I wouldn't give too much credit to movies like "Rabbit Proof Fence" men, it's an example of skewing history to suit an agenda. A bit like "Mississippi Burning" painted anyone living in the south as KKK members whose main hobby was stringing up black people.
The biggest problem that we had here was that the government didn't know how to fairly manage our Aboriginal population, and were concerned that while our white population was continually evolving with the huge advances in technology of the 20th century, our Aboriginal population was still stuck in the pre-historic era.
Aboriginal communities were full of disease, sexual violence, incest, alcoholism, etc, and Aboriginal children were so abused that their mortality rate was four times higher than it is now, even though Aboriginals are still extremely over represented in current mortality rates in Oz, per head of pop.
Welfare groups of the era, mostly funded by the various religious organisations but with government assistance, attempted to take these children away from what they considered horrible conditions, to give them a better life. They offered them education and employment, and assimilation into white society, with the intent of giving them the opportunity of evolving at the same rate as white Australians.
Unfortunately, several generations later, academics and educated Aboriginals (who only received their education as a result of these programs anyway) re-wrote Australian history to condemn white Australians for this attempt to help our Aboriginal population, inferring that the "Stolen Generation" was stolen from some kind of Aboriginal utopia, to be placed into modern day slavery.
Sure, there were too many cases of Aboriginal children being exploited by corrupt officials and foster parents during this time, but the majority of children who were taken away from the disgusting conditions into which they were born, benefitted from the program.
The problem that we have in Oz now is that we have had to apologise for "Stealing" a generation, and are made to feel ashamed by certain politicians and other agenda based groups. The financial benefits for being of Aboriginal heritage are ridiculously generous, and as you don't need to prove that you are an Aboriginal to obtain these benefits, the welfare system is continually rorted. As an example, when I was in the Army, a friend of mine who was married to a "quarter cast" Aboriginal woman, was building a new house on a government grant. Free money given to a family who didn't need it.
I was brought up in a small country town in the 1960's with a large Aboriginal population. Like any country town, we had a few wealthy people, a few poor people, and everyone else was somewhere in between.
I came from a working class family with 5 kids (good Catholics, all of us...........) so money was tight. Not understanding family economics, when I was 9 years old I had my heart set on a shiny new Malvern Star "Dragster" bicycle for Christmas, but didn't get it, because my folks couldn't afford the $69 price tag. That Christmas, every Aboriginal kid in my town received a new Malvern Star Dragster, courtesy of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.
The situation here really hasn't changed, people of both Aboriginal and European heritage deny their European roots because it doesn't suit their agenda of extracting as much taxpayer funded money out of a government (any government) too frightened to say "No", lest the another uninformed international "Do Gooder" organisation write an unfavourable report about white Australia's abuse of our indigenous population.
So as much as I appreciate your recognition of Australia reconciling our "Past wrongs", the fact is our Indigenous population is the handbrake of Australia's advancement, no matter how much money we throw at the problem, our full blood Aboriginals are still cavemen, and our "mixed heritage" Aboriginals are making the most of their European intelligence and government provided education to screw the rest of Australia for millions of tax payer funded dollars.
Call me a racist, but I've got first hand experience, as opposed to a Googled education. Cheers, Terry.
