Cirrus@Austlit

'In 1997 the 'Bringing Them Home' report opened a new chapter in Australian history by bringing to light one of the most systematic and cruel colonial practices based on assimilation ideology and policy : the so-called Stolen Generation. The report on the two year National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families estimates that from 1911 to the end of the 1970s the shocking nomber of 100,000 children were removed from their families with the aim of 'civilizing' them by integrating them forcibly into European culture. To confirm the magnitude of the phenomenon, the Aboriginal writer, Anita Heiss once said: 'I haven't met one Indigenous Australian who hasn't been affected by the policies of protection that lead to what we commonly refer to as the Stolen Generations'.
Since the report was released, this deep and complex question has been many times represented in literature as well as in cinematographic fiction...'(p. 45)