tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/apology-to-stolen-generations-48844/articlesApology to stolen generations – The Conversation2022-05-30T23:43:06Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1794802022-05-30T23:43:06Z2022-05-30T23:43:06ZThe way we talk about First Nations issues is striking, as our analysis of 82 million words of Australian news and opinion shows<p>“We say sorry”.</p>
<p>With just three words, then-prime minister Kevin Rudd said in 2008 what his predecessor wouldn’t say in parliament.</p>
<p>And so swelled the tears, emotion and silent pain of generations of Indigenous Australians who looked on from the gallery above, together with those glued to the broadcast all over the country.</p>
<p>Sometimes words really <em>do</em> matter.</p>
<p>But this significant step towards Indigenous reconciliation in Australia didn’t occur in a vacuum. Sometimes our discourse – our narratives of disadvantage, freedom, hope and fear – take on a momentum all their own.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/forgiveness-requires-more-than-just-an-apology-it-requires-action-177060">Forgiveness requires more than just an apology. It requires action</a>
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<h2>Can discourse be quantified?</h2>
<p>But demonstrating this momentum is hard.</p>
<p>The federal election is a case in point. Indigenous people <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/19/a-forgotten-story-of-the-election-is-first-nations-voices-are-often-excluded-from-the-conversation">tell us time</a> and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/voice-is-not-enough-what-happened-to-indigenous-issues-in-the-campaign-20220512-p5akkh.html">again</a> that First Nations concerns are often excluded from the public conversation. Major surveys suggest many voters <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-22/vote-compass-federal-election-issues-data-climate-change-economy/101002116">don’t seem to care</a>. </p>
<p>But what if we could quantify our discourse? What if we could apply statistical tools to chart trends, shifts and deflections in our national narrative around First Nations issues? What would we learn?</p>
<p>To answer these questions, we <a href="https://www.monash.edu/data-futures-institute/research/mdfi-flagship-projects/narratives-of-disadvantage">analysed</a> more than 82 million words of Australian public discourse. We obtained nearly 500,000 Australian news and opinion articles from 1986 to 2021 and filtered these down to 143,923 pieces speaking to broad issues of disadvantage in Australia. You can explore the data for yourself in our <a href="https://prfviz.org/">interactive dashboard</a>.</p>
<p>So what did we find?</p>
<h2>Discourse momentum and the Apology</h2>
<p>Our analysis revealed the relative attention our news and opinion pieces gave to First Nations peoples began to grow steadily from around 2005, with a huge peak (58%) in May 2007 coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/bringing-them-home-report-1997">Bringing them Home</a> report, which was about the Stolen Generations.</p>
<p>This peak was followed in February 2008 around the Apology itself. Remarkably, in that month, over two thirds (68%) of the news and opinion pieces that spoke to issues of disadvantage referred to First Nations peoples.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Line plot of the relative intensity of discourse related to First Nations since 2006 in Australia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">First Nations relative discourse intensity in Australian news and opinion peaked around the ‘Sorry’ event, and has been on the up and up around Australia Day in the last few years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Data: Factiva, Dow Jones, Visualisation: SoDa Laboratories, Monash Business School</span></span>
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<p>You can see from the chart above the Apology was almost like a pressure valve being released: the relative share of First Nations discourse dropped steadily thereafter, bottoming out in 2012. Just in time protests of 2012 around <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-16736054">Australia Day</a>, or what many First Nations people call Survival Day or Invasion Day.</p>
<p>But we can also see that in the last few years, First Nations discourse is once again on the move. Like arms being lifted to the air, First Nations discourse share in our public media is rising up.</p>
<p>Some peaks speak to external triggers: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/26/rio-tinto-blasts-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site-to-expand-iron-ore-mine">Rio Tinto’s destruction of the sacred, 46,000 year old Jukkan Caves</a> (May 2020), followed in quick succession by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/13/australia-protests-thousands-take-part-in-black-lives-matter-and-pro-refugee-events-amid-health-warnings">Australia’s own Black Lives Matter marches</a> (June 2020) both stand out.</p>
<p>But then there’s also a metronomic drum beat visible in our recent First Nations discourse.</p>
<p>The beat’s name? <em>January</em>.</p>
<h2>When we talk about First Nations – and when we really don’t</h2>
<p>To explore these trends further, and put some stronger statistical basis to our initial findings, we undertook a second form of analysis.</p>
