‘Stolen Generations’ sue Australian government
AFP, SYDNEY
Hundreds of Aborigines in Australia who were forcibly removed from their families as children are suing the government in a class action launched yesterday that seeks compensation for the injustice.
Thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youths were taken from their homes and put in foster care with white families, under official assimilation policies that persisted into the 1970s.
Now known as the “Stolen Generations,” they were routinely punished for speaking their own languages or practicing their culture, and many never saw their parents or siblings again.
Waterfalls tumble over the surface of Uluru in Australia’s Northern Territory on March 21.