1 00:00:08,298 --> 00:00:12,135 ♫ As I went down in the river to pray 2 00:00:12,135 --> 00:00:16,302 ♫ Studyin' about that good ol' way and who shall wear 3 00:00:17,582 --> 00:00:21,749 ♫ The starry crown good lord show me the way 4 00:00:25,585 --> 00:00:28,429 I was originally born in Grafton, 5 00:00:28,429 --> 00:00:32,231 taken from Grafton to Cootamundra Girls' Home 6 00:00:32,231 --> 00:00:33,564 when I was four. 7 00:00:35,595 --> 00:00:37,012 I don't know why. 8 00:00:40,953 --> 00:00:44,245 It's not clear to me where I'm originally from. 9 00:00:44,245 --> 00:00:46,595 I know I'm from up there somewhere 10 00:00:46,595 --> 00:00:50,762 Up the Bundjalung tribe, that's what I was told. 11 00:00:51,151 --> 00:00:53,568 I'm still tryin' to find out. 12 00:00:55,154 --> 00:00:58,562 Not really important to me it's not. 13 00:00:58,562 --> 00:01:02,268 'Cause I was too much in the institutions. 14 00:01:02,268 --> 00:01:06,415 ♫ Oh sister let's go down 15 00:01:06,415 --> 00:01:10,500 I was three and a half years old. 16 00:01:10,500 --> 00:01:12,166 Being so young as I was, 17 00:01:12,166 --> 00:01:15,730 I thought this was natural to be abused 18 00:01:15,730 --> 00:01:17,618 you know and thrown in the box room 19 00:01:17,618 --> 00:01:19,988 and whipped and things like that. 20 00:01:19,988 --> 00:01:24,155 ♫ The starry crown good lord show me the way 21 00:01:24,946 --> 00:01:26,612 Be a domestic service 22 00:01:26,612 --> 00:01:28,600 to be workin' in a white person's house 23 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:30,539 to do their cleaning and their washing 24 00:01:30,539 --> 00:01:32,573 and lookin' after their kids 25 00:01:32,573 --> 00:01:35,073 and that's what we were doing. 26 00:01:36,065 --> 00:01:37,536 It was just literally a slave, 27 00:01:37,536 --> 00:01:41,703 to be there to do their bit of what they wanted you to do. 28 00:01:42,947 --> 00:01:46,739 ♫ As I went down in the river to pray 29 00:01:46,739 --> 00:01:48,807 We were like dogs, 30 00:01:48,807 --> 00:01:52,183 just given the rubbish you know? 31 00:01:52,183 --> 00:01:53,683 Had the leftovers. 32 00:01:56,625 --> 00:02:00,708 Hurts, to think what the wealthy have done to us. 33 00:02:03,086 --> 00:02:05,253 Pain that we went through. 34 00:02:08,177 --> 00:02:11,094 I still have nightmares. 35 00:02:14,915 --> 00:02:17,895 ♫ Oh sisters lets go down 36 00:02:17,895 --> 00:02:21,808 ♫ Lets go down, come on down 37 00:02:21,808 --> 00:02:25,392 ♫ Oh sisters lets go down 38 00:02:25,392 --> 00:02:29,059 ♫ Down in the river to pray 39 00:02:39,346 --> 00:02:43,513 In 1901, Australia became a federation. 40 00:02:44,398 --> 00:02:45,990 Under the new constitution, 41 00:02:45,990 --> 00:02:50,012 aboriginal people would not be counted in the census. 42 00:02:50,012 --> 00:02:52,771 And the commonwealth would have the power to make laws 43 00:02:52,771 --> 00:02:56,526 relating to any race of people in Australia, 44 00:02:56,526 --> 00:02:58,609 except aboriginal people. 45 00:03:01,704 --> 00:03:04,757 The federated states retained exclusive power 46 00:03:04,757 --> 00:03:08,283 over aboriginal affairs until 1967 47 00:03:08,283 --> 00:03:12,450 when the constitution was amended in a historic referendum. 48 00:03:12,830 --> 00:03:14,830 When Australian's voted overwhelmingly 49 00:03:14,830 --> 00:03:18,080 to change these discriminatory clauses. 