Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton on Friday apologized for the role played by the state police in forcibly taking away Aboriginal children from their families and culture.
In the presence of the survivors of stolen generations at an event in Melbourne, Patton said the apology was long overdue for the severe harm caused to indigenous people for more than 100 years.
Acknowledging the resilience of the Aboriginal people, he vowed to do better toward mending the historical wounds and injustices.
“I am deeply sorry for the harm which this has caused and the harm which continues to be felt now,” ABC News quoted Patton. “While we cannot change history, we can accept the harsh truth of it and learn from it, so these harms are never repeated.”
From 1864 until 1992, the Victoria police were among the agencies entitled to remove “neglected children.”
Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, who were removed under assimilation laws adopted by Australia. The children were given away to institutions, foster homes or adopted by non-indigenous families. The assimilation practice, involving federal and state government agencies and church missions, was followed under the claim that it would improve the lives of Aboriginal people by assimilating them into white society.
Patton said since proper records were not maintained, the exact number of children who were separated by the Victorian police was not available. The police often rebuffed requests from people who wanted to trace their family members, The Guardian reported. The children after they were separated were treated as if they had a “criminal record that cast a shadow over their character throughout their lives,” he added.
“I’m sorry that this so often further deepened the trauma, rather than providing healing or connection,” Patton said.
The police chief’s apology was part of the commitments made by the Victoria police at the state’s truth-telling inquiry, the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which was launched in 2022.
At the commission, the state police committed to undertake 79 actions along with bringing down the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system, hire more First Nations people and implement all the recommendations related to the police from the 1991 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.
