Thanks, for pointing out Pearson's article, dili: Here's SOME of what he said... Could YOU, in turn tell us where he says that the stolen generations is a "myth?" Because I've got the exact opposite. Here are some bits that prove otherwise.
"Those people stolen from their families who feel entitled to compensation will never be able to move on...
My view is that Aboriginal people's lives were stolen by history...
It wasn't just that children were stolen in a literal sense, it was more the case that the prospects of Aboriginal people being able to pursue any form of sustainable and decent life were stolen. Yes, there was grog, there was prostitution, there was untold misery in Aboriginal camps. And if an Aboriginal mother brought her child to the gates of the mission for their protection, were not these lives stolen from them? Even where Aboriginal people carved out a life in an unforgiving and unrelenting white society, they were still vulnerable to the state's arbitrary removal powers...
From a strategic angle, these indigenous leaders are fooling themselves or their constituents. If they were serious about compensation, the time to address it is at the same time as the apology. Blackfellas will get the words, the whitefellas will keep the money. And by Thursday the Stolen Generations and their apology will be over as a political issue.
People could hunt and fish along the river and in the surrounding swamps and rainforests during the day and return to this camp in the afternoon. The last time camps such as this were occupied by Aboriginal people who still lived traditional lives outside the mission was in the years leading up to World War II.
This place in particular was a good place to hide from the police; not just children but adults and old people were also removed to Palm Island. My constant thought when I return to this place is the history of this camp when children laughed and played...
But then I think of the camps when there were increasingly only the last of the old people living in the bush. People like my great-grandfather Arrimi. Depleted of their children and young people, these camps must have become increasingly sad and lonely. The old people who escaped being removed to Palm Island ended their days in loneliness...
Every time I visit this place I have cause to think about these old people. And the mission. And their children gone."
He is certainly bitter about the political games played by both parties and he blames both for feeding each other with political correctness to which both responded with more political correctness. But nowhere does he say that the stealth of the aboriginal children by whites, did not take place. In fact, he adds, most bitterly that not only did the whites stole children but they also cut short (ie "stole") the aboriginal culture and history. Sure, he admits with gratitude that there were the odd whites whose heart did not allow them to let the indigenous suffer, so they took them away from the suffering (again caused by the sweep of whitefella's history) and even took good care of them but that did not mean that the "stolen generations" was a myth.
Very disappointing of you dili. Very! Read it again, is my suggestion.
