File spoon-archives/marxism-feminism.archive/marxism-feminism_1997/marxism-feminism.9705, message 46


Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 22:20:43 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: M-FEM: Unglorified Motherhood/Race and Reproduction


Earlier, Kylie wrote of the staying power of the "glory of motherhood"
discourse. It is true that in many ways motherhood has been sacralized in a
way that made the lives of women who do not choose it difficult.

But on the other hand, motherhood of women who belong to subordinated races
was never glorified; it was either ignored or actively suppressed. The
practice of taking away babies from aboriginal mothers in Austraria (which
lasted until the 60s) is one of the examples of the latter. (The forwarded
message attached below discusses the present-day repercussions of this
practice.)

Also, poor working-class women of all races have always had to face the
scrutiny of disapproving social workers who suspected that they were
"unfit" mothers unless proven otherwise.

In light of this history, to value motherhood, even to glorify it,
depending on the context in which it is done, may be an act of defiance
rather than a sign of conformism. Even when it *is* an act of defiance,
however, I think it always comes with a certain price. Nevertheless, I
think it is impossible to link up with poor women, especially poor women of
color, without us keeping this context in mind.

Yoshie

***********************************************

FORWARDED MESSAGE
=====================
>Sender: The African Global Experience <AGE-L-AT-UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
>From: Civil_Rights_World_Watch-AT-JUNO.COM
>Subject:      Whitewashing "BLACKNESS"/Human Rights Down Under The USA