50 00:03:20,096 --> 00:03:23,438 Aboriginal people had been subject to oppressive legislation 51 00:03:23,438 --> 00:03:26,382 that varied on a state by state basis 52 00:03:26,382 --> 00:03:28,632 from the late 19th century. 53 00:03:31,161 --> 00:03:33,683 The notorious aborigines protection board 54 00:03:33,683 --> 00:03:36,278 had the power to forcibly move people 55 00:03:36,278 --> 00:03:39,915 from their traditional lands, onto reserves and missions 56 00:03:39,915 --> 00:03:42,949 and to remove children from their families 57 00:03:42,949 --> 00:03:46,199 and power over their financial affairs. 58 00:03:47,065 --> 00:03:48,632 The policy of protection, 59 00:03:48,632 --> 00:03:52,364 of smoothing the dying pillow of a doomed race, 60 00:03:52,364 --> 00:03:55,603 rapidly changed to one of control. 61 00:03:55,603 --> 00:03:58,436 With the end game of assimilation. 62 00:04:00,903 --> 00:04:02,591 Certainly when the pieces of legislation 63 00:04:02,591 --> 00:04:04,877 were first drafted in the late 1880s 64 00:04:04,877 --> 00:04:07,089 through to the early 1900s, 65 00:04:07,089 --> 00:04:09,063 what you do see is a reflection 66 00:04:09,063 --> 00:04:11,066 of this generally held assumption 67 00:04:11,066 --> 00:04:14,088 by the dominant culture in Australia 68 00:04:14,088 --> 00:04:17,505 that aboriginal people were a dying race. 69 00:04:18,462 --> 00:04:21,361 By the time you get to the 40s, 50s, 60s 70 00:04:21,361 --> 00:04:22,803 and it's very clear 71 00:04:22,803 --> 00:04:25,829 that the aboriginal population isn't dying out. 72 00:04:25,829 --> 00:04:28,921 The impetus behind the concept of protection 73 00:04:28,921 --> 00:04:30,838 becomes very different. 74 00:04:32,009 --> 00:04:35,434 You do find a large sort of broad similarity 75 00:04:35,434 --> 00:04:37,628 in terms of the assumptions about 76 00:04:37,628 --> 00:04:39,899 inferiority of aboriginal people, 77 00:04:39,899 --> 00:04:42,635 the problems that were assumed to exist 78 00:04:42,635 --> 00:04:44,918 or would be created if aboriginal children 79 00:04:44,918 --> 00:04:46,944 were left with their families. 80 00:04:46,944 --> 00:04:49,641 The importance of seeing assimilation 81 00:04:49,641 --> 00:04:53,603 of aboriginal people as a key way of progressing forward 82 00:04:53,603 --> 00:04:56,754 in terms of federal government policy. 83 00:04:56,754 --> 00:05:00,074 All of those sorts of big ideological pictures 84 00:05:00,074 --> 00:05:04,241 were pretty much existent across the board. 85 00:05:20,923 --> 00:05:23,756 I was born in Brewarrina. 86 00:05:24,780 --> 00:05:27,117 I didn't know my father 87 00:05:27,117 --> 00:05:30,037 but I had a step father who I really loved 88 00:05:30,037 --> 00:05:32,787 who was the only dad that I knew. 89 00:05:36,974 --> 00:05:39,301 We was playing outside in the dirt 90 00:05:39,301 --> 00:05:40,801 with our roly poly 91 00:05:42,785 --> 00:05:44,223 and then while mom 92 00:05:44,223 --> 00:05:48,390 and all the other ladies were playing cards inside, 93 00:05:49,117 --> 00:05:52,450 black car come there, just parked there. 