Stolen Childhoods. Reforming Aboriginal and Orphan Children through Removal and Labour in New South Wales (Australia), 1909-1917

Abstract

Three Australian Government inquiries have changed the way child welfare history is perceived in Australia over the last 15 years by bringing to light the stories of children displaced from their birth family and communities of origin; the stolen generations of Indigenous children, British child migrants and those who grew up in out-of-home care. Each inquiry found evidence of physical, emotional and sexual abuse of children and failures of a duty of care by welfare agencies, religious organisations and governments. The Australian Government has apologized to affected children but historians have only just begun the work of understanding what drove these policies. This paper examines the years 1909-1917, in which the Aborigines Protection Board established its policies towards children and the NSW Government investigated the State Children’s Relief Department’s system of boarding out children. The common belief between the two systems was that removal of children protected society, from delinquency and immorality, and their labour was redemptive. These beliefs established a low threshold for the care of these children, and affected the reception and care of later child migrants.