<p>This time, instead of simply eye-balling line-plots, we used models that can uncover significant shifts in relative narrative intensity around certain key events in our national conversation.</p>
<p>Specifically, we fed in the exact date of federal budget night, and the federal election, dating back to 1986, and added to these dates the annual Australia Day/Invasion Day date across all years (January 26).</p>
<p>The models we used effectively ask, “did the relative share of First Nations discourse in Australian news and opinion change significantly during this week?”</p>
<p>To give some context, we also checked whether our discourse relating to a range of other groups shifted, and widened the search to the five weeks before and after these key events.</p>
<p>If anything, our work stands right behind Indigenous voices who’ve been saying the same thing for years.</p>
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<img alt="Bar chart panel plots of significant changes in relative discourse intensity by week, around the Federal Budget week, Federal Election and Australia Day." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">First Nations relative discourse intensity significantly drops around federal budget week (a) and federal elections (b), but peaks strongly around Australia Day (c).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Data: Factiva, Dow Jones, Visualisation: SoDa Laboratories, Monash Business School</span></span>
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<p>Over the last four decades, in the weeks leading up to the federal budget and the election, Australian news and opinion talks relatively, and statistically significantly, <em>less</em> about First Nations peoples than at other times of the year.</p>
<p>The magnitudes may seem small (-6 to -8%), but these should be read against the background of average First Nations discourse intensity of around 20%. </p>
<p>So the deflection to our normal discourse is, in fact, very large, comprising a 25-50% decline against the baseline.</p>
<p>In collaboration with Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University researchers have created an interactive visualisation system to showcase the data and analysis resulting from this research. The <a href="https://ialab.it.monash.edu/discourse/then/">visualisation</a> allows visitors to read data-driven stories about narratives of disadvantage discussed in the Australian media and parliament over recent decades.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>So what of the January bump?</p>
<p>Without question, the biggest single deflection we uncovered in our national discourse was towards First Nations during the week of Australia Day/Invasion Day each year: a huge 14% point climb during the week, and 4% in the week after.</p>
<p>But our results broadened the conversation. Not only do we discuss First Nations more at Australia Day/Invasion Day, we also significantly expand our share of discourse for migrants, refugees, and racial minorities.</p>
<p>January 26, it seems, is the closest Australia has to a national discourse of identity day. In effect, we collectively ask, “Who are we, and where have we come from?”</p>
<h2>A new day</h2>
<p>With a new government comes new opportunities.</p>
<p>With the Albanese Labor government committing to significant progress on the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-24/federal-election-anthony-albanese-indigenous-uluru-statement/101092816">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a>, coinciding with a new <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/09/australians-urged-to-back-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-in-history-is-calling-campaign">grassroots campaign</a> to build support for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, the indications are there that 2022 may see a significant shift in our national discourse.</p>
<p>We were surprised then, when we checked our most recent data.</p>
<p>First Nations discourse share in our national news and opinion flatlined during the weeks leading into the election campaign. </p>
<p>Granted, this was an improvement on the significant negative shift in First Nations discourse share the models had uncovered over the last decades.</p>
<p>However, for the week starting Monday May 23, two days after the election, something remarkable happened in our discourse. First Nations share doubled from 14% over the week of the election to over 31%.</p>
<p>What a difference a new week can bring.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thirteen-years-after-sorry-too-many-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-children-are-still-being-removed-from-their-homes-159360">Thirteen years after 'Sorry', too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are still being removed from their homes</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon D Angus receives funding from the Paul Ramsay Foundation, the Judith Neilson Institute, and the Defence, Science & Technology Group (Department of Defence). He is a co-founder of SoDa Laboratories, Monash Business School, and co-founder and the Director of the Monash IP Observatory, Monash University, and co-founder and director of KASPR Datahaus Pty Ltd. He serves on the board of City on a Hill Movement Pty Ltd. This story is part of The Conversation's Breaking the Cycle series, which is about escaping cycles of disadvantage. It