Stolen Motherhood: Aboriginal Mothers and Child Removal in the Stolen Generations Era

The Bringing Them Home Report in 1997 highlighted the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, but the voices of Indigenous parents were largely missing. This book explores what happened to these mothers and why they have remained silent, identifying structural barriers to Aboriginal mothering in the Stolen Generations era and arguing that negative perceptions of Aboriginal mothering underpinned removal processes. It makes an important contribution to understanding the history of the Stolen Generations and highlights the importance of designing inclusive truth-telling processes that enable a diversity of perspectives to be shared.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2022
Publisher: Lexington Books

The removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families in Australia gained national attention in 1997 with the Bringing Them Home Report, but the voices of Indigenous parents were largely missing from the report. The Inquiry attributed their lack of testimony to the impact of trauma and the silencing impact of parents' overwhelming sense of guilt and despair. A submission by Link-Up NSW commented on Aboriginal mothers being "unwilling and unable to speak about the immense pain, grief, and anguish that losing their children had caused them." This book explores what happened to Aboriginal mothers who had children removed and why they have overwhelmingly remained silent about their experiences. It identifies the structural barriers to Aboriginal mothering in the Stolen Generations era and examines how contemporary laws, policies, and practices increased the likelihood of Aboriginal child removal. The author argues that negative perceptions of Aboriginal mothering underpinned removal processes, with tragic consequences. This book makes an important contribution to understanding the history of the Stolen Generations and highlights the importance of designing inclusive truth-telling processes that enable a diversity of perspectives to be shared.

Weight: 308g
Dimension: 230 x 153 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781793618641