Tjunguwiyanytja, Attacks on Linking: Forced Separation and its Psychiatric Sequelae in Australia’s ‘Stolen Generations’

Abstract

From 1914 to the late 1960s, large numbers of Australian Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families and communities and placed in institutional foster care. Recently, attention has focused on the long-term mental health consequence of these forced separations. We describe the symptomatology of a group of nine adult members of the Australian Aboriginal ‘Stolen Generations’ selected for psychiatric examination for legal purposes. Interviews were conducted to Present Mental State Examination standard, using a culturally sensitive reflective listening mode. Interviewees also completed the Goldberg Shorter Anxiety and Depression Questionnaire (GSADQ). The clinical picture shared by all interviewees was consistent with contemporary understanding of the harmful impact of chronic trauma on the developing self. All reported high levels of distress on the GSADQ (means: Anxiety 8.6, Depression 7.8, total 16.4). The symptomatology fit diagnostic constructs of ‘complex PTSD, depressive type,’ with disorders of self-organization, and marked somatizing features. Specific issues of cultural identity conflict were also salient. Indigenous Australian cultures view links to kinship networks ( walytja), land ( ngura), and myth and ritual ( tjukurpa), as central to emotional and psychological well-being. All the members of our sample felt that it was precisely these linkages that had been attacked by the process of removal and deculturation, and that this was the cause of many of their problems. We also consider the larger question ‘how can this happen in a liberal society?’ in terms of Bion’s notions of ‘attacks on linking.