In institutions and in foster care and adoptive families, the forcibly removed children's Aboriginality was typically either hidden and denied or denigrated. Their labour was often exploited. They were exposed to substandard living conditions and a poor and truncated education. They were vulnerable to brutality and abuse. Many experienced repeated sexual abuse.
The social environment for all Indigenous Australians and the physical environment for many remain unacceptable. It is pervaded by racial intolerance and a failure to deliver adequate or appropriate basic services from housing and infrastructure to education and hospital care. Ill-health, poverty and unemployment are worse than third world levels. The 1991 NSW Aboriginal Mental Health Report (Swan and Fagan 1991) identified the factors increasing the vulnerability of the Aboriginal community to mental ill-health.
* [I]nstitutional and public racism and discrimination
* the continuing lack of opportunities in education and employment
* poverty and its consequences including stress and environments of normative heavy drinking
* inter-cultural differences in norms and expectations
* problems associated with long family separations and the issues associated with family reunion
* poor physical environments
* high levels of chronic illness and high rates of premature death (Swan and Fagan 1991 page 12).
This makes it almost impossible to pinpoint family separations as the sole cause of some of the emotional issues by which Indigenous people are now troubled (Professor Ernest Hunter evidence 61, Michael Constable evidence 263). However, childhood removal is a very significant cause both in its distinctive horror and in its capacity to break down resilience and render its victims perpetually vulnerable. Evidence to the Inquiry establishes clearly that the childhood experience of forcible removal and institutionalisation or multiple fostering makes those people much more likely to suffer emotional distress than others in the Indigenous community.
The psychiatric report concerning one witness to the Inquiry illustrates the persistence of vulnerability.
She told me of her mother's death very shortly after she was born, and how when her father came to collect her from the hospital a few days later, she had already been removed as per the Indigenous Family Separation Policy. She was brought up in Colebrook Children's Home away from her father and siblings. She remembers him coming to visit her on occasions and being devastated when he had to leave. She also remembers being sexually abused by the wife of the Superintendent at Colebrook, on several occasions, giving rise to a distrust of so-called caregivers, especially females ... While she was still at school, she worked as a housekeeper for a local Minister and alleges that during this time, he regularly and deliberately exposed himself to her. Not having anyone to turn to, this was a confusing and frightening experience. Following leaving school, she was placed in domestic service with a lay minister also associated with the Children's Home. This man raped her but she did not feel able to tell anyone as she felt profoundly ashamed and frightened. She was fifteen years old at the time. After this she was placed at Resthaven Nursing Home, which she believes was a strategy to get rid of her.
Ms S developed problems with depression and alcohol abuse following the death of her father in 1971. Her difficulties were also compounded by her unhappy marital situation, which was characterised by her alcoholic husband's physical and sexual assault of her on a regular basis. [Diagnosed with manic-depressive disorder 1979. Hospitalised for the first time 1985.]
Unfortunately, the effects of ongoing alcohol and substance abuse contributed to frequent short-lived depressive episodes with suicidal ideation. Her substance abuse was the result of the difficulty she experienced coming to terms with the diagnosis of manic-depressive disorder, her significant family problems and the effects of a childhood where she was dislocated from her family of origin, thus leaving her vulnerable to the events which followed (document provided with confidential evidence 248, South Australia).
Many children experienced brutality and abuse in children's homes and foster placements. In the WA Aboriginal Legal Service sample of 483 people who had been forcibly removed, almost two-thirds (62.1%) reported having been physically abused (submission 127 page 50). Children were more likely to have been physically abused on missions (62.8% of those placed on missions) than in foster care (33.8%) or government institutions (30.7%) (submission 127 page 53).
Witnesses to the Inquiry were not specifically asked whether they had experienced physical abuse. Nevertheless, 28% reported that they had suffered physical brutality much more severe, in the Inquiry's estimation, than the typically severe punishments of the day.
Stories of sexual exploitation and abuse were common in evidence to the Inquiry. Nationally at least one in every six (17.5%) witnesses to the Inquiry reported such victimisation. A similar proportion (13.3%) reported sexual abuse to the WA Aboriginal Legal Service: 14.5% of those fostered and 10.9% of those placed on missions (submission 127 pages 51-53).
These vulnerable children had no-one to turn to for protection or comfort. They were rarely believed if they disclosed the abuse.