is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Dwyer currently receives funding from Paul Ramsay Foundation, the Defence Science and Technology Group and Victorian Institute for Forensic Medicine. He is a Professor at Monash University and directs the Monash Data Visualisation and Immersive Analytics Lab within the Faculty of Information Technologies. A philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation supported the development of the visualisation system mentioned in the article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacinta Elston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our analysis revealed the relative attention our news and opinion pieces gave to First Nations peoples began to grow steadily from around 2005, with a huge peak in 2007.Simon D. Angus, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Monash UniversityJacinta Elston, Adjunct Professor, Monash UniversityTim Dwyer, Professor, Department of Human Centred Computing, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1755132022-01-28T04:34:23Z2022-01-28T04:34:23ZReunifying First Nations families: the only way to reduce the overrepresentation of children in out-of-home care<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442409/original/file-20220124-25-16l8gq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com.au/photos/aboriginal-family?assettype=image&license=rf&alloweduse=availableforalluses&agreements=pa%3A112117&family=creative&phrase=Aboriginal%20family&sort=best&page=2">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We are edging closer to another anniversary of Kevin Rudd’s National Apology to the Stolen Generations on February 13.</p>
<p>At the time of the National Apology in 2008, there were <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2018/community-services/child-protection/rogs-2018-partf-chapter16.pdf">9,070 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children</a> in out-of-home care in Australia. Today, that number has increased to approximately 18,900, with First Nations children representing <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/child-protection">more than 40%</a> of all children in out-of-home care.</p>
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<p>The Family Matters Report led by SNAICC <a href="https://www.familymatters.org.au/the-family-matters-report-2021/">estimated</a> that by 2030, the number of First Nations children in out-of-home care will more than double again without “profound and wholesale change to legislation, policy and practice”. </p>
<p>Australian governments are responding to this crisis at both the national and state levels. One of the <a href="https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/national-agreement">Closing the Gap</a> targets is to reduce the number of First Nations children in out-of-home care by 45% by 2031.</p>
<p>Most recently, <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/families-and-children/programs-services/protecting-australias-children">the national framework for supporting Australia’s children</a> prioritises addressing the overrepresentation of First Nations children in out-of-home care. </p>
<p>Likewise, all states and territories in Australia are also focusing on “permanency” outcomes to reduce the number of children living in out-of-home care.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-families-need-support-to-stay-together-before-we-create-another-stolen-generation-159131">First Nations families need support to stay together, before we create another Stolen Generation</a>
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<h2>Permanency policies</h2>
<p>Permanency refers to recent changes in child protection legislation, policies and casework practice aimed at providing all children in care with a permanent, safe and stable home throughout their childhoods. </p>
<p>Permanency policies appear to be motivated by the best interests of children, but moving Aboriginal children to permanent care orders has a range of benefits for the state. Not only does it appear progress is being made towards reducing overrepresentation in out-of-home care, it also absolves child protection departments of any further financial, practical or moral responsibility to these children or their families.</p>
<p>Of significant concern is these permanency policies do not necessarily mean these children will return to their families. Rather, it means many will move out of the care system through guardianship or adoption. </p>
<p>Under permanency policies, parents must prove within two years of their child’s removal they can address the child protection department’s safety concerns for their child, otherwise these other options <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/c3b0e267-bd63-4b91-9ea6-9fa4d14c688c/aihw-cws-78.pdf.aspx?inline=true">will be pursued</a>. </p>
<p>Aboriginal community-controlled organisations and advocates strongly oppose permanent care orders that result in the adoption of First Nations children or their guardianship by non-Aboriginal carers. They also argue this two-year timeframe is unrealistic for parents struggling to navigate a range of interpersonal, social and bureaucratic systems to meet the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Social_Policy_and_Legal_Affairs/Localadoption/Submissions">department’s requirements</a> to have their children returned.</p>
