[Powderworks] Rabbit Proof Fence - Not Just an Aussie Story
Kate Parker Adams
kate@dnki.net
Thu, 20 Mar 2003 18:01:25 -0500
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Hey All,
With all the muck being slung around the issue, I thought I might point out
that Australia was not alone in its policy of removing and reeducating
native children.
Starting around 1879, Native American children were removed from
reservations and sent to distant boarding schools to be
"civilized". Around 1910, emphasis was placed on vocational curriculum, in
much the same fashion as training kids to be domestic servants. Such an
education was deemed to be practical and fitting of the capabilities of the
students - not to mention a great way to limit their potential for upward
socioeconomic mobility!
By the mid 1920's, such "vocational" educational policies were discredited
and fell into disfavor, and by 1933 decentralization of native education began.
Which makes the Rabbit-Proof Fence story all the more sad because Australia
was emulating an experiment and philosophy which was already considered to
be a dismal failure across the pond.
The second part of this story regards black market adoptions which led to
public officials and health professionals to steal young children away from
their parents and place them for adoption in distant places. Any family
with children who could be passed off as anglo and did not have the
economic means to make trouble was a target ... whites, hispanics,
light-skinned blacks, etc. Just had to be poor and white enough. This
practice continued into the 1960's.
My grandmother, who came from a large impoverished family, spoke of county
health officials who would show up when a parent fell ill and offer to
"take the little ones off their hands for a while" - more like
forever. They would not call in the doctor unless they new a child was
very very ill because they feared having children snatched if they had to
be "taken back into town". I once had a boyfriend who's mom was raised a
migrant Mexican farm worker. Same stories as Grandma. Public servants
could justify these kidnappings because they believed the families would be
better off with fewer kids and the kids would be better off with wealthier
parents - never mind the nice cash payments they received for the capture.
A movie about theft/adoption and reunion (as well as uranium mining issues)
that may ring true on both sides of the Pacific is "Return of Navajo Boy",
a synopsis of which can be found at www.navajoboy.com.
As usual, I recommend Jared Diamond's masterwork "Guns, Germs, and Steel"
to put it all into human historical perspective. Just too bad that a
bankrupt paradigm got a second chance to fail.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kate Parker Adams
Gradual Student
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
go Out Of Mind with me:
http://www.dnki.net/blog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beyond living and dreaming
there is something more important:
Waking up.
- Antonio Machado
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Hey All,<br>
<br>
With all the muck being slung around the issue, I thought I might point
out that Australia was not alone in its policy of removing and
reeducating native children.<br>
<br>
Starting around 1879, Native American children were removed from
reservations and sent to distant boarding schools to be
"civilized". Around 1910, emphasis was placed on
vocational curriculum, in much the same fashion as training kids to be
domestic servants. Such an education was deemed to be practical and
fitting of the capabilities of the students - not to mention a great way
to limit their potential for upward socioeconomic mobility!<br>
<br>
By the mid 1920's, such "vocational" educational policies were
discredited and fell into disfavor, and by 1933 decentralization of
native education began.<br>
<br>
Which makes the Rabbit-Proof Fence story all the more sad because
Australia was emulating an experiment and philosophy which was already
considered to be a dismal failure across the pond.<br>
<br>
The second part of this story regards black market adoptions which led to
public officials and health professionals to steal young children away
from their parents and place them for adoption in distant places.
Any family with children who could be passed off as anglo and did not
have the economic means to make trouble was a target ... whites,
hispanics, light-skinned blacks, etc. Just had to be poor and white
enough. This practice continued into the 1960's.<br>
<br>
My grandmother, who came from a large impoverished family, spoke of
county health officials who would show up when a parent fell ill and
offer to "take the little ones off their hands for a while" -
more like forever. They would not call in the doctor unless they
new a child was very very ill because they feared having children
snatched if they had to be "taken back into town". I once
had a boyfriend who's mom was raised a migrant Mexican farm worker.
Same stories as Grandma. Public servants could justify these
kidnappings because they believed the families would be better off with
fewer kids and the kids would be better off with wealthier parents -
never mind the nice cash payments they received for the capture.<br>
<br>
A movie about theft/adoption and reunion (as well as uranium mining
issues) that may ring true on both sides of the Pacific is "Return
of Navajo Boy", a synopsis of which can be found at
<a href="http://www.navajoboy.com/" eudora="autourl">www</a>.navajoboy.<a href="http://www.navajoboy.com/" eudora="autourl">com</a>.<br>
<br>
As usual, I recommend Jared Diamond's masterwork "Guns, Germs, and
Steel" to put it all into human historical perspective. Just
too bad that a bankrupt paradigm got a second chance to fail.<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font face="Book Antiqua, Bookman">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>
Kate Parker Adams<br>
Gradual Student<br>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>
go Out Of Mind with me:<br>
<a href="http://www.dnki.net/blog" eudora="autourl">http://www.</a>dnki<a href="http://www.dnki.net/blog" eudora="autourl">.net/blog</a><br>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>
Beyond living and dreaming<br>
there is something more important:<br>
Waking up.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>- Antonio
Machado<br>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</font></html>
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