Each state had an 'Aboriginal Protector' appointed, who then had government authorized guardianship over the Indigenous youth up to the age of 16- 21. This person could say where Indigenous people lived, worked, and most other aspects of their lives. Soon, the widespread state's removal of (mainly) mixed-race children from their Aboriginal mothers by the policeman or other government agents began. Babies and children of mixed descent were sent to government and church institutions for care; there were 24 such locations in WA by 1915 (like Sister Kate's Home in East Perth, Moore River Native Settlement, Mount Margaret Mission, Beagle Bay, and New Norcia Mission).  

The exact number is not known. The Bringing Them Home report says that "at least 100,000" children were removed from their parents. The report states that "between one in three and one in ten" children were separated from their families. Academic Robert Manne has stated that the lower-end figure of one in 10 is more likely; he estimates that between 20,000 and 25,000 Aboriginal children were removed over six decades, based on a survey of self-identified indigenous people by the television station ABS. (Source: Creative Spirits 2018)

The aim of integrating Indigenous children into white Australian society showed no changes; in employment and education, the removed children's results were no different to those who had not been removed.  

Removed children did not complete secondary education, and were 3 times likely to get a police record, twice as likely to use drugs. The Bringing Them Home report highlighted the disconnection of children from their "cultural heritage". Children were isolated from families and many never connected again with their family or community. These children suffered from many things including loneliness, low self-esteem, mistrust, depression, abuse, violence, loss of language and connection to their land.

Ann Cutler is the 18-year-old adopted daughter of middle-class parents in an Australian country town. The loving relationship she has with her parents changes dramatically when she discovers that she is not French Polynesian, but Aboriginal, the natural daughter of her adoptive father and Alice Wilson, who lives in a nearby Aboriginal shanty town. Ann feels ugly, cheated and insecure. She attempts to resolve her emotional turmoil by re-establishing contact with her natural mother, but cannot, apparently, cope with the confrontation. She drives away, but Alice runs after her - Ann stops and starts to walk back.

1814 – The 'Native Institution' was set up at Parramatta to 'improve' and 'civilise' Aboriginal students through instruction in reading, writing and religion, training in manual labour for the boys and useful needlework for the girls.

1869 - The Victorian Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines was established by the Aboriginal Protection Act of 1869.

1883 - The Aborigines Protection Board was established in NSW to manage reserves and control the lives of the estimated 9,000 Aboriginal people in NSW at that time.

1886 – The Western Australian Aborigines Protection Board began operation.

1897 – The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act was introduced in Queensland giving the Chief Protector appointed by the Government extraordinary powers over Aboriginal affairs.

1898 – The WA Aborigines Protection Board was abolished and all Aboriginal affairs were dealt with through the Aborigines Department. Under the Aborigines Act (WA) passed in 1905, the Chief Protector became the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and ‘half-caste’ child under 16 years old.

1909 - The Aborigines Protection Act (NSW) gave the Aborigines Protection Board legal sanction to `to assume full control and custody of the child of any aborigine' if a court found the child to be neglected. It also allowed the Board to apprentice Aboriginal children aged between 14 and 18 years.

1911 - The Aborigines Act (SA) was introduced giving the Chief Protector wide-ranging powers to remove Indigenous people to and from reserves.

The Northern Territory Aboriginals Ordinance (Cth) gave the Chief Protector the power to assume ‘the care, custody or control of any Aboriginal or half-caste if in his opinion it is necessary or desirable in the interests of the Aboriginal or half-caste for him to do so’. 

1915 - An amendment to the Aborigines Protection Act (NSW) gave the Board the power to remove any child without parental consent and without a court order as to neglect.

1935 - The Infants Welfare Act (Tas) was used to remove Indigenous children on Cape Barren Island from their families and the head teacher on the Island was given the same powers and responsibilities as a police constable.

1951 - The third Commonwealth and State Conference on ‘native welfare’ was held and assimilation was affirmed as the aim of ‘native welfare’ measures. It was first adopted as a policy in 1937 by the first Conference. 

1969 – The Aborigines Welfare Board in New South Wales was abolished. By 1969, all states had repealed the legislation allowing for the removal of Aboriginal children under the policy of ‘protection’. 

1980 – Link Up NSW was first established to reunite families separated by the policies. Between 1984 and 2001 all the other states and territories established link-up services.

1983 - The placement of Indigenous children with Indigenous families whenever adoption or fostering occurred was incorporated into NT welfare legislation, with all other states adopting this placement principle by 2006. 

