The Life of Indigenous Australian Children. (0)

The Life of Indigenous Australian Children
The forced removal of indigenous children happened in every state and territory of Australia. The separation of Aboriginal children started in Victoria and New South Wales as early as 1885 and, in some states, was not stopped until the 1970s. About 85% of Aboriginal families have been affected in some way, either by having children taken away from them or by being forced to make major decisions to avoid having their children taken. Mothers of some Aboriginal children would cover their fair -skinned children with black clay; hide them in trees , behind sand dunes, or in hollow logs. Families were moving constantly, to keep one step ahead of " welfare ." Some families said that they were Italian, Maori, or Greek, leaving their true identity to themselves to escape the strict control of the white "protector."
The removal of these children from their families affected more than just a few people. In New South Wales, the government estimated that, in New South Wales alone , there were at least 8,000 Aboriginal children who had been taken away from their families between 1885 and 1996. Aboriginal children were often taken for being "neglected." The missions and reserves were often the places where the Aborigines would eventually die off.
The children in the institutions were the most neglected children in Australia. Many had to sleep in dormitories with about nineteen to twenty- five other girls in each of dormitory. If any of the girls wet the bed, she would get her nose rubbed in the wet sheet and then receive a beating. The food they ate was so bad that sometimes the meat was infested with maggots. They were not supplied with shoes ; in order to keep their feet warm; children would jump into the cow dung. In Kinchela Boys ' Home, which was based in New South Wales, the boys often suffered sexual and physical abuse.
Often the white people would send Aboriginal women out into the white community, and if they came back pregnant, the rule was to keep each woman for two years and then take the child away; sometimes mother and child would never see each other again . The white society thought it would be in the best interest of the child to remove her from the corrupting influence of her Aboriginal family. There were no rules or regulations for the treatment of the Aboriginal children who were sent to work . The children then grew up in a white community knowing nothing of the Aboriginal culture and environment.