National Reconciliation Week Reflections

​By Jahna Cedar

To all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, please note this article contains images of deceased people.
 
We can’t know where we are going, without knowing where we have come from!

Did you know that many Aboriginal children, especially of mixed descent, were forcibly removed from their families and placed into missions, orphanages and children's homes during the first half of the 1900s?

The WA Aborigines Act of 1905 gave the “Chief Protector of Aborigines” complete power over Aboriginal people, and guardianships of all children to age 16. Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families and often sent to special homes or institutions hundreds of kilometres south, where they were treated as domestic slaves and stockmen.

This act spread through other states around the country, where the Chief Protector had wide-reaching power as legal guardian of all Aboriginal children under 16 years whom he decided were illegitimate. He could grant or deny permission for Aboriginal women to marry non-Aboriginal men and could manage the property of Aboriginal people without their consent.

Aboriginal people over the age of 16 were also controlled. They had to apply to the Chief Protector for marriage rights, they did not have property ownership rights, could not move freely from mission to mission and could not be in town after 6pm. They had virtually no human rights. The only way to move from under the 1905 Act burden, was to apply and be granted citizenship.

​For this to occur, the individual had to complete an application for citizenship in which their caste and the caste of their parents were stated. They had to prove disassociation from Aboriginal people and culture, provide a photo and good character references. This went before a board who made the final decision. Once approved, the Chief Protector could remove it at anytime.
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Jahna's Great-Grandmother's Citizenship papers

​The 1944 Citizenship Act of WA caused further damage to identity, loss of culture and language. My great grandmother received her citizenship papers, before my great grandfather, who was denied because “the applicant has not dissolved native association and the full rights of citizenship are not like to be conducive to the welfare of the applicant”.

​A O Neville (Chief Protector of Aborigines WA) had a vision to ‘breed out the Aboriginal blood’. Assimilation was a highly intensive process necessitating constant surveillance of people's lives, judged according to white man standards. Implicit in the assimilation policy was the idea that there was nothing of value in Aboriginal culture. Whilst you notice the change in colour of my 5-generation photo, I remind you that it doesn’t matter how much milk you put in a cup of tea, it is still tea!

Five generations of Jahna's Family
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​What is more alarming is that these practices occurred in my mother’s lifetime. The impacts of these discriminatory laws are seen today and will be seen for many generations to come. How can people who were removed from their parents and institutionalised, know how to show love to others, when they have been oppressed, abused and disconnected from culture and identity? Before you judge someone, get to know their story!

Generational trauma is a real thing. Asking Aboriginal people to ‘just get over it.. we have said sorry, move on…’ is ignorant and appalling. As an example, do we ask those who have suffered and endured hardships during the holocaust to get over it? Saying sorry is one thing, but hand on heart has the nation (as a whole) truly embraced its first nations people, or are similar practices still at play?

Whilst today's society are not responsible for the actions of the past, we as a nation have a responsibility to acknowledge what occurred and work together in healing, acceptance and unison. This is not an Aboriginal issue. It is not just Aboriginal history. This is the history of Australia and should be owned as such. One branch alone is weak, but together many branches are strong and cannot break.

Note – I have sought permission from my Grandmother, to share these images and truth.