There are many well recognised psychological impacts of childhood sexual abuse (Finkelhor and Brown 1986). They include confusion about sexual identity and sexual norms, confusion of sex with love and aversion to sex or intimacy. When the child is blamed or is not believed, others can be added including guilt, shame, lowered self-esteem and a sense of being different from others. Wolfe (1990) concluded that the impacts amount to a variant of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. They reported effects including sleep disturbance, irritability and concentration difficulties (associated with hyper arousal), fears, anxiety, depression and guilt (page 216). Repeated victimisation compounds these effects.
People subjected to prolonged, repeated trauma develop an insidious progressive form of post-traumatic stress disorder that invades and erodes the personality. While the victim of a single acute trauma may feel after the event that she is `not herself,' the victim of chronic trauma may feel herself to be changed irrevocably, or she may lose the sense that she has any self at all (Hermann 1992 page 86).
Post-trauma effects can be mitigated for children with a strong self-concept and strong social supports. Few of the witnesses to the Inquiry who reported sexual abuse in childhood were so fortunate. The common psychological impacts have often manifested in isolation, drug or alcohol abuse, criminal involvement, self-mutilation and/or suicide.
There is no doubt that children who have been traumatised become a lot more anxious and fearful of the world and one of the impacts is that they don't explore the world as much. Secondly, a certain amount of abuse over time certainly causes a phenomenon of what we call emotional numbing where, because of the lack of trust in the outside world, children learn to blunt their emotions and in that way restrict their spontaneity and responsiveness. That can become an ingrained pattern that becomes lifelong really and certainly when they then become parents it becomes far more difficult for them to be spontaneous and open and trusting and loving in terms of their own emotional availability and responsiveness to their children (Dr Nick Kowalenko evidence 740).
Oliver (1993, reported by Raphael et al 1996 on page 13) `found that approximately one-third of child victims of abuse grow up to have significant difficulties parenting, or become abusive of their own children. One-third do not have these outcomes but the other third remain vulnerable, and, in the face of social stress there was an increased likelihood of them becoming abusive'.
Separation and institutionalisation can amount to traumas. Almost invariably they were traumatically carried out with force, lies, regimentation and an absence of comfort and affection. All too often they also involved brutality and abuse. Trauma compounded trauma. No counselling was ever provided. These traumas `have impacted particularly in creating high levels of depression and complex PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]'. PTSD `has a lot of somatic symptoms, impact on personality, on impulse control, and often leads to ongoing patterns of abuse' (Professor Beverley Raphael evidence 658).
A representative from the Western Australian Health Department recognised the impacts of the removal policies.
The negative health impact of past laws and practices have resulted in a range of mental health problems associated with the trauma, including grief and severe depression and self-damaging behaviour, including self-mutilation, alcohol and substance abuse and suicide (Marion Kickett evidence).
Trauma experienced in childhood becomes embedded in the personality and physical development of the child. Its effects, while diverse, may properly be described as `chronic'. These children are more likely to `choose' trauma-prone living situations in adulthood and are particularly vulnerable to the ill-effects of later stressors.
Dr Jane McKendrick and her colleagues in Victoria in the mid-1980s surveyed an Aboriginal general medical practice population by interviewing participants twice over a three-year period. One-third of the participants had been separated from their Aboriginal families and communities during childhood. Most of the separations had occurred before the child had reached 10 years of age and lasted until adulthood. Most of the separations were believed by the children to have been on `welfare' grounds (and not because parents were deceased or had voluntarily relinquished them).
These separated people were twice as likely to suffer psychological distress in adulthood than the remainder of the participants: 90% of participants who had been separated were psychologically distressed for most of the three years of the study, compared with 45% of the participants who had been brought up within their Aboriginal families. Depression accounted for nearly 90% of diagnoses. Factors offering protection against the development of depression and other distress included a strong Aboriginal identity, frequent contact with ones Aboriginal extended family and knowledge of Aboriginal culture.
Overall, two-thirds of the Aboriginal participants were found to be significantly psychologically distressed throughout the three years of the study. The contrast with non-Indigenous general practice populations is telling. `The rates of psychological distress in non Aboriginal general practice samples vary from 15 to 30 per cent.