<p>Child reunification (also called restoration) is the process of returning children to their parent or caregiver from out-of-home care following a statutory removal. Across all states and territories in Australia, reunification is the <a href="https://www.supportingcarers.snaicc.org.au/rights-of-the-child/reunification/">preferred policy pathway</a> for children exiting out-of-home care. </p>
<p>However, this is not reflected in child protection statistics, which show the number of exits to guardianship orders <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/c3b0e267-bd63-4b91-9ea6-9fa4d14c688c/aihw-cws-78.pdf.aspx?inline=true">increasing</a> from 18,919 children in 2017 to 21,523 in 2020.</p>
<p>In addition, of the 10,612 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children for whom restoration was a possibility in 2019-20, <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/c3b0e267-bd63-4b91-9ea6-9fa4d14c688c/aihw-cws-78.pdf.aspx?inline=true">only 14.8% were returned home</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thirteen-years-after-sorry-too-many-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-children-are-still-being-removed-from-their-homes-159360">Thirteen years after 'Sorry', too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are still being removed from their homes</a>
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<h2>First Nations families are set up to fail</h2>
<p>Current approaches to child reunification come from a perspective where parents are blamed for the problems leading to a child’s removal and preventing their return home. Their perceived failings are considered instead of the external factors that prevent children from returning to their families (and indeed contributed to their removal in the first place). </p>
<p>For example, research for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute examined the intersections between housing and domestic and family violence experienced by First Nations women. This research <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/320">found</a> homelessness and insecure housing played a significant role in preventing reunification for children who had been removed from their mothers.</p>
<p>Government departments also need to be held accountable when bureaucratic processes and poor decision-making prevent or delay children’s return home. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.familyisculture.nsw.gov.au/home">2019 Family is Culture Review</a> found a restoration rate of 17.5% of the 1,318 Aboriginal children taken into care in NSW in 2015-16. The review noted this rate could have been much higher if the NSW Department of Communities and Justice explored the possibility of more families being reunited in these cases and worked towards that goal. </p>
<p>Instead, children remained in out-of-home care or were moved to other permanency orders.</p>
<p>The review cited unclear reunification processes for these families. Parents were often dismissed and discriminated against by child protection services, and there was also as a pattern of mothers being too scared to report domestic violence for fear of having their children taken away. </p>
<p>The review also found impossible goals are set by child protection services for parents living with disability and disadvantage.</p>
<p>Inaccessible and inappropriate services are also barriers to parents achieving their reunification goals in the timeframes. These include securing housing or undergoing a mental health or rehabilitation treatment program, for which waitlists can be very long. </p>
<p>The National Apology was delivered to the many thousands of First Nations peoples impacted by the <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/4534">genocidal protection and assimilation policies</a> that dominated the 20th century in Australia. We like to think these harmful policies are behind us, but they have merely shifted to the guise of promoting a “<a href="https://caring.childstory.nsw.gov.au/support-for-carers/a-safe-home-for-life/chapters/types-of-placements">permanent home for life</a>” for Aboriginal children. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stolen-generation-redress-scheme-wont-reach-everyone-affected-by-the-policies-that-separated-families-166499">Stolen Generation redress scheme won't reach everyone affected by the policies that separated families</a>
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<p>If governments are truly committed to reducing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care in a way that meets the needs of families and communities, then a whole-of-system approach is needed.</p>
<p>Parents cannot be expected to manage complex social and structural factors beyond their control. These external challenges should not keep children separated from their parents.</p>
<p>The focus on reducing the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care needs to shift. We need not be preoccupied with the number of children who leave care, but rather the ultimate goal of increasing the number of children returning home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>BJ Newton receives funding from the Australian Research Council to lead the research project 'Bring them home, keep them home: charting the experiences, successful pathways and outcomes of Aboriginal families whose children have been restored from Out-of-Home Care'. Aboriginal community-controlled organisations and AbSec partner on this research.
