"Stolen Generation" is the name given to all those children who were forcibly removed from their families by the Australian Government during 1910s and 1970s.
This situation had too many consequences, but the most important is the damage caused to all these children who were stealed from their families without prior notice and also the suffering of these families who saw how the Government took their children away without any explanation.
I was watching some videos on YouTube when I found a beautiful song that express all these pain that children and their families suffered during this period. The song was written by Teddy Everywhere who is also the interpreter. Sadly, I don't know very much about this man or his work as a singer/composer because he only have one video on his YouTube channel and there are no so much information. Despite this, I think that this is a wonderful song that make us feel empathy and at the same time make us think about all these families and the damage that they suffered. I think that be worth thinking about it.
I hope you enjoy this song as much as I did, and also you could share with us
What would you feel if you are taken out of your bed by the force? Separated from your family and roots just because others see you as an inferior? Would you be beaten and humillated until you deny your roots? Or would you find a way to return home?
These are the questions that came to my mind when I read Rabbit-proof Fence, the book based, sadly, in the true history of Doris Pilkington's mother: Molly Craig. This book is actually quite strong, the way in which Doris recounts the experiences of her mother, and all that it took to return to freedom, is simply epic, and is proof of the meaning of being brave and being free. There are some parts in the book that are extremely painful and sad to read, the first one being at the chapter two when Constable Riggs went to Jigalong to take the three little girls, Molly, Daisy, and Gracie, to Moore River Settlement, and when you read this part, you can kinda feel the desesperation of their families, and how painful it must be. When I noticed that the little girls are beaten and molested in Moore River Settlement just for being themselves, just for saying something in their own language, is when I started to compare this situation with other historical situation of this kind, like the Jewish Holocaust, or the African Apartheid. I don't understand why there is always someone in the world that believes that he is superior to the others just because he has a clearer skin colour or a fancy last name, and just because of that, he is on the right of stomping your beliefs and beat your culture until you are nothing but his shadow. The humanity has still a lot to learn, and Rabbit-proof Fence, among other sadly-realistic books, is just a reminder of the cruelty of the human race.
In our last
Introduction to Cultural Diversity class we were talking about New Zealand,
specifically about Maöri people. They are the aboriginal people of this country.
Maöris are
so interesting and spiritual people who have a lot of traditions and beliefs. I
was reading about them and a want to show you some things that I think you
might find interesting.
One thing
that characterizes Maöris is the great collection of tales that they had. For
example, there is the myth about their origin:
Also there
is the myth which narrates how Maui slowed the Sun:
Other aspect that is so interesting is their belief about the “Mana”, they say that all the living creatures was born with “Mana” inside. Mountains, animals, humans, all of us have this “spirit” that makes us to be who we are. “Mana” not necessarily it’s a good “spirit”, it also can be a bad “spirit” who corruptsour self and make us walk in a bad way along our life.
But my
favorite part is about Maöri’s tattoos (Ta
Moko). In my opinion there isn’t a better cultural expression of spirituality
and identity like this draws in their faces and bodies. Ta Moko has a big
meaning for this people, first, let people know about the social caste of each
of them. Also tell them about their family heritage, every single tattoo that
they have narrates their own history and the history of their family. Maori
warriors wore proudly their tattoos to show at the society that they were who
defended their lands and their community from the invaders.
Currently, they only make up a 15 percent of the country population. Sadly, as
the time pass, fewer and fewer Maöri still preserved their costumes, only a
little part of this aboriginal group continue studying their traditions and
their history and although New Zealand gains so much money with native things, hardly
anyone say proudly that is part of this people.
I just finish reading this book a few hours ago and I couldn't help myself to watch the movie before doing the blog entry. And if it wasn't enough, I saw some fanmade videos about the film.
This book it's about three half-caste aboriginal girls who were sent to Moore River Native Settlement because the Australian Government considered that mixed-race should be educated as any other citizen, but at the same time, they only see them as future servants for white people. But this three sister (Molly,14/Gracie,10/Daisy,8) were not going to accept the fact that they would be taken from their families and sent away, and that's why they decided to run away from the settlement and make their own way home.
The story that Rabbit Proof Fence present us it's not one of those stories that we usually hear or read. If you are part of the "Beginer" group (and if you already read it) you'll know how deep the narration is, this is why I would like to share with you a part of one specific chapter and scene.
Chapter 7- Losing Gracie
In this part of the book, Gracie decided that she's not longer able to get back home, she's to tired because of all the days that they have been walking through the desert. That morning they saw a train station and Gracie wanted to get closer, after that, she came back to where Daisy and Molly were and told them that according to a woman who worked on the train station, her mother left from Jingalong and was now living in a place call Wiluna, so she thinks that the best thing to do it's take the train until Wiluna and meet there with her mother. This is a really emotional part; the other two girls cry, because they both know that her sister it's probably walking to
a tramp and that they might never see her again...
