Genocide
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Genocide is defined in Art 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, particularly the intention to destroy a racial group by "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part".
The Bringing Them Home Report of 1997 likened the removal of children during
the Stolen Generations to genocide, stating that the entire community loses "its chance to perpetuate itself in that child". Then Prime Minister John Howard rejected these claims.
Regarding the current Intervention in the Northern Territory, concerns were first reported by the ABC while the 2007 NTNER legislation was still in draft form that the denial of Aboriginal culture was "in some ways genocide". The main basis for genocide claim is the high levels of Indigenous children that are being removed from their homes and placed into care due to child protection programs. In 1997, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children constituted 20% of children in out-of-home care in Australia, however by 2016 the figure has increased to 36%. This effectively means that Indigenous children are ten times more likely to be removed from their family home than non-Indigenous children.
The 1983 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle endeavoured to enhance and preserve the sense of identity and community experienced by Indigenous children. This was to be achieved by the decreased use of out-of-home care and the reuniting of children with their families. The promotion of Indigenous participation and autonomy surrounding child protection interventions and decision-making and enabling children to be placed in culturally-competent environments where out-of-home care was necessary, proved to be the main objectives of the principle. However, the recent and significant increase (16%) in the out-of-home care of Indigenous children can be interpreted to mean that the strategy is failing. In 2016, a mere 66% of Indigenous children within the child protection system were placed in homes belonging to members of the child’s family or community. The remaining 34% were subject to living conditions that did not adequately uphold the capacity for children to engage in cultural experiences. The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children removed from their family home is predicted to triple by 2023.
Some have likened this policy of removal to a “new stolen generation”. Damien Short’s article ‘Australia: a continuing genocide?’ contended that current government policies regarding Indigenous people constitute a “sinister attack on indigenous land rights, autonomy and cultural integrity that has led some indigenous peoples to describe their present day lived experiences as tantamount to genocide.”
In 2017, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples acknowledged that the intergenerational trauma surrounding the forcible removal of children, persisting cycle of poverty and systematic disempowerment has had a direct link to high rates of mental illness and substance abuse. Nationwide, these consequences continue to dilute Indigenous personhood and identity. The Special Rapporteur expressly supported the reparations paid to victims of the Stolen Generation in Tasmania, as well as the current reparations schemes in place in New South Wales and South Australia. They further noted the need for the establishment of a comprehensive national mechanism for reparations to account for the severing of cultural ties and the dilution of social arrangements. The report also explored the intergenerational cycle of disadvantage in terms of Indigenous parents who had previously been forcibly removed from their family home being more at risk of having their own children being put in out-of-home care.
The increasing calls to change the date of Australia Day have gained widespread attention. Support for this movement stems from the way in which the change of date would combat the cultural genocide and erasure of identity in which many believe the date of the public holiday represents. Currently celebrated on the 26th of January, Australia Day marks the day in which Captain Arthur Phillip seized possession of Australian soil despite the fact that its Indigenous population had been inhabiting the land 60,000 years prior to colonisation. Ultimately, calls to change the date of Australia Day have gained momentum due to the day marking the commencement of an era of loss, dispossession and exclusion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.