However, in contrast to the situation in this Aboriginal group, most of these disorders amongst the general population are short lived, resolving within one to six months' (Dr Jane McKendrick, Victorian Aboriginal Mental Health Network, submission 310 pages 19 and 23).
I still to this day go through stages of depression. Not that I've ever taken anything for it - except alcohol. I didn't drink for a long time. But when I drink a lot it comes back to me. I end up kind of cracking up.
Confidential evidence 529, New South Wales: woman fostered as a baby in the 1970s.
The Inquiry was told of two South Australian studies which also linked psychiatric disorders and the removal policies.
Clayer and Dwakaran-Brown (1991) conducted a study of mental and behavioural problems in an urban Aboriginal population (n=530). They reported a 35% rate of psychiatric disorder. 31% of the total population studied had been separated from their parents by the age of 14 years. Absence of a father and traditional teachings in the first fourteen years correlated significantly with suicide attempts which were at much higher rates than the general population. Similar problem levels were found in Radford et al's (1991) study in Adelaide with many of those showing high levels of suicidal behaviours having been separated from families and brought up in institutions (Professor Beverley Raphael submission 658).
The Sydney Aboriginal Mental Health Unit advised the Inquiry of its experience with patients presenting with emotional distress.
This tragic experience, across several generations, has resulted in incalculable trauma, depression and major mental health problems for Aboriginal people. Careful history taking during the assessment of most individuals [ie clients] and families identifies separation by one means or another - initially the systematic forced removal of children and now the continuing removal by Community Services or the magistracy for detention of children ... This process has been tantamount to a continuing cultural and spiritual genocide both as an individual and a community experience and we believe that it has been the single most significant factor in emotional and mental health problems which in turn have impacted on physical health (submission 650 pages 4-5).
The Unit identified the risk of `major depressive disorder and use of alcohol and other drugs to ease feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, marginalisation, discrimination and dispossession, leading to breakdown in relationships, domestic violence and abuse' among its clients. The forcible removal policies are seen as the principal cause of these `presenting issues' (submission 650).
I now understand why I find it so very very hard to leave my home, to find a job, to be a part of what is out there. I have panic attacks when I have to go anywhere I don't know well and feel safe. Fear consumes me at times and I have to plan my life carefully so that I can lead as `normal' an existence as possible. I blame welfare for this. What I needed to do was to be with my family and my mother, but that opportunity was denied me.
Confidential submission 483, South Australia: woman fostered at 18 months in the 1960s.
One consequence of chronic depression is very poor physical health. Dr Ian Anderson and Professor Beverley Raphael both expanded on this point in evidence.
This also had a multi-dimensional impact in terms of people's health ... including the development and progress towards diseases such as heart disease, hypertension and so on ... it has been argued for some time that there are many social factors implicated in the development of what we call physical illnesses such as heart disease. However, the association between what is often termed social stressors and the development of disease is difficult to prove using the traditional methods of health sciences or epidemiology ... However, there are some health analyses which are very suggestive on, for example, an association between things like how connected you are - what sort of social support you have, how socially connected you are to your own community - and the development of disease processes like high blood pressure [which is] closely linked to heart disease and diabetes (Dr Ian Anderson evidence 261).
Holocaust studies suggested it [trauma] could impact on the functioning of the brain as well as the immune system. There have been recent studies of trauma such as Vietnam veterans' combat experience without damage [ie without physical injury being incurred] showing changes in brain structure and function as a result of the traumatic experience (Professor Beverley Raphael evidence 658).
Victims of traumatic separation are less likely to follow a treatment regime properly.
It's very hard to get people with these sort of depression and anxieties and insecurities and uncertainties about themselves to actually care about being healthy (Michael Constable evidence 263). The result of that sort of [separation] process was one which fragmented the identity of many people in quite a profound way. That has an impact on people's sense of who they are, how you fit into the world and where you're going - what in technical terms people call your sense of coherence. It also destroyed the sense of worth of being Aboriginal and fragmented people's sense of identity, and this is something which happened not just to the people who were taken away but it has also happened to the families who were left behind. Now this whole process in a psychological sense fundamentally impacts on how people look after themselves ... It makes it even more difficult for people who do have physical illness to take complicated treatments over a long period of time ... Individuals may not have the self-esteem or self-worth to actually come in for care in the first instance or for follow-up management (Dr Ian Anderson evidence 261).
