Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
Children could be put into an institution or mission dormitory, fostered or adopted. Many children were fostered or adopted after spending time in a children's home. Many spent time in more than one institution or foster family. Later many were sent out to work. Some moved from institution or foster family to detention centre or psychiatric hospital. More than half (56%) the people who gave evidence to the Inquiry had experienced multiple placements following their removal.
They were discouraged from family contact
The Inquiry found `assimilation' was rigorously pursued by most authorities and by non-Indigenous foster and adoptive families. In particular, children and their families were discouraged or prevented from contacting each other.
One of the girls was doing Matron's office, and there was all these letters that the girls had written back to the parents and family -- the answers were all in the garbage bin. And they were wondering why we didn't write. That was one way they stopped us keeping in contact with our families. Then they had the hide to turn around and say, `They don't love you. They don't care about you'.
When my mum passed away I went to her funeral, which is stupid because I'm allowed to go see her at her funeral but I couldn't have that when she requested me. They wouldn't let me have her.
The Inquiry found that many children were told they were unwanted, rejected or their parents were dead, when this was not true.
I remember this woman saying to me, `Your mother's dead, you've got no mother now. That's why you're here with us'. Then about two years after that my mother and my mother's sister came to The Bungalow but they weren't allowed to visit us because they were black.
We were transferred to the State Children's Orphanage in 1958. Olive [aged 6 weeks] was taken elsewhere -- Mr L telling me several days later that she was admitted to hospital where she died from meningitis. In 1984, assisted by Link Up (Qld), my sister Judy discovered that Olive had not died but rather had been fostered. Her name was changed.
They were taught to reject Aborigines and Aboriginality
The Inquiry found many witnesses were taught to feel contempt for Aborigines. Those who knew their own heritage transferred that contempt to themselves.
We were told that our mother was an alcoholic and that she was a prostitute and she didn't care about us. They used to warn us that when we got older we'd have to watch it because we'd turn into sluts and alcoholics, so we had to be very careful. If you were white you didn't have that dirtiness in you ... It was in our breed, in us to be like that.
I didn't know any Aboriginal people at all, none at all. I was placed in a white family and I was just -- I was white. I never knew, I never accepted myself to being a black person until -- I don't know if you ever really do accept yourself as being ... How can you be proud of being Aboriginal after all the humiliation and the anger and the hatred you have? It's unbelievable how much you can hold inside.
Institutional conditions were very harsh
The Inquiry found that the conditions of missions, government institutions and children's homes were often very poor. Resources were insufficient to improve them, or keep children properly clothed, fed and sheltered.
There was no food, nothing. We was all huddled up in a room like a little puppy dog on the floor. 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. Half of the time the food we got was from the rubbish dump.
Institutional regimes were often very strict, with severe punishments for breaking the rules.
Their education was often very basic
The Inquiry found that the education provided in Indigenous children's institutions was essentially a preparation for menial labour. However, the promise of a good education was often the inducement for parents to relinquish their children to the authorities.
I don't know who decided to educate the Aboriginal people but the standard was low in those mission areas. I started school at the age of eight at grade one, no pre-school. I attended school for six years, the sixth year we attended grade 4, then after that we left school, probably 14 years old.
I wanted to be a nurse, only to be told that I was nothing but an immoral black lubra, and I was only fit to work on cattle and sheep properties.
Many never received their wages
The Inquiry found that children placed in work by the authorities were not entitled or trusted to receive their wages. These were supposed to be held in trust, but many never received the money that was rightfully theirs.
We never, ever got our wages. It was banked for us. And when we were 21 we were supposed to get this money. We never got any of that money ever. And that's what I wonder: where could that money have went? Or why didn't we get it?
Excessive physical punishments were common
Many witnesses told the Inquiry of being physically assaulted and brutally punished in placements. These children were most at risk of this treatment in foster or adoptive families. Almost a quarter (23.4%) of witnesses to the Inquiry who were fostered or adopted reported being assaulted there. One in six children who were institutionalised reported physical assault and punishments.
WA Chief Protector, A.O. Neville found it necessary to ban `degrading and injurious punishments and the practice of holding inmates up to ridicule, such as dressing them in old sacks or shaving girls' heads'. A NSW superintendent was told `that on no account must he tie a boy up to a fence or tree, that such instruments as lengths of hosepipe or a stockwhip must not be used, that no dietary punishments shall be inflicted'.
Dormitory life was like living in hell. It was not a life. The only things that sort of come out of it was how to work, how to be clean, you know and hygiene. That sort of thing. But we got a lot of bashings.
The children were at risk of sexual abuse
Sexual abuse was reported to the Inquiry by one in five people who were fostered and one in ten people who were institutionalised. One in ten alleged they were sexually abused in a work placement organised by the Protection Board or institution.
There was tampering with the boys ... the people who would come in to work with the children, they would grab the boys' penises, play around with them and kiss them and things like this. These were the things that were done ... It was seen to be the white man's way of lookin' after you. It never happened with an Aboriginal.
I ran away because my foster father used to tamper with me and I'd just had enough. I went to the police but they didn't believe me. So she [foster mother] just thought I was a wild child and she put me in one of those hostels and none of them believed me -- I was the liar. So I've never talked about it to anyone. I don't go about telling lies, especially big lies like that.
Authorities failed to care for and protect the children
The Inquiry found that welfare officials failed in their duty to protect Indigenous wards from these abuses, often in the very placements they had organised.
My sister saw our welfare officer when she was grown up and he told her that he'd always thought our [foster] house was abnormal. He thought us kids were abnormal. He thought we were like robots, we had to look at her before we said anything. When an officer comes along they're supposed to talk to you on your own. Our foster mother insisted that she had to be in the room because they could sexually assault us while she was out of the room, so she wasn't going to allow it. Being the minister's wife, they agreed that she was allowed to sit there. So we never had the chance to complain. Welfare never gave us a chance.
Some found happiness
Some witnesses to the Inquiry told of finding affection and happiness in their adoptive family or, more rarely, in a children's home. The Inquiry found that the bonds permitted in these more enlightened placements went some way to overcoming the many other damaging effects for Indigenous children.
We were all happy together, us kids. We had two very wonderful old ladies that looked after us. It [Colebrook, South Australia] wasn't like an institution really. It was just a big happy family. Y'know they gave us good teaching, they encouraged us to be no different to anybody else.
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