much of my culture has been “stolen” from me. (Incidentally I have always felt that Tasmanians were the first of the stolen generations - letters from early governors to London mention young children & babies being taken from every Aboriginal women they could find & how much of the violence between the two races were caused by this practice.) I have some friends who were forcibly removed from their families & raised in institutions as well as the testimony & emotions of what my husband calls “the almost stolen.” My mother-in-law lived with the constant fear of her children being stolen & as she was much fairer than her husband hide her aboriginality for many years as further protection. As a child my husband lived in terror of these people who were going to ‘take him away’. He had been taught to run away from & hide without knowing why they wanted to ‘take’ him from his parents.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Australian Aboriginals have inhabited Australia since the dawn of recorded history & are considered to have the oldest continuing culture on earth. Unfortunately the original European settlers did not appreciate culture that was different from theirs as being culture. Early Australian societies were not as isolated or as "primative" as Europeans thought. It is now known that in pre-European times Aboriginals travel to and from Indonesia & were therefore exposed to intensive agriculture there which they had no need to copy as more food than needed could be gathered from the land; so why waste energy when there was no need to? That said contrary to what was believed, houses, towns & agriculture did exist in parts of Australia anyway. The area on the Victorian/N.S.W. border where eel farming was practiced is the best known. Also most tribes were no where near as nomadic as often thought. Much of Australia is food rich for Aboriginal persons, so they often had little need to. Most clans did travel over a small area to take advantage of seasonal food & climate. This was often more by choice than necessity. Clans & tribes also traveled (sometimes considerable distances) for social & religious reasons. One advantage of this was that inter-tribal marriages were thus possible, preserving genetic diversity. Of course in desert areas, a nomadic lifestyle was a necessity. The vast variety of foods eaten by tribes in most area of Australia was much larger than eaten by humans in most other places on earth and was probably a reason Aboriginal people appeared so healthy to the early European arrivals. In much of Australia burning was practiced as a way of managing the land, stop devastating bush fires and to control the movement of game (native animals). Also it much be remember Australia had no indigenous animals that could be herded or farmed as practiced in most other lands. Dingoes of course were domesticated, but as mentioned elsewhere they are not a true native animal, but came with some of the early arrivals. This lack of agriculture was probably what "fooled" the early European invader the most about our people, and let to some horrible consequences to Australia's original inhabitants. It should also be stated that it had some horrible consequences for native animals, some of which became extinct & large areas of our land which were quickly turned into desert. As recently as when I was a child I remember hearing comments like "aboriginals had the land for centuries and did nothing with it, therefore they deserved to have it taken off them etc etc." How things have changed! It is only in recent decades that the wisdom of our people in looking their land as well as the folly of early Europeans who almost starved to death in the midst of plenty, been acknowledged. Modern Aboriginals now proudly practice our culture, which through most of the 20th century we had to keep quiet and sometimes were even made to be ashamed off. The appreciation of our art which has worldwide appeal, has played an important part in this.
The first European settlers arrived in Australia in the late 18th century. They realized the Aboriginal locals had their dancing, singing, ceremonies, religious beliefs, art and were organised into tribes, clans and families. However, because we did not practice farming the way they did (plus they desired to turn Australia into another Europe) they failed to recognise our civilization for what it was. The land was considered "EMPTY" meaning UNINHABITED & therefore could be legally claimed by them! In the most extreme cases our people were hunted & exterminated like vermin. In most cases they extensively cleared the land - often deliberately destroying trees & plants they knew were food sources to the natives. Many native animals were also hunted as useless vermin taking food their introduced animals could eat, with severe consequences for our people. In other cases they thought they would do a favour (& in some cases their "christian duty") by imposing their civilization upon a primitive people. One way this was done was by stealing our children & either using them as servants or bringing them up as good little Europeans. As proved by letters the early governors wrote back to England, in Tasmania if a Aboriginal woman was spotted with a young child the white settlers would give chase until eventually in desperation the woman was forced to drop the child, which the Europeans then collected. According to the Governor this practice to the conflicts between natives & settlers which lead to death on both sides. Later after most of the Tasmanians were banished to Flinders Island, most of their children were sent back to the mainland to be educated. I've read that all the parents who had their children taken in this way died within six month. This removal of children to supposingly 'give them a better education & future' continued into the 20th century & created what became known as The Stolen Generation, or more correctly called The Stolen Generations.
After the Commonwealth of Australia was founded in 1901 Aboriginal Australians were not considered citizens. This meant they had no rights, were told where the could & could not live, what jobs they could do, who & even IF they could marry. It was legal not to pay Aboriginal wages, certainly not the amount they were due. It became law in places to remove all children that had some white blood in them from their parents, not to mention brothers, sisters & all relatives and to place them, in a few places with white parents, but more usually in orphanages. In some states if both parents were half-caste it could be almost impossible for them to keep their children, in other states the authorities would take the children if a white person had the audacity to marry an aboriginal. Though full-bloods technically could keep their children, they were often encourage to give up their children too, pressured into believing their child would have a better life. As you can imagine not only did our people have to hide their identity, if they could, they were made to feel ashamed of their culture & in some cases especially with adopted children the fact that they were aboriginal was hidden from them. Some were told they were Maori, Indian, Spanish Princesses etc etc. Not until 1966 when Aborigines were given the vote & become citizens did things slowly change. Many white Australians gradually began to realize how evil this part of Australian history was & the suffering to innocent people it had caused & began to express their regrets, but Aboriginal Australians who had directly been harmed by these practices had to wait many years for the formal apology from the government they desired. Finally on February 13, 2008 this came. On that occasion the prime minister of Australia used the word thousands of Aboriginal Australians had waited for decades to hear,"sorry". I could fill many pages with more details, but as this is primarily an art site, we will let an Aboriginal artist have the final say.
This is the story behind this artwork:- before 1788 our peoples lived in bright sunshine. European invasion was like our people entering a dark tunnel. The plague is at the end of the tunnel. Light is shining on it; as if the apology is, a light at the end of a tunnel. This event on February 13, 2008, though highly significant is only a step on the journey of true reconciliation & equality. Therefore the ‘sorry’ is partially obscured; a person has to enter the tunnel to see it; the journey is not over, we are still part way through. The history of our peoples (as well as the history of Australia as a homeland for its peoples) continues on.
