AUSTRALIA
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The web-site of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse states that “If you are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and have been sexually abused as a child in an Australian institution, the Royal Commission would like to hear from you.”
The Commission is undoubtedly taking its responsibilities to Australia’s indigenous peoples seriously, but is hamstrung by its terms of reference which limit it to abuse within an institutional setting. Sometimes, however, the distinction becomes a little blurred.
This blog has covered several Children’s Homes where members of the “Stolen Generations” were placed. This was a scheme whereby the government took indigenous children from their parents and gave them a “white” education, then sent them to work as domestics or farm labourers.
Similar things happened with indigenous peoples in the other Anglophone countries. For example, it has been reported that, in the native language spoken on Tachie Reserve in northern British Columbia, Canada, the word for “police” translates literally to “those who take us away.” The same attitude prevails in Australia.
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