Alcohol is the `treatment of choice' for many with acute depression.
If they hadn't used alcohol they probably would have committed suicide ... You can't be here to carry that sort of pain and depression. We're incapable of staying alive with that sort of feeling, and alcohol was a sort of first aid (Michael Constable evidence 263).
The sorts of things that can happen with people who are having flashbacks of traumatic events is that it can cause such psychic pain that the person might start to drink heavily or use other psycho-active substances heavily (Dr Jane McKendrick evidence 310).
Judith Hermann has pointed to evidence that a chemical reaction occurs in the brain at the time of a traumatic event. This helps the victim to survive the event psychologically intact by permitting a degree of dissociation from it. However `traumatized people who cannot spontaneously dissociate may attempt to produce similar numbing effects by using alcohol or narcotics'. Thus `traumatized people run a high risk of compounding their difficulties by developing dependence on alcohol or other drugs' (1992 page 44).
I drank a lot when I was younger, y'know. I still do I guess. I don't drink as much now, but I still do and there's never been anything ... any pleasure in it. I guess I don't know whether it's a hangover from seeing the old man do it ... whether it's because of that or whether it's because of other issues which I just wouldn't, couldn't confront ... I'd have nights where I'd sit down and think about things. There was no answers.
Confidential evidence 168, South Australia: man removed to a boys' home at 6 years in the 1950s.
I tried to look forward. As I say, every time I'd look back as in trying to find out exactly who I was and what my history was, I'd have real bad attacks of Vic. Bitter.
Confidential evidence 156, Victoria: man whose mother had also been removed as a child; he was taken from her at a very young age when she suffered a nervous breakdown and was raised in a children's home.
The following table summarises the findings of the WA Aboriginal Legal Service survey of 483 clients who had been forcibly removed. Caution should be used in interpreting these findings because of the high proportion of participants who did not respond to these questions.
| Effects |
Yes |
No |
No answer |
Total |
||||
| Physical ill-health |
113 |
21.4% |
177 |
36.6% |
193 |
40.0% |
483 |
100% |
| Mental problems |
68 |
14.1% |
234 |
48.4% |
181 |
37.5% |
483 |
100% |
| Substance abuse |
79 |
16.4% |
216 |
44.7% |
188 |
38.9% |
483 |
100% |
| Imprisonment |
122 |
25.3% |
193 |
40.0% |
168 |
34.7% |
483 |
100% |
Source: Aboriginal Legal Service of WA submission 127 pages 54-55.
Institutionalised Indigenous children faced a hazard over and above that experienced by institutionalised non-Indigenous children. This was the continual denigration of their own Aboriginality and that of their families.
I didn't know any Aboriginal people at all - none at all. I was placed in a white family and I was just - I was white. I never knew, I never accepted myself to being a black person until - I don't know - I don't know if you ever really do accept yourself as being ... How can you be proud of being Aboriginal after all the humiliation and the anger and the hatred you have? It's unbelievable how much you can hold inside.
Confidential evidence 152, Victoria.
The assimilation policy seemed to demand that the children reject their families. The tactics used to ensure this ranged from continual denigration of Aboriginal people and values to lies about the attitudes of families to the children themselves. Many children were told their parents were dead. Dr Peter Read told the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody that,
The most profound effect of institutionalization, which overrides other well-documented effects of institutionalization generally, was the persistent attempt by authorities to force the boys to identify as European ... One was a positive reinforcement of the European model, the other was a negative portrayal of Aboriginality combined with a withholding from the boys of any particular knowledge of their immediate family or of Aborigines generally (quoted in National Report Volume 2 page 76).
The complete separation of the children from any connection, communication or knowledge about their Indigenous heritage has had profound effects on their experience of Aboriginality and their participation in the Aboriginal community as adults.
| In the hard copy version of this report there is a reproduction
of the following item:
Aboriginal elder showing youth tree carvings, Port Macquarie area, NSW, 1905 Courtesy Bicentennial Copying Project, State Library of New South Wales.
|
It was forbidden for us to talk in our own language. If we had been able we would have retained it ... we weren't allowed to talk about anything that belonged to our tribal life.
Pring 1990 page 18 quoting Muriel Olsson, removed to Colebook, South Australia, at the age of 5.