“Are we going to have a population of one million blacks in the Commonwealth, or are we going to merge them into our white community and eventually forget that there were any Aborigines in Australia?”
A.O. Neville, WA Commissioner for Native Affairs, Canberra, 1937
Thousands of Aboriginal children were taken from their families and communities under a government program that attempted to eliminate the so-called ‘half-caste problem’ in twentieth century Western Australia.
Fearing that a growing mixed-race population posed a threat to white Australian society and influenced by the racist ideas of the eugenics movement of the time, the state government passed laws in 1905 that enabled the systematic removal of mixed-race children from their families, and the strict control of Aboriginal marriages and reproductive freedom, in an effort to ‘breed out the colour’ over several generations.
The over-arching policy of forced social assimilation, which persisted through the 1960s, sought to smash the connections between mixed-race children and their Aboriginal families, culture, language and land.
The social devastation and intergenerational trauma caused by these policies, to this day, are compellingly recounted by Stolen Generation Survivors in a new 59-minute documentary — “Genocide in the Wildflower State”.
Stolen Generations Survivors demand a response to the crucial question: why is it that almost three decades since a national inquiry found this to be genocidal (Bringing Them Home report), and sixteen years since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologised to them, WA has failed to commit to redress and compensation, when all other states (bar Queensland) have done so?
Believing much can be done to heal the ongoing wounds of this catastrophe, Stolen Generations Survivors appeal to WA parliamentarians to:
‘Work with us to put the trouble at the heart of this state to rest’.
Produced by Yokai Healing Our Spirit, the peak body representing the Stolen Generations in WA, written and directed by Frank Rijavec (Exile and the Kingdom), co-written and researched by author and academic Steve Mickler (Andrew Bolt, The Far Right and the First Nations) and powerfully narrated by Kelton Pell (The Heights, Mystery Road: Origin), “Genocide in the Wildflower State” will shock and disturb many, and enlighten all who view it.
Distributor: Ronin Films
Website: genocidewildflowerstate.org.au
Contact: Jim Morrison 0408 917 133 jim@yokai.com.au
Further comment: Tony Hansen 0417 610 412 or Jim Morrison 0408 917 133