Letter to the Editor 31/7/00
The healthy, white newborn stolen generation
The recent contention that "no other newborn Australian has experienced such discrimatory assimilation policy"(the Advertiser, 31/7/00) is beyond belief. I can think of no worse discriminatory practice or human trauma than having my baby taken at birth because I was unmarried. Unbeknownst to me, my baby had been allocated to strangers on a list, three months before his birth! Add to that, the fact that I was terrified, shocked, powerless, drugged, mutilated and kept in total ignorance of my and my babies human and legal rights. By the time I had realised I was a mother, my son was gone.
At last, The NSW Inquiry into Adoption Practices has heard the truth from these mothers and their adult children, finally having a voice for the many thousands still too traumatised to speak. These mothers were not allowed to even see or touch their babies at birth, others were able to see their babies just once, but only after the consent had been extracted from the mother. If that is not another stolen generation, I would like to know what is.
The details of how non-aboriginal adoption has been conducted in this country have long been hidden, as thousands of young, drugged and traumatised mothers were physically and psychologically abused with the intention of removing their newborns during the birth process for the purposes of adoption. These practices have been confirmed by expert evidence to the Inquiry, as not only wrongful, but the cause of immense ongoing trauma to both mothers and babies separated at birth.
Those wishing to educate themselves in the truth should visit the NSW Standing Committee on Social Issues website for access to the First and Second Interim Reports of the 2 year Inquiry.
K. Bell
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