Stolen Generations
Questions for Stolen Generations (short film)
Write a summary based on the film Stolen Generations in approx. 150 words.
The extract from the documentary Stolen Generations which is written and directed by Darlene Johnson, had its premiere at February 1st, 2001 deals with the Stolen Generations. In the extract we hear different people’s and experts’ opinions and ideas about it.
In the beginning of the documentary, the white Aboriginal director tells how she once wished that her freckles would grow together, so that she would be a true Aborigine, but later on discovered that the society was actually attempting to outbreed the black in the Australian people.
Following, Professor Henry Reynolds tells how the general public were told that the stolen generations-project was to save the Aboriginals from extinction, but the reality was that the Aboriginals were not nearing extinct naturally, but because of the new diseases that the white people brought with them when they first got to Australia, and from gunshots inflicted when warmongering amongst the white and the Aboriginals for land or resources.
Another Professor, Marcia Langton, explains how the whole process of eugenics was done, and she explains how there were found breeding charts, explaining how to outbreed the black genome from the Aboriginals, until they were pure white.
In the mid-ending of the film, an old commercial plays, where an enthusiastic male voice promotes the adoption of young Aborigine girls into white families, and how this is the dream of any young Aboriginal girl.
At the end, we listen to a woman named Daisy telling how she experienced growing up, going to church and living in a Catholic orphanage as an Aboriginal.
Write a short analytical essay (at least 300 words) about the film. You must focus on the various modes of argumentation in the film.
You need to include the following words and phrases in you essay:
”background music”, ” sound effects”, ”archival footage”, ”eugenics”
The film revolves around different comments and clips about the Aboriginal children from the Stolen Generation. In these passages different modes of argumentation regarding the removal and outbreeding of Aboriginals are used.
In the late 1800s, the Australian government concluded that the Aboriginals needed help to be implemented in the white community, and as part of this, they began a project, today known as The Stolen Generations. This project was a eugenics project, as the government decided to breed the Aboriginal into white people, by removing the half-cast Aboriginal children and adopting them into white families, where they