</span></em></p>As we edge closer to another anniversary of Kevin Rudd’s National Apology to the Stolen Generations, the number of First Nations children in out-of-home has increased.BJ Newton, Senior Research Fellow in Social Policy and Social Work, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/904532018-01-23T19:10:57Z2018-01-23T19:10:57ZAustralians rate the most significant events in their lifetimes – and show the ‘fair go’ is still most valued<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202912/original/file-20180122-182976-11f7vpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Same-sex marriage becoming legal was rated by as the most significant event in their history by the largest proportion of respondents.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every little while, we have a panic about history. We’re having one right now, over Australia Day. A few months back, inspired by an American panic, we had one over statues.</p>
<p>A hardy perennial has been the panic about ignorance, especially among the young. What are they learning in schools and universities? Do “they” know enough about “our history”? And what is “our history” anyway? Is it the history of Australia, of our region, of Europe, of western civilisation, or of humanity? Is it all these things? Where does Indigenous history fit into the picture? What of Asian history?</p>
<p>Much of this panic finds forceful expression in politics and the media. But it is less clear how, if at all, the take-no-prisoners cultural warfare of the elites resonates in the lives of ordinary Australians.</p>
<p>We do know, from the work of researchers such as <a href="http://newsroom.uts.edu.au/news/2011/05/history-at-the-crossroads-australians-and-the-past">Paul Ashton and Paula Hamilton</a>, and <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/9780522868951-private-lives-public-history">Anna Clark</a>, that many Australians encounter the past through personal, family and emotional connections, as well as via film, museum displays, historical fiction and popular histories. There is considerable ignorance of, or indifference to, the history wars.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202913/original/file-20180122-182951-u6gx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202913/original/file-20180122-182951-u6gx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202913/original/file-20180122-182951-u6gx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202913/original/file-20180122-182951-u6gx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202913/original/file-20180122-182951-u6gx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202913/original/file-20180122-182951-u6gx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202913/original/file-20180122-182951-u6gx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The importance of marriage equality testifies to the endurance of the Australian ‘fair go’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But what happens when you ask Australians to think about the times they have lived through? What do they see as the historical events that have had the largest influence on their country?</p>
<p>Between November 15 and December 3, 2017, the <a href="http://www.srcentre.com.au/">Social Research Centre</a> asked this question of the just over 3,000 members of its Life in Australia panel, and heard back online or via phone from 2,074 of them (68.9%). Based on a <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2016/12/15/americans-name-the-10-most-significant-historic-events-of-their-lifetimes">similar survey</a> carried out in 2016 by the Pew Research Center in the US, <a href="http://srcentre.com.au/historic-events">the results</a> therefore also allow us to compare the attitudes of Australians and Americans.</p>
<p>So, what do these Australians, aged 18 to 93, tell us when they are asked to construct a top ten? </p>
<p>It is no surprise, given the timing of the survey, that 30% named same-sex marriage, placing it first. When asked to nominate the event that made them proudest of Australia, same-sex marriage was also the most common response (13%). The popularity of same-sex marriage in this survey surely contradicts the claim that Australians regarded it as, at best, a second-order issue. </p>
<p>Pollsters have asked Australians many questions about same-sex marriage, but so far as we are aware, this is the only occasion on which they have been invited to consider that event in the sweep of modern history. </p>
<p>Quite probably, if this survey were to be repeated a few years from now, not so many will be impressed by its historical significance. But here we have a precious hint of the importance that Australians attached to this moment in their history, at the very time it was being translated from public opinion into the law of the land.</p>
<p>Just behind same-sex marriage, there is the September 11 attack on the US, with 27% making mention of it. And it was the most-frequent response (11%) when respondents were asked to nominate the single most significant nation-shaping event of their lifetime. But more than three-quarters of respondents in the US survey mentioned 9/11 – so, even if Australians do see the “war on terror” partly through a lens constructed in the US, we are not “Austerica”.</p>