1994 - The Going Home Conference occurred in Darwin and brought together over 600 Aboriginal people who were removed as children to discuss the common goals of access to archives, compensation, rights to land and social justice.
1997 – The 'Bringing Them Home Report' was released by the Australian Human Rights Commission, to report on the findings of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families to the Commonwealth Government. The parliaments and governments of Victoria, Tasmania, ACT, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia all issued statements recognising and publicly apologising to the Stolen Generations.

1998 - The first National Sorry Day was held on 26 May 1998, one year after the release of the  Bringing Them Home Report, as an opportunity for the Australian public to offer an apology to and commemorate the Stolen Generations. A range of community activities took place across Australia and almost 25,000 people recorded their feelings, apologies and signatures in Sorry Books.

1999 - The Federal Parliament passed a motion of ‘deep and sincere regret over the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents’, however Prime Minister John Howard refused to make a formal apology.

2004 - The Commonwealth Government established a memorial to the Stolen Generations at Reconciliation Place in Canberra.

2006 - The first Stolen Generations compensation scheme in Australia was set up in Tasmania by the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal Children Act 2006 (Tas).

2008 - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered an apology to the members of the Stolen Generations, on behalf of the Australian Parliament. The Apology acknowledged the past mistreatment of Indigenous peoples and recognised the grief, suffering and loss inflicted on the Stolen Generations. 

2009 - The Australian Government committed $26.6 million for the establishment of a Healing Foundation to address trauma and healing in the wider indigenous community, with a focus on the Stolen Generations.

(Source: SBS. (2018). Stolen Generation Timeline. Retrieved 7th Oct 2018 from https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/explainer/explainer-stolen-generations)

Published in a Darwin newspaper in the 1930s requesting homes for Indigenous children removed from families.

Laws that relate to the removal of Indigenous children and so created The Stolen Generation:

6/1884 : An Act to prevent the enticing of girls of the aboriginal race away from school, or from any service in which they are employed.

It was an offence to remove girls without the consent of the protector or school principal. Repealed 14/190511/1874 : Industrial Schools Act

Managers of charitable institutions for needy children, orphans and “children of Aborigines’ had the power to retain children voluntarily surrendered to their care and stand in loco parentis to them. “Children of Aborigines” remained under manager’s control to age 21 and could be placed in apprenticeships to age 21 or into service for two to five years without parents’ consent. Parental consent was required for European children. Repealed 31/1907.

25/1886 : The Aborigines Protection Act For the “better protection and management” of Aborigines and to amend laws relating to Aboriginal employment contracts. It covered: – Administration: movement towards centralised and separate administration of Aboriginal affairs. It outlined the structure and duties of the Aborigines Protection Board (APB) and a system of honorary protectors whose duties included advice to the Governor “on proper care of Aboriginal children”. – Employment: contracts; Aboriginal prisoners; apprenticeship of Aboriginal children from age 6 to 21; employment conditions to be inspected but standards of care not stated; offending employers and apprentices liable for fines or imprisonment. – Persons under the Act: “every Aboriginal native of Australia and every Aboriginal half-caste or child of half-caste or child habitually associating and living with Aboriginals”. Repealed by 14/1905.

5/1897 : Aborigines Act
Amended the 1889 Constitution Act to transfer control of Aboriginal affairs from British to Western Australian government; abolished the 1% clause relating to government revenue applied to Aboriginal welfare; provided for “better protection” of Aborigines. The Aboriginal Protection Board was abolished and the Aborigines Department (AD) was created with the same duties and an additional role of “providing custody, maintenance and education of children of Aborigines”.

14/1905 : Aborigines Act
To “make better provision for the protection and care of the Aboriginal inhabitants of Western Australia”.

MAJOR SECTIONS:

– Administration: Aborigines Department under the control of Chief Protector of Aborigines, honorary protectors; establishment of departmental institutions; controls over missions.

– Persons under the Act: Aborigines of full descent (referred to as ‘Aboriginal natives’); ‘half-castes’ (persons with Aboriginal parent on either side or children of such persons) who lived with Aboriginal as wife or husband or regularly associated with ‘Aboriginal natives’; ‘half-caste’ children under sixteen irrespective of lifestyle; Aborigines of”suitable degree of civilization” to apply for exemption from the Act.

– Controls over employment: agreements and permits; not to employ Aboriginal girls under age 14.

– Controls over movement: prohibited areas; Aboriginal reserves; removal to reserves and other locations; entry to towns; location of camps.

– Controls over personal and family life: Chief Protector to manage property, earnings, legal guardian of children to age 16 years; approve marriages of Aboriginal women and non-Aboriginal men; sexual contact between Aboriginal women and non-Aboriginal men prohibited; alcohol prohibition; maintenance.

