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Essay On The Stolen Generation

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The Sapphires depicts the ongoing impact of the Stolen Generation on Indigenous communities. Discuss.

The early 1900s in Australia was a time of development and budding prosperity for the still-young country. However, it was also a time fraught with great tension between the settlers and the Indigenous peoples of Australia. Racism was ubiquitous throughout the nation, not to mention most of the Western world, and in 1910, policies were established that gave Australian government the right to forcibly remove Aboriginal children from their families in the name of righteousness. These policies aimed to eventually breed out, or assimilate, the Indigenous, by forcing their children to adopt white culture and reject their own heritage. As a result …show more content…

Once she reconnects with her family, she is in turmoil about where she belongs. By birthright, she is Indigenous, a member of the tightknit society in which she spent the first few years of her life. However, for the past several years, she has

At the root of the Stolen Generation, the metaphorical heart of the matter, was racism. It was the foundation upon which the policies allowing children to be ripped from their families were created, and it was the reason behind the abject suffering of so many thousands of people. More insidious than the overt racism of the Assimilation program, however, was the normalisation of prejudice, evident in the off-hand comments made throughout the film. When Gail and Cynthia attempt to hitchhike to the competition they are performing at, several cars pass them by. When Cynthia asks why, Gail says, “It’s ‘cause we’re black, stupid.” Gail seems aware of the injustice of this, but she is already weary, and accustomed to it. After the concert, the owner calls them a racist slur, saying, “Thought I told you Abos to get off my premises.”

“The Sapphires” explores the impacts of the Stolen Generation on Indigenous communities in several ways, predominantly through the character of Kay. It also examines the normalization of systematic racism at the

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