How to be a better global citizen: understanding the oppression of the indigenous peoples of Australia

Isabella P.
St Mary's Primary School
Australia

What does oppression mean? Oppression means to possess power, and to use it cruelly over others. The European settlers of Australia had power over the Aborigines and they used it cruelly. By taking away young Aboriginal children, mostly of mixed Aboriginal and European blood, the Stolen Generation was sadly created.

The European settlers, our ancestors, took away children mostly under the age of five. These children were taken because the federal and state governments of Australia wanted them to blend into a white society. These Aboriginal children were forbidden to speak in their own indigenous languages or to practice their traditional ceremonies. They were even told that they were orphans.

According to article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all humans are born free and equal. This means that we all share equal rights. The right to have a family and to protect that family should therefore mean that no one should be allowed to take one's children away.

Any child who experiences the trauma of being separated from their parents is liable to suffer in so many ways. Low self-esteem, depression and difficulty raising their own children later in life have all been shown to be the kinds of problems many of the Stolen Generation have suffered and continue to suffer. Many stolen children have also spent years trying to find out who their parents were.

Knowing all this, I now feel that we have not only stolen their cultural identity, but also stolen the life they perhaps would have had, if they had been able to remain with their true families in their own culture.

Our Australian Government needs to give a formal apology to the Stolen Generation, but I feel that it isn't enough to just say 'sorry'. I feel we should improve their lives and ask the survivors of the Stolen Generation what they want to see changed. I feel we need to do something more than make a formal apology and this might mean providing better services, or better education. If we want to create peace and harmony we need to create a sense of justice for those who have suffered oppression from the early settlers of our nation.

We are all human and this connects us. Whether we are of Aboriginal, European, Asian or other ancestry, human rights apply to us all.

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