Now, the same scene in the movie: It's pretty much the same, the girls separated and Gracie decides to leave. Except for this: Gracie is taken while she's waiting for the train, but she's not alone, her sisters are watching all that happens from the bushes, incapable to do anything while they see Gracie in the back seat of a black car. (5:28)
When I finished this book I told to my older sister about it, and she couldn't believe that this was a real story, and neither the age of the girls when they did this journey looking for their way back home. Definitely the braveness that they had was unreal, as their strait; they were just little girls who shouldn't pass for what they had to lived, as many other children, they should feel and be safe in the place where they were born.
Finally, and as Hazel Grace said once, "nothing is too messed up that can't be fixed with a Peter Gabriel song", so here's a fanmade video about the movie so you can have a better idea of what this book it's about and maybe encourage to read it and realize about a different and sad reality that some people had to live .
Today in class the teacher talked
to us about the Maori, which is the native people of New Zealand, and that they
originally came from Polynesia.
One characteristic feature of
Maori culture is the Ta moko which
is the tattoos on Maori people´s faces and body, clearly face tattoos are most
notorious than those in the body. Ta moko is sacred and its meaning depends of
the person who wears them, usually it is bare on the face and it represents the
history of the family (whakapapa) of the person that wear the mark; it is a
ritual of passage from childhood to manhood. Also in the past it was considered
as a symbol of prominence so very important Maori people wore them.
Maori woman also can have moko in
their faces, but usually they are located in places such as the chin or in the
forehead. Obviously get a tattoo is a
painful experience even with the new tools we have nowadays, so it had to be
really extremely painful in the past when they used pieces of bone and they didn’t
had the technology and medicines as we have today.
As many other cultural features Maori
tattoos are very popular nowadays an example of this is mike Tyson face tattoo.
Would you get a face tattoo, not like Mike Tyson, as Maori do it, on all your
face? What other trait of this culture called your attention?
The book Rabbit Proof Fence is about the history three girls that were to go to the
Moore River Settlement, place that was destiny to a school for the "half
castes" name that was used for those children that have an aborigine
mother and a white father. Molly was a girl "half castle" and for
that condition she was to go to this "school" with her cousins.
Moore River Settlement began in 1918 following
the passing of the Aborigines Act 1905 which gave the government increased
powers to move Aboriginal people from their traditional lands to other parts of
the state. In 1920 the staff quarters and a schoolroom/hall were added, and
smaller buildings followed later. From 1934-1950 the settlement suffered from
lack of funding coupled with an increase in population and finally When the
Methodist Church assumed responsibility for the settlement in 1951, its name
was changed from Moore River Settlement to Mogumber Mission.
In the web I found a lot of piece to
testimonies about aboriginals that lived in this place. These information and
videos that I found make to ask myself that maybe that experience don’t can be
just bad, and could be a good opportunity for a different life. One of this
testimonies was made to: Sam Dinah who in 1944 was removed to Moore River
Settlement, he say this words “I am angry” he is angry because he didn’t see
his mum and he see she just in picture, of course for he this was not a good
experience, but finally he was removed to other place where he say “where we
had a very good structured education there”.
when I were read the Rabbit Proof fence, I were feel sad about Molly's history, but maybe this bad way to "help" was a very good idea for a Really Help, Moore River Settlement when in 1951 change the name too change to style in charge of the church the real Help come, with education and with really opportunities. Absolutely this change was valued for the aborigines; I found a video where aborigines talk about that Real Help!
So enjoy them!
P.S: the history about Moore River Settlement is in this web side
Acording to the page thefreedictionary, stereotype is a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image. And as we all know, it's usually crated by the media.
We are lying if we said that we have never used stereotypes, because sadly, we all have done that at least once... but what can we do?. We see stereotypes everywhere, the media is one of the responsibles of this, because it creates a FAKE idea or image of something, and that image it's so repetitive that we end up believing. This is kind of like fashion, sometimes, at first sight we don´t like the clothes that we see at the catalogue, or on the tv commercials but then, with the time, and the repetition of the same images, we end up sympathizing those outifits and finally, we end up buying some of them.
At classes, we have seen different types of stereotypes (sounds weird, I know.), and now, that we are reading "the absolutely true diary of a part-time indian" while reading, I was trying to understand all the racism-and stereotypes that we are submitted to, I noticed that in the very first page. You can imagine that indians are all strong and Junior, well, he isn´t. Also, I've heard that indians are not good at school, and Junior and his sister as well, were very clever.
Sometimes, we don't notice when we use stereotypes. The most usual stereotypes are those about women ( women should be at home doing the housework), men ( men shouldn´t be at home because they are the ones that bring money to the house), blondes (they are all dumb), indians ( they are alcoholics ), "americans" -> actually, united states citizens ( they are all fat), and I can keep on writting but that's not the point.
So Is there something that we can do to stop stereotyping?, in my opinion, I think that we DO have a solution, and that is avoiding stereotypes, is trying to be more careful about things, it's not being racist, it's respecting each other, and overall is accepting at the other person for what they are.
I will leave here a video that I found by casuality in youtube, and it is about the typical stereotype of blonde girls, its author Jon Lee, analises some commercials (cruel comercials for blonde girls), and kind of explain the "sense" of the advertising.
"Stolen Generation" is the name given to all those children who were forcibly removed from their families by the Australian Government during 1910s and 1970s.
