Editing Stolen Generations (section)

==Public awareness and recognition==
Historian Professor [[Peter Read (historian)|Peter Read]], then at the [[Australian National University]], was the first to use the phrase "stolen generation". He published a magazine article on the topic with this title, based on his research. He expanded the article into a book, ''The Stolen Generations'' (1981).<ref name=read/> Widespread awareness of the Stolen Generations, and the practices that created them, grew in the late 1980s through the efforts of Aboriginal and white [[activism|activists]], artists, and [[:Category:Indigenous Australian musicians|musicians]] ([[Archie Roach]]'s "[[Took the Children Away]]" and [[Midnight Oil]]'s "[[The Dead Heart]]" being examples of the latter). The ''[[Mabo v Queensland (No 2)]]'' case (commonly known as the ''Mabo case'') attracted great media and public attention to itself and to all issues related to the government treatment of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia, and most notably the Stolen Generations.

In early 1995, [[Rob Riley (Aboriginal activist)|Rob Riley]], an activist with the [[Aboriginal Legal Service]], published ''Telling Our Story.'' It described the large-scale negative effects of past government policies that resulted in the removal of thousands of mixed-race Aboriginal children from their families and their being reared in a variety of conditions in missions, orphanages, reserves, and white foster homes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.als.org.au/Publications/ |title=Publications |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216184649/http://www.als.org.au/Publications/ |archive-date=16 February 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Australian [[Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission]]'s ''National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families'' commenced in May 1995, presided over by the Commission's president Sir [[Ronald Wilson]] and its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner [[Mick Dodson]]. During the ensuing 17 months, the Inquiry visited every state and Territory in Australia, heard testimony from 535 Aboriginal Australians, and received submissions of evidence from more than 600 more. In April 1997, the Commission released its official ''Bringing Them Home'' report.
[[File:Lord Mayor's National Sorry Day Celebration 2016 King George Square Brisbane P1440439.jpg|thumb|The Lord Mayor's [[National Sorry Day]] in Brisbane, May 26, 2016, honoring Aboriginal culture and commemorating mistreatment of Indigenous Australians]]
Between the commissioning of the National Inquiry and the release of the final report in 1997, the government of [[John Howard]] had replaced the [[Paul Keating]] government. At the [[Australian Reconciliation Convention]] in May 1997, Howard was quoted as saying: "Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/car/1997/3/speeches/opening/howard.htm |last=Howard |first=John |author-link=John Howard |date=27 May 1997 |title=Opening Ceremony Speeches: ... The Prime Minister, ''Australian Reconciliation Convention''}}</ref>

Following publication of the report, the parliament of the Northern Territory and the state parliaments of Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales passed formal [[Apology (act)|apologies]] to the Aboriginal people affected. On 26 May 1998, the first "[[National Sorry Day]]" was held; [[Reconciliation in Australia|reconciliation events]] such as the Walk for Reconciliation across [[Sydney Harbour Bridge]] and in other cities were held nationally, and attended by a total of more than one million people. As public pressure continued to increase on the government, Howard drafted a [[Motion of Reconciliation]] with Senator [[Aden Ridgeway]], expressing "deep and sincere regret over the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents", which was passed by the federal parliament in August 1999. Howard said that the Stolen Generation represented "the most blemished chapter in the history of this country".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/stories/s115691.htm |title=No stolen generation: Australian Govt |work=[[The 7.30 Report]] ([[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]]) |date=3 April 2000 |access-date=24 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160907130536/http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/stories/s115691.htm |archive-date=7 September 2016 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

Activists took the issue of the Stolen Generations to the [[United Nations Commission on Human Rights]]. At its hearing on this subject in July 2000, the Commission on Human Rights strongly criticised the Howard government for its handling of issues related to the Stolen Generations. The UN [[Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination]] concluded its discussion of Australia's 12th report on its actions<ref>Paragraphs 104–114 of report at [http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cerd/cerds56.htm#56th UNHCHR.ch] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703172827/http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cerd/cerds56.htm#56th |date=3 July 2009 }}</ref> by acknowledging "the measures taken to facilitate family reunion and to improve counselling and family support services for the victims", but expressed concern: 
<blockquote>that the [[Australian Government|Commonwealth Government]] does not support a formal national apology and that it considers inappropriate the provision of monetary compensation for those forcibly and unjustifiably separated from their families, on the grounds that such practices were sanctioned by law at the time and were intended to "assist the people whom they affected".</blockquote>The Committee recommended "that the State party consider the need to address appropriately the extraordinary harm inflicted by these racially discriminatory practices."<ref>Concluding Observations by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination : Australia. 19 April 2000. CERD/C/304/Add.101. (Concluding Observations/Comments) para 13. at [http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CERD.C.304.Add.101.En?Opendocument UNHCHR.ch]</ref>

Activists highlighted the Stolen Generations and related Aboriginal issues during the Sydney [[2000 Summer Olympics]]. They set up a large "Aboriginal Tent City" on the grounds of [[University of Sydney|Sydney University]] to bring attention to Aboriginal issues in general. [[Cathy Freeman]] is an Aboriginal athlete who was chosen to light the [[Olympic flame]] and won the [[Olympic medal|gold medal]] in the 400 metre sprint. In interviews, she said that her own grandmother was a victim of forced removal. The internationally successful rock group [[Midnight Oil]] attracted worldwide media interest by performing at the [[2000 Summer Olympics closing ceremony|Olympic closing ceremony]] in black sweatsuits with the word "SORRY" emblazoned across them.<ref>{{cite news |first=Bernard |last=Zuel |author-link=Bernard Zuel |url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/03/1038712934982.html |title=The sun sets on Midnight Oil |newspaper=[[The Age]] |date=4 December 2002 |access-date=24 November 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021220192648/http://theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/03/1038712934982.html |archive-date=20 December 2002}}</ref>

In 2000, Australian journalist [[Phillip Knightley]] summed up the Stolen Generations in these terms:

<blockquote>This cannot be over-emphasized—the Australian government literally kidnapped these children from their parents as a matter of policy. White welfare officers, often supported by police, would descend on Aboriginal camps, round up all the children, separate the ones with light-coloured skin, bundle them into trucks and take them away. If their parents protested they were held at bay by police.<ref name="Knightley2001">{{cite book |last=Knightley |first=Phillip |author-link=Phillip Knightley |title=Australia: A Biography of a Nation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I72ZsVtpxcUC&pg=PA113 |year=2001 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0-09-977291-0 |page=113}}</ref></blockquote>

According to the archaeologist and writer [[Josephine Flood]], "The well-meaning but ill-conceived policy of forced assimilation of mixed-race Aborigines is now universally condemned for the trauma and loss of language and culture it brought to the stolen children and their families."{{sfn|Flood|2006|p=233}}