94 00:05:55,351 --> 00:05:57,684 Jenny she had me by the hand 95 00:05:59,076 --> 00:06:00,659 and hanged onto me. 96 00:06:02,210 --> 00:06:06,377 And the welfare fella just picked us up and took us. 97 00:06:08,388 --> 00:06:10,721 Took us and mom didn't know. 98 00:06:17,961 --> 00:06:19,343 - There was certainly an assumption 99 00:06:19,343 --> 00:06:21,004 that the best time to remove children 100 00:06:21,004 --> 00:06:23,661 was the youngest you could possibly get them 101 00:06:23,661 --> 00:06:26,157 so there were lots of instances where 102 00:06:26,157 --> 00:06:28,668 aboriginal women would go into hospital, 103 00:06:28,668 --> 00:06:30,515 would be told their children had died 104 00:06:30,515 --> 00:06:34,682 and then later find out that they'd been adopted out. 105 00:06:35,379 --> 00:06:38,244 There was a view that if children were institutionalised 106 00:06:38,244 --> 00:06:40,159 or sent out to work, 107 00:06:40,159 --> 00:06:42,279 somehow these would be better ways 108 00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:44,988 of equipping them for life in white world 109 00:06:44,988 --> 00:06:47,637 then allowing them to stay with their families. 110 00:06:58,449 --> 00:07:00,300 - Well I was born at Peak Hill, 111 00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:02,133 in Peak Hill hospital. 112 00:07:03,995 --> 00:07:04,828 In 1932. 113 00:07:06,653 --> 00:07:08,325 That's a long time ago. 114 00:07:10,530 --> 00:07:11,363 Yeah no, 115 00:07:13,706 --> 00:07:17,490 you'd see me out on the mission there at Peak Hill 116 00:07:17,490 --> 00:07:18,850 with mom and dad. 117 00:07:18,850 --> 00:07:22,888 Well that's where we was taken' from there. 118 00:07:26,026 --> 00:07:28,802 I remember we was playin' out on the lawn 119 00:07:28,802 --> 00:07:31,504 out the front of the courthouse 120 00:07:31,504 --> 00:07:33,741 and that's where mom and dad walked away 121 00:07:33,741 --> 00:07:35,241 and left us there. 122 00:07:36,297 --> 00:07:38,303 I don't think they knew where I was going, 123 00:07:38,303 --> 00:07:39,256 I was only little, 124 00:07:39,256 --> 00:07:41,208 I didn't know whether they knew or not 125 00:07:41,208 --> 00:07:42,791 but we didn't know. 126 00:07:44,352 --> 00:07:47,495 I was only little, tiny kid. 127 00:07:47,495 --> 00:07:50,745 Train ride and ended up at Cootamundra. 128 00:08:03,368 --> 00:08:06,366 In 1911, the Cootamundra Domestic 129 00:08:06,366 --> 00:08:08,389 Training Home for aboriginal girls 130 00:08:08,389 --> 00:08:11,565 was opened by the Aborigine's Protection Board, 131 00:08:11,565 --> 00:08:13,898 in Country, New South Wales. 132 00:08:16,413 --> 00:08:20,580 Until it closed in 1968, hundreds of aboriginal girls 133 00:08:20,604 --> 00:08:22,471 were placed in the home, 134 00:08:22,471 --> 00:08:26,471 after being forcibly removed from their parents. 135 00:08:30,509 --> 00:08:33,970 The idea was to segregate part aboriginal children 136 00:08:33,970 --> 00:08:35,470 from their families, 137 00:08:35,470 --> 00:08:38,791 in order to assimilate them into the mainstream community 138 00:08:38,791 --> 00:08:40,541 as domestic servants. 139 00:08:42,854 --> 00:08:44,427 - Matron called out and said, 140 00:08:44,427 --> 00:08:46,722 "now girls, this is your new home. 141 00:08:46,722 --> 00:08:49,314 "You behave yourself and do as you're told, 142 00:08:49,314 --> 00:08:50,555 "things will be alright." 143 00:08:50,555 --> 00:08:51,481 And that's what she said. 144 00:08:51,481 --> 00:08:55,148 They never told us why we were taken, never. 145 00:08:57,355 --> 00:08:59,537 - I went to Bomaderry Children's Home , 146 00:08:59,537 --> 00:09:03,037 I was aged two with the other two sisters. 