Guilty of being Aboriginal

Sylvia Rowley - NITV

"Thousands of Stolen Generation children [in Australia], some just babies, have had their lives permanently affected after they were charged and given criminal records under state government policies that systematically deemed it a crime to be an Indigenous child in ‘need of protection,'" says this investigative report from NITV. The article tells the stories of Aboriginal children in Australia who were removed from their families by authorities and then given criminal records. "Research by Woor-Dungin volunteer Elizabeth Proctor, and by Law Professor Bronwyn Naylor from RMIT University, showed it was standard practice until 1989 for children to get a police record for being removed from their family," says the article.

"For Aboriginal stolen children and their families there was a double injustice, says Walsh. First, children were forcibly taken away without good reason, and, second, they were made to feel like criminals for it."