From the period of approximately 1920 until the 1970s thousands of

Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people were subjected to

assimilation. However, after the recognition of both the rights of
Aboriginals and the Stolen Generation, a new era of respect began
and in 1995 a Bringing them home report was commissioned and
in 2008, Kevin Rudd made a national apology.
The Stolen Generation are a part of our history that was often
neglected, however soon after the government policy of
assimilation, came reconciliation and with it the recognition of these
people as well as a national apology. The government policy of
Assimilation was designed to integrate the Aboriginal people of
Australia into white households with the hope that they would
discard their native ways and learn the white way, to learn how to
be them and in effect to breed out the Aboriginal blood. In order to
achieve this outcome it was decided that the lighter skinned or half
caste Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children would be forcibly
taken away from their families and made to live in communities or
European families in which they had no influence of their native
ways. Thousands of children were taken, taken from everything
they knew, everyone they loved, and placed in foster care, adopted
by white families and taught only to acknowledge the white way, an
ordeal that lasted almost 50 years. However, after the abolition of
the Aborigines Welfare Board in 1969 and the recognition of
Aboriginal rights, in 1995 the Australian government launched an
inquiry into the Stolen Generation, led by the HREOC, which found
that the removal of children was against Australias internal legal
standard and the International Human Rights values regarding
childhood and growing up. As a result, the HREOC recommended the
Government to formally apologise to the Stolen Generations, help
Indigenous people reunite with their families and regain their
cultural identities. For the government to publically recognise the
past injustices through education and a National Sorry Day and
finally, to establish a national compensation fund. Though the
government rejected the compensation fund, in 1997 the
government pledged 63 million dollars towards the HREOCs
suggestions, finally giving hope to the emotionally and physically
traumatized aboriginal people. Subsequently, when Kevin Rudd
came to power in 2007, he promised to deliver a national apology to
the Stolen Generations. This promise was fulfilled on the 13th of
February 2008 with the promise of a future where all Australians,
whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal
opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in
the history of this great country, Australia.
The history of the Aboriginal people in our nation is a complicated
one in which the European people constantly implored to change
the native people of land. However, after almost 100 years of
torment, the Aboriginal people finally stand tall and strong beside

us, both in the recognition of the diversity of the Australian people

as well as in society.