Essay On Cultural Genocide

A cultural genocide is the destruction of a culture 's values, beliefs and traditions. Throughout history we have seen how much of an impact on culture and ethnicity the government can have. This is seen through cultural genocides such as the ¨Stolen Generation¨ and the Holocaust.

The ¨Stolen Generation¨ was from 1910 to the early 1970s, the government in Australia tried to ¨naturally eliminate¨ the Aboriginal people. The purpose of this movement was to inculcate European values onto the young children of the Aboriginal culture in order to exterminate the indigenous people. Cultures beliefs, traditions, along with knowledge are passed down through generations, so by taking the young generation the government was preventing the culture to live on.The children were taken from their families and put into

It was often cold and the children were hungry. One child stated, “Sometimes at night we 'd cry with hunger. We had to scrounge in the town dump, eating old bread, smashing tomato sauce bottles, licking them.¨ Punishments were harsh and the education was low. The children were not treated as humans but rather as cattle, ¨We were each handed a pair of pyjamas with a number Mr. Borland, the manager, had given us earlier printed on the pocket, and a shirt and pair of shorts also. I was number 33. Not Bill. Not even Simon. Just number 33.¨ The children stolen during this time still feel the suffering they went through. Essentially, the ¨Stolen Generation¨ is much like the Holocaust. There are many similarities between how the Aboriginal people were treated and how the Jews were treated in the Holocaust. Likewise they both are put into these institutions in order for their ethnicity to be wiped out. The children were starved and left cold in the winter. The children in the institutions were harshly punished. They were not treated as humans beings, but rather they were treated like