Englisch » The Stolen Generation + Australia

Summary: The Stolen Generation

The Stolen Generation is the generation of Aboriginal Children who have been taken away from their families by governments, churches and welfare. The Stolen Generation is a term used to describe those children.
1814 the first native institution at Parramatta was set up to civilize Aboriginal children.
From the late nineteenth century until 1969 removing children from their families and communities was official government policy in Australia.
Nobody really knows how many children were taken away in all these years. But it is a fact that almost every Aboriginal family has been affected in some way by the policies of child removal.
In 1995 a National Inquiry was set up. The Inquiry report “Bringing them home” contained evidences why children were removed and the aim of this political treatment.
Sir Ronald Wilson who chaired the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, short HREOC, told in his speech that children were removed because the Aboriginal race was seen as an embarrassment to white Australia and that the policy wanted them to assimilate and to make use to live in a white Australia. In the end the policy did not reach the aim because the elder Aboriginals found themselves rejected by the society for which they were being prepared.
The report made 54 recommendations, including opening records, family tracing and reunion services and the need for reparations.
The separation of children from their families has had long term negative consequences and that the HREOC Inquiry found that children removed from their families are disadvantaged in many ways.
So HREOC identified for example that those children are more likely to come to the attention of the police as they grow into adolescence or to suffer low self-esteem, depression and mental illness. As a disadvantage HREOC also saw that those children are unable to retain links with their land and that they cannot take a role in the cultural and spiritual life of their former communities.
As a result of the report, formal apologies were tabled and passed in all Australian Parliaments, followed by many other organizations.
In 1999 the Commonwealth Government passed a “statement of regret” for past practices and in response to the findings of the Inquiry the Government announced a reparations package with the aim of the reunification of families and also to enable those separated children to access archives and historical information about themselves and their families.



Filmreview: Australia

The expectations were great, because the film is an Academy Award-nominated 2008 Australian epic romance film, directed by Baz Luhrmann with two great actors, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
The film Australia is set in northern Australia before World War II.

It is about the English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley, played by Nicole Kidman, who travels to Australia with plans to sell the cattle ranch “Faraway Downs” and to check up her husband, as she is convinced he is having an affair.

When Lady Sarah Ashley arrives in Australia she is welcomed by the Drover, played by Hugh Jackman. As they drive to “Faraway Downs” an aboriginal stockman, sitting on the car, shoots a kangaroo and Lady Ashley spends the rest of the trip starring at the hind leg of the shot kangaroo hanging over the windscreen.
When they arrive Lady Ashley sees her dead husband laid out in the house on a table, and the station manager Neil Fletcher intends to take over “Faraway Downs” together with King Carney. But Lady Ashley decides to accept the competition with King Carney.

At “Faraway Downs” Lady Ashley makes the acquaintance of Nullah, an Aboriginal boy. Nullah, played by Brandon Walters, plays a very important role in the film.
Nullah is a 13 years old, aboriginal boy
Lady Sarah Ashley’s quest is to drive the cattle to Darwin port to sell them to the military.
Lady Ashley is able to convince Drover, Nullah and some other farmhands to take the cattle to Darwin to sell it to the army.
They have to endure a very long walk and some ambushes of Neil Fletcher who wants them to fail to get a big reward from King Carney.
Lady Ashley and Drover succeed and they get their cattle on board of a trade ship before King Carney is able to.
Later they are caught up in the bombing of Darwin.
The Drover thinks that Lady Ashley is dead and Nullah is taken to a church mission on an island some miles of the coast of Darwin.
But in the end of the film Lady Ashley, the Drover and Nullah are reunited and Nullah meets his grandfather King George, who has rescued Nullah’s life, when he killed Neil Fletcher who wanted to kill Nullah.
The film “Australia” lasts for about two hours and 45 minutes, but passes swiftly because the story is interesting and the landscape and cinematography excellent. Some scenes are simply too long and the beginning of Australia is a bit strange.
But altogether the film leaves an impression of what Australia is like.






//hab ich gerade gefunden, vielleicht kann man damit noch was anfangen.

/bump

um dies zum Abschluss zu bringen noch der Nachtrag von dem, was wir heute alles noch zusätzlich in Englisch besprochen haben.

WICHTIG(!!!): 1 Absatz über das Setting von Australia:
Zum Bleistift:

For the film Australia the staff had to build "Faraway Downs" in the outbacks of Australia. It reflects the vastness of the land and it shows the desert and the rolling hills. The film is set in northern (oder western, nicht 100% sicher) Australia in the middle of nowhere before World War II.

So in etwa.

2. wichtiger Punkt - die 2 Hauptdarsteller:

The film is about the English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley, played by Nicole Kidman, who travels to Australia with plans to sell the cattle ranch "Faraway Downs" and about 'The Drover' played by Hugh Jackman.On the one side there is Lady Ashley, who is full of energy and power and she wants to have the control.
On the other side 'The Drover' can be hired, but he wants to be his own master.
The actors are well chosen because both, Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, are Australians.

3. wichtiger Punkt:
irgendwo noch den "walkabout" einfügen.