The Stolen Generation!

I took my girls to the Australian Botanic Garden today. We've visited many times before, but this day we decided to walk through the Woodland via a series of boardwalks named “A Journey of Healing and Reflection.” Little did I know, it would be the most memorable and eye-opening bushwalk of my life.

Along our path, we came across a  beautiful yet heart-wrenching monument of an Aboriginal family - a child with his father and  mother, crying. This was a tribute to the Aboriginal people, named the “Stolen Generations Memorial.”

 

 

 

 

One of the information boards caught my attention and shook me to my core. It recounted the tragic story of the Stolen Generations, explaining how 100,000 Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their parents to be assimilated into white society. These children were raised in institutions or foster homes, denied their Aboriginal identity.

 

 

Another board read, “When we went to mix in white society, we found we were not accepted because we were Aboriginal. When we mixed with other  Aboriginal people, we couldn’t identify with them either, because we had too many white ways in us.” This poignant message resonated deeply with me  and stayed with me for days.

 

 

I began to reflect on my own children. Aren’t they, too, ‘stolen’? The difference is, in our pursuit of a better life in this Duniya, we willingly handed them over to this society. Whenever we visit back home, my children struggle to connect with their families because they have adopted too many white ways. And here, in the land where they were born, they are seen as brown people. Each of us knows our own struggles—some compromising their culture, others their religion, in an attempt to blend in. But deep down, we know we can’t fully belong.

I find myself feeling guilty for allowing my generations to be stolen. Today, we can’t blame anyone else; we’ve done this to our children ourselves. We did it in pursuit of a better life, higher living standards, and material comforts.

We willingly allowed our kids to be “STOLEN.”

 

Reflections by 

Umm Sidiqah