– Penalties: arrest Aborigines without warrant; face six-month prison sentences or fines. Repealed 79/1963.

1909 Regulations to 1905 Aborigines Act
Authorised any justice of the peace, any protector of Aborigines or police officer to remove any ‘half-caste’ child under age 8 without prior consultation with Chief Protector of Aborigines.

42/1911 : An Act to further amend the Aborigines Act 1905
Chief Protector the legal guardian of all illegitimate ‘half-caste’ children to the exclusion of mothers’ rights; mission managers to have powers and duties of managers to of children’s institutions under 1907 State Children’s Act; other: reserves, employment, possession of alcohol, removal of women from Aboriginal institutions, courts procedures. Repealed 79/1963.

43/1936 : Aborigines Act Amendment (Native Administration Act)
Significantly amended the Aborigines Act, 1905, with main sections: – Administration: Department of Native Affairs under a Commissioner of Native Affairs; brought more in line with Police Department; Travelling Inspectors; Department to generate own funds. – Application of the Act: extended to all persons of Aboriginal descent deemed ‘natives’ with exception of ‘quadroons’ over age 21, unless classed as ‘native’ by special magisterial order, and persons of less than ‘quadroon’ descent born before 31 January 1936; the latter not to associate with ‘natives’. – Employment: Departmental Native Medical Fund;the Act to cover all forms of labour. – Personal and family life: Commisssioner to be legal guardian of all legitimate and illegitimate ‘native’ children to age 21 regardless of whether has living parents or other family; medical examinations; approval of marriages; intestate Aboriginal estates; maintenance; any sexual contact between Aborigines and non-Aborigines prohibited. – Penalties for any offences increased. – Miscellaneous: Commissioner can intervene to stop traditional Aboriginal practices (eg initiation, child betrothal); Courts of Native Affairs; Aboriginal defendants. Repealed 79/1963.

23/1944 : Natives (Citizenship Rights) Act
Provisions for Certificate of Citizenship by application to Resident Magistrate; applicant must sign that he/she wants to become a citizen, has for two years dissolved tribal and native associations except with lineal descendants of native relatives of first degree, and has served with the armed forces with an honourable discharge, or is an otherwise fit and proper person; applicant to attach stating is of good character and industrious habits; Resident Magistrate must be convinced that for the two previous years the applicant has adopted a civilized life, that full citizenship rights are conducive to the applicant’s welfare; that the applicants can speak and understand English, does not have active leprosy, syphilis, granuloma or yaws, is of industrious habits and good behaviour and reputation and is reasonably capable of managing own affairs. The Resident Magistrate then issues a Certificate of Citizenship and the holder is deemed no longer a native and has all the rights of citizenship. The Resident Magistrate’s decision is final. Repealed 26/1971.

27/1951 : Natives (Citizenship Rights) Act Amendment Act, 1944-1950
Power to decide transferred from magistrate and vested in a board of the magistrate, including chairman of the road board and other prominent community member/s; decision of board to be unanimous. Repealed 26/1971.

60/1954 : Native Administration Act Amendment Act
Reinterpretation of ‘native’: persons of full descent and less who served in the armed forces overseas or for a minimum of six months full time with an honourable discharge to be deemed no longer natives. Repealed 79/1963.

64/1954 : Native Welfare Act
Department of Native Welfare under a Commissioner of Native Welfare; changes allowed for regionalisation of administration; no change to definition of ‘native’; Dept. of Native Welfare duties remained the same including “to provide for custody, maintenance and education of the children of natives. Repealed 24/1972.

24/1972 : Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority (AAPA) Act and
31/1972 : Community Welfare Act 1972AAPA Act and Community Welfare Actswere to ensure Aboriginal access to all services available to the Western Australian community, to remove discriminatory nature of a welfare authority dealing only with a particular racial group by integrating family welfare and other services for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. It created a specialist organisation to foster services essential to programs promoting social and economic development of Aboriginal people that were not part of normal government programs. Welfare duties of Dept. of Native Welfare transferred to Department of Community; State Housing Commission to deal with urban Aboriginal housing; AAPA set up to consult with Aboriginal people, to coordinate activities of various government agencies and to foster economic, social and cultural advancement of Aborigines in WA through its Aboriginal Advisory Council, Aboriginal Affairs Co-ordinating Committee and the Aboriginal Lands Trust.

Source: Readings - Kimberley Stolen Generation. (n.d.) Readings documents and speeches. Retrieved 4th October 2018 fromhttps://www.kimberleystolengeneration.com.au/resources/readings/