Unequaled Acts of Injustice: Pan-Indigenous Encounters with Colonial School Systems

This essay reviews a recent film dealing with the forced removal of Australian Aboriginal children from their communities by the Australian government for the best part of 60 years. It uses the review to draw parallels between Australian Aboriginal 'stolen generations,' the colonial schooling experienced by the indigenous Maori of New Zealand, the 'mission school syndrome' suffered by First Nations people in North America, and the routine punishment for language offenders experienced by the Coorg people from India. Anachronistic as they may seem, such racist policies are not relics of the past but features of modern governance that have only been abandoned relatively recently. In some cases, their ramifications are only just beginning to be felt. Some of the implications for criminology are touched upon. The film is situated in the context of existing video and literary materials dealing with the issue of schooling as a tool for assimilation that readers may find equally informative.