147 00:09:04,568 --> 00:09:06,861 And when I went to Cootamundra, 148 00:09:06,861 --> 00:09:09,593 about nine with me other sister Patty, 149 00:09:09,593 --> 00:09:12,567 they said we were gonna meet me eldest sisters 150 00:09:12,567 --> 00:09:14,518 and I didn't even know we had 'em. 151 00:09:14,518 --> 00:09:17,287 Only family I knew was the Bomaderry kids 152 00:09:17,287 --> 00:09:21,370 and the ones in Cootamundra, they seemed strange. 153 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:25,782 I wasn't brought up with them. 154 00:09:25,782 --> 00:09:27,726 If you're not brought up with someone, 155 00:09:27,726 --> 00:09:29,559 how could you connect? 156 00:09:33,975 --> 00:09:35,995 The story of private John Wenberg 157 00:09:35,995 --> 00:09:39,044 of the second AIF and his wife Lily 158 00:09:39,044 --> 00:09:41,627 is one shared by many families. 159 00:09:43,413 --> 00:09:45,134 All nine of their children 160 00:09:45,134 --> 00:09:48,692 including sisters Adelaide, Valerie and Rita 161 00:09:48,692 --> 00:09:50,442 were taken from them. 162 00:09:51,348 --> 00:09:53,994 Some were taken before their younger siblings 163 00:09:53,994 --> 00:09:55,577 had even been born. 164 00:09:57,521 --> 00:10:01,688 Two of their children, Dorothy and John died of neglect 165 00:10:01,860 --> 00:10:03,943 while wards of the state. 166 00:10:07,728 --> 00:10:09,604 Despite their repeated pleas 167 00:10:09,604 --> 00:10:11,407 for the return of their children, 168 00:10:11,407 --> 00:10:13,654 John and Lily were formally advised 169 00:10:13,654 --> 00:10:15,423 that the removal of their children 170 00:10:15,423 --> 00:10:18,590 was justified due to parental neglect. 171 00:10:22,955 --> 00:10:26,443 - I got in the home when I was three and a half. 172 00:10:26,443 --> 00:10:30,345 Grew up, grew up not knowing they were my sisters. 173 00:10:30,345 --> 00:10:33,012 And grew up not wanting to know. 174 00:10:36,974 --> 00:10:39,474 You know, we're not close now. 175 00:10:40,339 --> 00:10:41,672 We're strangers. 176 00:10:42,614 --> 00:10:46,114 Same with our brothers, they're strangers. 177 00:11:10,447 --> 00:11:12,592 I was more or less on me own 178 00:11:12,592 --> 00:11:15,135 amongst about 45 girls or more. 179 00:11:15,135 --> 00:11:17,961 All in the same position I think that I was in. 180 00:11:17,961 --> 00:11:22,128 Taken and just put there, for the reasons unknown. 181 00:11:23,313 --> 00:11:24,571 I was a real devil then, 182 00:11:24,571 --> 00:11:27,056 I just wouldn't settle down to do nothin'. 183 00:11:27,056 --> 00:11:28,404 'Cause I had an idea in my head 184 00:11:28,404 --> 00:11:31,154 that I shouldn't have been there. 185 00:11:32,219 --> 00:11:33,598 You know when you wake up in the morning 186 00:11:33,598 --> 00:11:34,572 and you think you're gonna wake up 187 00:11:34,572 --> 00:11:37,473 and see your mom and dad and you don't, 188 00:11:37,473 --> 00:11:39,245 you wake up and you're in a dormitory with about 189 00:11:39,245 --> 00:11:42,245 14 or 15 other kids, all age groups, 190 00:11:45,117 --> 00:11:47,200 it's not very comforting. 191 00:11:48,308 --> 00:11:51,587 - When you became a women you know, 192 00:11:51,587 --> 00:11:53,169 you got your periods. 193 00:11:53,169 --> 00:11:55,315 I didn't know what was going on. 194 00:11:55,315 --> 00:11:56,764 I was down the toilet, I saw blood, 195 00:11:56,764 --> 00:11:58,271 "oh shit what's happened here"? 196 00:11:58,271 --> 00:12:00,166 And went up to the matron and, 197 00:12:00,166 --> 00:12:01,915 "Oh Adelaide," she said. 198 00:12:01,915 --> 00:12:03,743 "You're turning into a women." 