Dr Gyal Lo eye-witness of Chinese colonial boarding schools in Tibet – Australia visit
In July 2024, Australia Tibet Council brought Dr. Gyal Lo a Tibetan educational-sociologist, and a leading expert on China’s assimilation and education policies in Tibet to share his eye-witness account and research on Chinese colonial boarding schools in Tibet, with Parliamentarians, Department of Foreign Affairs and thinktanks.
Dr Gyal Lo was also joined by Tibet Action Institute’s cyber-security and transnational repression Leads, Lobsang Gyatso Sither (Director of technology at Tibet Action Institute) and Dorjee Phuntsok (Digital Security Trainer, Tibet Action Institute).
Public Event with Amnesty Australia
Dr Gyal Lo also spoke at Australia Tibet Council and Amnesty International public talk event titled ‘Stolen Generations of Tibet and Australia’.
Dr Gyal Lo was able to engage with ATC’s Voice for Tibet members and with special guest speaker Rodney Dillon, Palawa Elder and Indigenous Rights Advisor at Amnesty International Australia.
Dr Gyal Lo spoke out about the systemic cultural genocide occurring in Tibet, due to China’s colonialist policies that are responsible for the separation of 1 million Tibetan children from their families.
After witnessing the impacts of pre-boarding school on members of his own family, Dr. Lo undertook academic field work for the next five years, visiting over 50 boarding schools and documenting their impacts on the children and their communities at large.
This policy of cultural assimilation has a sad familiarity with Australian policies that resulted in the Stolen Generation, now recognised as a historic injustice with ongoing impacts for First Nations peoples in Australia.
Rodney Dillon is a Palawa Elder and Indigenous Rights Advisor at Amnesty International Australia. A former member of the Referendum Working Group, a former member of the Stolen Generations Alliance, and a former Commissioner for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Uncle Rodney is a lifelong activist for First Nations rights.