Women and Constructing Re-membering: Identity Formation in the Stolen Generations Stephanie Gilbert AssocDipCommWelf, BSW(Hons), GradCertEd(Tertiary Teaching)(JCUNQ), MA (Women’s Studies)(Deakin) Thesis submitted to The Faculty of Education and Arts The University of Newcastle in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2012 Statement of Originality This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being made available for loan and photocopying subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. ______________________________ (Stephanie Gilbert) 2 Acknowledgements The first acknowledgement and heartfelt thanks must go to all those who contributed their life stories to this thesis. Whether mentioned specifically within this thesis or not, they have all played an absolutely crucial role to the development of the theory created, the evidence provided and my own development. I have cried a river of tears for everyone through this process and at times thought my heart would shatter witnessing what I had to for this story to be told. Thankfully, I have been walked beside, held up, carried and loved by so many through this process as I processed my life, my pain, my suffering and my triumph. Thanks must also go to all my supervisors who took on helping guide a deeply personal and complex topic. Your every struggle, action and thought was appreciated and is celebrated. Finally, thanks go to my families. As reflected in what comes in this thesis, what I mean by family is difficult, painful and far more complex than anyone should have to deal with. Everyone in my families help make me who I am: my father’s ‘Brown Skin Baby’.1 To my love, thank you. You raise me up ... 1 Thanks to Uncle Bob Randall for his immensely moving song that helps bind my father and I. 3 Contents Statement of Originality 2 Acknowledgements 3 Contents 4 Abstract 8 List of Figures and Tables 9 List of Abbreviations 9 PART ONE: POSITIONING THE STUDY—METHOD AND THEORY STOLEN BODIES/STOLEN VOICES CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 12 Background 12 Hypothesis/Argument Construction 13 Thesis Structure 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY: LISTENING WITH HEART 19 Situating the Author 19 Reciprocity 20 Respect 20 Equality 22 Responsibility 22 Survival and Protection 22 Reading for a Research Design 22 Commencing the Research 29 The Bringing Them Home Collection 29 Reviewing the Library Material 30 Interviews 31 Recruiting Subjects 31 Where Were the Interviews Conducted? 33 Contact Management and Starting 33 Support of Interviewer 34 Safety Considerations 34 Strategies For the Face-to-face Interviews 34 After the Interview 36 Reviewing the Interviews 36 Writing 39 4 How to Read or Experience These Texts 39 CHAPTER 3: SETTING THE SCENE: CONTROL, STRUGGLE AND RESISTANCE 44 Forces from within 45 The New Push against Child Removals 48 Pressures from outside the Aboriginal Community 51 The Inquiry 56 The Bringing Them Home Report 58 Inquiry Submissions and Evidence 60 Conclusion 61 CHAPTER 4: SETTING THE SCENE: THEORY 62 Studies of Child Removals 62 The Importance of Gender in the Analysis of the Stolen Generations 64 After the Bringing Them Home Report 72 Aboriginal Women’s Theorising on Themselves 76 Conclusion 82 CHAPTER 5: STOLEN BODIES/SEVERED CONNECTEDNESS 84 Introduction 84 Who are the Stolen in Our Country? 84 How We, the ‘Stolen’, are Portrayed 87 Exploring the Experiences of the ‘Stolen’ 89 The Physical Removal oF Aboriginal Bodies 90 The Impacts upon the Minds or Psyche oF the Removed 96 Those LeFt Behind 104 The Impacts oF the Australian Nation and Its Non-Aboriginal Peoples on the Implementation oF Assimilation 106 Conclusion 110 PART TWO: EXAMINING THE NARRATIVES LIVED LIVES, TOLD STORIES CHAPTER 6: THEMES IN THE BRINGING THEM HOME ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION 112 Introduction 112 5 Years in ‘Care’—Stolen Culture, Stolen Identities 113 After ‘Care’/Adult Life 119 Cultural Dysphoria: Loss of Knowledge/Culture/language 121 Dawning Awareness oF Reasons For Removal 122 Family Identity 124 Conclusion 128 CHAPTER 7: FOCUS INTERVIEW A: AS IF THERE WAS A CHOICE AVAILABLE TO ME WHEN I HAD WAITED ALL THESE YEARS TO KNOW WHO I WAS 130 Introduction 130 Lived Life (See Table 1) 130 0–18 years 130 Eighteen years old to the present day 131 Told Story 133 Reading For Relationships 133 Themes in Sherry’s Narrative 135 Describing Sherry’s Voice 147 Placing Sherry and Her Family within Wider Cultural Contexts and Social Structures 148 Living with Multiple Families and Relationships 148 Emotional Implications 149 Conclusion 150 CHAPTER 8: FOCUS INTERVIEW B: MY SISTER IS EVERYTHING 152 Introduction 152 Lived Life 152 0–18 years 152 Eighteen Years Old to the Present Day 154 Told Story 155 A Working LiFe 155 Reading for Relationships 157 Family Relations 157 Relationship with Family oF Origin 159 Themes in Beryl’s Narrative 168 Filling in the Memory Gaps 168 Identity 169 Recognising