The Stolen Generation

How is being a member of the stolen generation a personal trouble? How is it a public issue?

If we are to look at the events endured by the Stolen Generation then we can see that they have very negative connotations from a sociological perspective on the wider Australian society. This piece will attempt to state that a link exists between the personal trauma caused to members of the Stolen Generation and why they find it difficult to integrate with wider Australian society.

If a country is to forcibly enact a policy of assimilation in such a brutal manner on its original inhabitants then this illustrates that it has a history of racist agendas, which inevitably permeates to other areas of its society. The negligence in the health status of Aboriginals relative to non-indigenous Australians is one example of this permeation which exists even today.

What the stolen generation represents is a blind belief in the superiority of one race over another based on cultural differences which non-indigenous Australians found unacceptable. If we are to look at the wider public issues this forced assimilation would have caused, we can see that it has caused division between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

Sociological imagination is about extrapolating a connection between individual circumstance and wider societal issues. In the case of the Stolen Generation, we can see that the plight of those affected by forced assimilation has a direct link to Australia’s non-indigenous population which manifests itself in disregard or disrespect for the original inhabitants of the land and their sad situation. Aboriginals are in many ways forgotten people, and one could take just a brief look at the mass media of today, they would see how much they are under-represented. This marginalization has been going on since the colonial days and it has continued till today.

If we are to take the example of an indigenous child forcibly removed from their family at a very young age and link it back to wider Australian society we can view the situation from two perspectives. Firstly, there is the child’s perspective, in which bitterness and mistrust have been molding the child’s existence since their removal from their family. This bitterness and suspicion would cause the child to find it difficult to integrate into wider society and such things as crime and drug use might be engaged in out of desperation at not “fitting in”. This creates a member of society that is constantly being oppressed and viewed disparagingly by non-indigenous Australians, as well as creating feelings of