Last week, Australian Prime Minster Kevin Rudd made history by being the first head of government to formally apologize to Aboriginal (indigenous) and Torres Strait Islander Australians for one of the darkest chapters of Australian history – the so-called Stolen Generation. From the late 1800s (approximately)  to  1969, successive Australian governments maintained policies that mandated children of Aboriginal parents were to be taken away – removed from their families, their homes and their land to be rehoused in orphanages and institutions "for their own good" to be "resocialized" in Anglo-Australian customs and culture.  The goal was that these removed children would intermarry and after "five or six" generations, all traces of their Aboriginal characteristics and culture would be eradicated.

It is believed that more than 100,000 children were forcibly removed, according to a landmark . You can imagine the outcomes, both psychological and physical, I’m sure. To understand what 100,000 children means in a country like Australia,  here’s some context from the 1997 government report Bringing Them Home:

Nationally we can conclude with confidence that between one in three and one in ten Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities in the period from approximately 1910 until 1970. In certain regions and in certain periods the figure was undoubtedly much greater than one in ten. In that time not one family has escaped the effects of forcible removal (confirmed by representatives of the Queensland and WA Governments in evidence to the Inquiry). Most families have been affected, in one or more generations, by the forcible removal of one or more children.