the Pain 171 Losing Faith in Father 172 Living with Multiple Families and Relationships 173 Placing Beryl and Her Family Within the Wider Cultural Contexts and Social Structures Examined in This Thesis 174 Place of Aborigines in Australian Society 174 Religion 174 6 Describing Beryl’s Voice 175 Conclusion 177 PART THREE: REFLECTING ON THE CONSTRUCTIONS OF STOLEN IDENTITIES CHAPTER 9: PULLING THE THREADS OF STOLEN LIVES TOGETHER—LEARNING FROM THE NARRATIVES 179 CHAPTER 10: HOW TO CONSTRUCT IDENTITY NOW 186 Introduction 186 My Journey 186 Speaking from the within the Stolen Body: Body and Cultural Dysphoria 191 The ‘Aboriginal’ Voice 195 Developing Stolen Generations Identities 199 Conclusion 205 CHAPTER 11: CONCLUSION 206 APPENDIX 1 208 APPENDIX 2: INFORMATION AND CONSENT FORM 218 APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEWS READ FROM THE BRINGING THEM HOME COLLECTION 223 REFERENCES 226 1. Archives 226 2. OFFicial Papers and Publications 226 3. Books and Pamphlets 229 4. Articles, Chapters from Books and Published Papers 234 5. Newspapers And Magazines 246 6. Unpublished Papers and Papers Presented at ConFerences 247 7. Unpublished Theses 248 7 Abstract This thesis is the examination of stories of women taken from their families of origin as part of an assimilation process carried out in Australia. What is unique about the women’s stories in this thesis is the identification of a process of disturbance deliberately enacted upon them with the goal of shifting their identity away from what it would have been if they had been able to stay within their family of origin. It is the main premise in this thesis that there was a deliberate process of disturbing the body, minds or psyche as well as the lived culture of these women. Hence, through body, mind as well as cultural dysphoria, Stolen Generations are challenged to construct an identity. 8 List of Figures and Tables Table Title Page 1 Sample of Note Taking in the BTHOHC (Fictitious) 31 2 Sherry’s Lived Life Track 132-3 3 Beryl’s Lived Life Track 155 Figure Title Page 1 Conceptual map for positioning genesis of Stolen 85 identity in this thesis 2 Some Impacts of Removal 90 3 The physical removal of Aboriginal bodies 91 4 The Impacts upon the minds or psyche of the 97 removed 5 Those Left Behind 104 6 The Impossibilities of Assimilation 107 7 Learning From The Narratives 179 8 Moreton-Robinson’s ‘Aboriginal Woman’ 189 9 Constructing the Stolen Individual 199 List of Abbreviations AAL Australian Aborigines League (Victoria) AAPA Australian Aborigines Progressive Association AECG Aboriginal Education Consultative Group AICCAs Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agencies APA Aborigines Progressive Association (New South Wales) APL Aborigines Protection League (South Australia) BNIM Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method BTHOHC Bringing Them Home Oral History Collection CACR Committee for Aboriginal Citizen Rights DOCS Department of Community Services GINs General incident narratives HREOC Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission MLA Member of the Legislative Assembly NSW New South Wales 9 NLA National Library of Australia NT Northern Territory OPAL One People for Australia League PIAC Public Interest Advocacy Centre PIN Particular Incident Narrative SNAICC Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care SQUIN Single Question aimed at Inducing Narrative TAFE Technical and Further Education College Inquiry Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families WA Western Australia 10 PART ONE: POSITIONING THE STUDY—METHOD AND THEORY STOLEN BODIES/STOLEN VOICES 11 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Background This thesis is a story of journeys. It is also a story of people who were targeted for intervention through biological imperatives. This story, while based in Australia, is a story that draws comparison with other sites throughout the world. More specifically, this thesis explores the results of enforced programs of social policy in Australian states and territories that resulted in the removal of children from their Aboriginal families of origin. This story particularly focuses on the effects as articulated by the now grown up women. This thesis started as a journey the day I myself, was removed from my family. Over my life, I have been interested more particularly in the journeys of those, like myself, who were adopted or fostered into family homes spending predominantly most of their childhood with families. This thesis has taken a slighter wider focus though to also incorporate those who were institutionalised in both places specifically for Aboriginal children such as Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls in New South Wales (NSW) and general children’s institutions like Marsden Boys Home in Queensland (QLD).1 One of the major underpinning beliefs this thesis is based upon is that the lives examined within this thesis have been politicised.