<p>Rather, our own backyard still matters. Kevin Rudd’s Apology to the Stolen Generations came in at three with 13%, sharing that place with the Port Arthur massacre. </p>
<p>The Sydney Olympics and the dismissal of the Whitlam government came next with 12% each, followed closely by the Vietnam War (11%), the Apollo 11 moon landing and the arrival of the internet (9% each), and Australia II’s America’s Cup victory, the global financial crisis, and the election of Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, in equal tenth (8% each).</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/b3TZOGpG6cM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Naturally, generational differences are powerful. Older people, after all, have many more events from which to choose. Those born in 1945 or earlier ranked the second world war first, with 44%: no other generation was in such agreement about the significance of any single event.</p>
<p>For this group of older Australians, and even more for the Baby Boomers (born after 1945), events that epitomised the transformations of the 1960s and 1970s matter greatly. So, the boomers had the Vietnam War first (28%), the Dismissal second (27%), and the moon landing fourth (21%), just after same-sex marriage. </p>
<p>Generation X was the only one to rank 9/11 first, with 35%. But we might perhaps rename Australian GenXers “the winged-keel generation”, for they seem especially impressed with national esteem, especially in connection with sporting achievement and spectacle. They ranked the Sydney Olympics fifth (16%) and the America’s Cup sixth (15%).</p>
<p>Younger people – millennials (aged 23-37 in 2017) and Gen Z (aged 18-22 at the time of the survey) – rated same-sex marriage and Gillard’s election considerably more highly than their elders, and were particularly likely to nominate terrorist events. The younger generations seem more impressed than others by the impact of Donald Trump’s election.</p>
<p>Australians, by and large, share a fairly cohesive sense of the most important historical events that have unfolded in their lifetimes. The events are remarkably similar when examined by characteristics such as gender, place of residence, income, political affiliation, education and birthplace.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202910/original/file-20180122-182955-1orzzvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202910/original/file-20180122-182955-1orzzvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202910/original/file-20180122-182955-1orzzvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202910/original/file-20180122-182955-1orzzvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202910/original/file-20180122-182955-1orzzvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202910/original/file-20180122-182955-1orzzvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202910/original/file-20180122-182955-1orzzvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The September 11 attacks were ranked particularly high by men and Coalition and One Nation supporters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/stringer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are some differences. Same-sex marriage was the most commonly nominated event for women, as well as Labor Party and Greens supporters, whereas 9/11 was the most popular for men and Coalition and One Nation supporters. </p>
<p>A much larger proportion of Tasmanians place the Port Arthur massacre in their top ten. Sydneysiders were more likely to include the Sydney Olympics. University graduates were more disposed than others to nominate the Mabo decision. </p>
<p>The results both undermine and confirm common impressions of Australians. We perhaps still like to think of ourselves as less insular and more cosmopolitan than Americans. </p>
<p>But whereas 13% of US respondents mentioned the end of the Cold War (placing it eighth), it did not figure in the Australian top ten at all. Australians are supposedly practical and pragmatic – “jobs and growth” types – yet we find a prominent place for the symbolic, while economic events do not figure prominently.</p>
<p>Yet the results do confirm one of our esteemed self-images: the concept of a “fair go” resonates in our historical consciousness. </p>
<p>When events are placed in categories, 45% found a place for events concerned with human rights and civil liberties. And whereas terrorism, war and politics figure prominently, just under one-quarter of respondents named one of the landmarks in the modern history of Indigenous people.</p>
<p>This last point helps explain why we are having such a passionate debate about Australia Day. What anthropologist W.H. Stanner in 1968 called “The Great Australian Silence” has well and truly ended.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90453/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darren Pennay works for the Social Research Centre, the company that owns and operates the Life in Australia panel.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Bongiorno does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new survey asking Australians to rank the most significant events in their lifetimes show that same-sex marriage, September 11 and the apology to the Stolen Generations matter most.Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityDarren Pennay, Campus Visitor, ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.