Stolen or Saved?

More horrors emerge of life in the indigenous communities of the Northern Territories and Queensland with the court case resulting from the gang rape of a ten-year-old girl. It’s raising questions about the quality of public administration and about guilt.

The issue of whether the Australian Government should “say sorry” (and that it is the phrase used) for past treatment of the indigenous people and its consequences surfaced again in the recent election. One of the more recent policies for which an apology is sought is that of taking young aboriginal children from their homes to rehouse them with white families to encourage assimilation, creating the “stolen generation.”

The victim of the rape had been living with, by all accounts, caring and conscientious white foster parents but she was returned to her community where the rape occurred because social workers felt her situation was reminiscent of that of the stolen generation.

It seems guilt is not a good basis for taking decisions about other people’s lives. In this case, was the girl stolen or saved when she was fostered?