>Black boys and girls of Australia, held as sex slaves
>
>__________________________________________________________________________
>
>         C I V I L   R I G H T S   W O R L D   W A T C H
>__________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>Australia, Marching to the Drumroll of Uncle Sam
>
>
>Recently, on radio and TV news journals, there have been stories about the
>historical abuse of the worse kind suffered by Aborigines in Australia.
>
>In some programs, adult Aborigines told the story of how they were literally
>**stolen** from their families at an early age -- like nearly half of the
>Aboriginal children -- and how they were put in "Christian" foster homes of
>various descriptions, where they were fondled and sexually abused repeatedly
>by white Australians.  This was the experience of many of the Aboriginal
>children held captive.
>
>The narrators tearfully described how they went through (are still going
>through) long bouts of suicidal depression and drug abuse, as they re-live,
>and are haunted by, the nightmares of their youth.
>
>Such a draconian social policy -- and on SUCH a level, affecting virtually
>ALL Aboriginal communities and ALL Aboriginal people -- one might easily
>associate with Hitler!  Indeed, Adolf could have taken lessons from the
>Australian example, from this "Christian agenda."
>
>All this in the name of wanting to breed out the "blackness" in the
>Aborigines...and save their souls.
>
>Suggesting the above as the operating motives, clearly whitewashes the
>reality of what was unmitigated slavery and genocide.
>
>So many parallels abound all over the globe and throughout modern history...
>Australia is certainly not alone in deed or in degree.  The USA's presidency
>of this dubious club remains firmly uncontested.
>
>Cecil R. Washington, Jr. [Ed.]
>Civil Rights World Watch
>
>
>=========================================================================>
>
>AUSTRALIA:  A   S t o l e n   G e n e r a t i o n   C r i e s   O u t
>
>
>By Michael Perry
>
>
>SYDNEY, May 20 - Haunting voices of elderly Aborigines tell of babies being
>snatched from their mother's breast by police on horseback in Australia's
>outback.
>
>Black and white film shows rows of Aboriginal children with empty faces,
>dressed in striped uniforms reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps, and
>others bent over sweeping the dirt with their bare hands.
>
>The Australian Archives exhibition travelling the country titled ``Between
>Two Worlds'' reveals a dark chapter in Australia's past when it attempted to
>breed out Aborigines.
>
>Tens of thousands of Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their
>parents under a government policy of assimilation from the 1880s to the
>1960s. Those children are called the ``Stolen Generation'' or ``People of
>the Bleaching.''
>
>``It clearly was attempted genocide,'' Sir Ronald Wilson, president of
>Australia's Human Rights Commission, told Reuters. ``It was believed that
>the Aboriginal people would die out.''
>
>STOLEN CHILDREN STILL SUFFERING
>
>Today, thousands of Aborigines face a life of family breakdowns, drug and
>alcohol abuse, violence and mental anguish they say is directly linked to
>being taken from their parents.
>
>Social Justice Commissioner Mick Dodson has just completed a year-long
>national inquiry into the Stolen Generation and he, too, said it was an
>attempt at genocide.
>
>Dodson's report is now before the government and is expected to formally
>charge Australia with attempted genocide and call for an apology and
>compensation, possibly millions of dollars.
>
>``Certainly an apology is a very good beginning in healing what is a real
>sore, a real wound in the Australian pysche,'' said Aboriginal leader
>Dodson. ``There's this huge scar that we have to perhaps re-open in order to
>heal.''
>
>Joy Williams is a Stolen Generation child. Her mother Dora was taken away
>when she was 10 hours old, Joy was taken at seven hours and Joy's daughter
>Julie Anne at 10 months. The only reason ever given was the colour of their
>skin.
>
>``How do you assist a nation of people who are grieving because this policy
>affected every Aboriginal community in Australia?'' demands Williams, one of
>hundreds of Aborigines suing Australia's national and state governments.
>
>``You have a nation in mourning and nothing is being done,'' Williams said
>angrily.
>
>ABORIGINAL CHILD SLAVES
>
>Many Aboriginal children were raised on government and church missions in
>remote, outback locations where life was tough and sexual abuse widespread.
>
>Wilson said Aboriginal children were used as virtual slaves and one in 10
>were sexually assaulted. ``The children would be stripped naked and tied to
>a post in the yard to be flogged for some minor
>misdemeanour,'' he said.
>
>``We have had mothers say to us, 'I'm a rotten mother. I don't know how to
>cuddle my baby', and then add, 'The only time I have ever been cuddled was
>when I was being raped'.''
>
>Australia's churches have apologised for their part in what they say was a
>Nazi-style policy of assimilation. They admit their role was was to break
>the Aboriginal spirit.
>
>``People believed that if we were going to make good Catholics or Christians
>out of the Aboriginal people we had to take them away from what we would
>have seen as pagan influences...,'' said Catholic Bishop Pat Power.
>
>Dodson said Aboriginal Australia is today dysfunctional as a result, with
>family breakdowns endemic and drug and aclohol abuse widespread. Aboriginal
>juveniles are 30 times more likely to be jailed and also suffer the
>country's highest suicide rate.
>
>``Every story is its own little tragedy, that amount to a national
>tragedy,'' Dodson said. ``They were told 'your parents are dead, your
>mother's a drunk, your mother's a whore, your mother's no good, she doesn't
>want you'.''
>
>SEARCHING FOR IDENTITY
>
>Archie Roach, a leading Aboriginal musician, is a Stolen Generation child
>who has searched all his life for his identity.
>
>``I don't remember much because I was only three, but I do remember running
>with my cousin down to the river and hiding in the bracken and under
>sticks,'' Roach said.
>
>As a child Roach was sent to several white foster homes -- one family forced
>him to eat raw potatoes and sleep in the grain shed. He only discovered he
>was Aboriginal at 11, and at 14 his lost sister wrote him a letter saying
>his mother had died.
>
>``I don't know what my mother looks like,'' Roach said.
>
>For years Roach lived on the streets searching for his (family).  [REUTER]
>
>__________________________________
>
>The above article is posted at:
>
>http://www.infoseek.com/Content?arn=a0216LBY313reulb-19970520&qt=aboriginees
>+aboriginal+children+Australia+separate+blackness&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak
>=allnews
>
>



   

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