I have just finished reading the book 'Rabbit Proof Fence' - the story of 3 mixed race Aborigine girls who were forcibly removed from their home and moved across Australia. It also tells the amazing story of their walk back home using the Rabbit Proof Fence as their guide. This happened in the 1930s and was done for the good of the children; or so the authorities said! When I read books like this I am ashamed to be white and admit that people of my colour did these things. Oh yes, the intentions were supposedly good as they were going to give these children an education but I just don't understand why they had to put them in inhumane conditions and treat them like animals.
We like to say in the enlightened 21st Century that would never happen on our watch but how much have we really learnt? This week in the news there has been a call for more ethnic adopters. I understand some of the thinking behind this; that the children need to be kept in their cultural background etc. Some of the children in the care system in the UK are there purely because of their colour not a lack of adopters. The authorities in Australia were taking children for what they saw as their own good; is our policy of same colour adoption much different? Why is colour of skin still so important? Thank God that He looks at the heart and in one of the books in the bible it says; There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
History should teach us but alas it often doesn't speak loud enough. The lessons are there if only we open our eyes and listen to the teacher!
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