199 00:12:03,743 --> 00:12:05,830 And all she did was handin' me these things, 200 00:12:05,830 --> 00:12:07,791 you have to wash yourself and that you know? 201 00:12:07,791 --> 00:12:10,032 So shit what's goin' on here you know? 202 00:12:10,032 --> 00:12:12,016 That's all we were told, nothing. 203 00:12:12,016 --> 00:12:16,183 There was no love up there, none whatsoever, none. 204 00:12:22,376 --> 00:12:25,729 In 1948, an Anglican missionary couple 205 00:12:25,729 --> 00:12:28,121 established the Marella Mission Farm 206 00:12:28,121 --> 00:12:29,888 known as the Hidden Mission, 207 00:12:29,888 --> 00:12:33,247 to accommodate aboriginal children on their private property 208 00:12:33,247 --> 00:12:36,247 in a north western suburb of Sydney. 209 00:12:40,023 --> 00:12:43,194 The first child arrived in 1953 210 00:12:43,194 --> 00:12:45,734 and the subsequent hundreds of children 211 00:12:45,734 --> 00:12:49,535 who passed through their gates became an unpaid labour force 212 00:12:49,535 --> 00:12:51,357 that supported the farm, 213 00:12:51,357 --> 00:12:53,830 which already benefited from government funding 214 00:12:53,830 --> 00:12:55,580 and public donations. 215 00:12:59,626 --> 00:13:03,452 Soon after being taken from her family at the age of two, 216 00:13:03,452 --> 00:13:07,075 Rita Wright was transferred form the Cootamundra girls home 217 00:13:07,075 --> 00:13:11,242 to Marella where she remained until she was released 218 00:13:11,604 --> 00:13:12,437 aged 19. 219 00:13:17,039 --> 00:13:20,828 - I hate that place, I hate the name. 220 00:13:20,828 --> 00:13:22,564 I used to steal oranges off the tree 221 00:13:22,564 --> 00:13:25,481 and hide 'em under the floorboards. 222 00:13:26,332 --> 00:13:28,347 And then they'd make us start readin' the bible, 223 00:13:28,347 --> 00:13:30,487 "thou shalt not steal," you know? 224 00:13:30,487 --> 00:13:32,217 Like you have to steal to survive, 225 00:13:32,217 --> 00:13:33,381 just to have a feed you know? 226 00:13:33,381 --> 00:13:34,631 We were hungry. 227 00:13:37,013 --> 00:13:39,346 We were treated like slaves. 228 00:13:40,279 --> 00:13:41,491 Done all the work. 229 00:13:41,491 --> 00:13:43,985 We kept a dirty farm goin'. 230 00:13:43,985 --> 00:13:46,734 We kept it goin' and all the hidin's and, 231 00:13:46,734 --> 00:13:49,817 hidin's over just tiny little things. 232 00:13:52,770 --> 00:13:54,390 They put us there 'cause 233 00:13:54,390 --> 00:13:58,307 they say that my mom was a dirty drunken woman. 234 00:14:04,037 --> 00:14:07,037 We're supposed to have malnutrition. 235 00:14:08,436 --> 00:14:11,054 My auntie, she said "your mom was one of the cleanest women 236 00:14:11,054 --> 00:14:13,137 "up there in Brewarrina." 237 00:14:28,507 --> 00:14:30,913 - The first time I saw my father, 238 00:14:30,913 --> 00:14:32,830 he came up to the home. 239 00:14:32,917 --> 00:14:34,785 And in order to come up to the home, 240 00:14:34,785 --> 00:14:38,111 you had to have a letter from the Aborigine Welfare Board, 241 00:14:38,111 --> 00:14:39,410 to see your kids. 242 00:14:39,410 --> 00:14:41,825 He never had a letter, he just roamed in. 243 00:14:41,825 --> 00:14:43,846 I always remember he had this army coat. 244 00:14:43,846 --> 00:14:46,451 And he's holdin' out his arms, he's callin' out, 245 00:14:46,451 --> 00:14:47,851 "Valerie, Valerie." 246 00:14:47,851 --> 00:14:49,573 And he said, "I'm your daddy." 247 00:14:49,573 --> 00:14:50,992 - The matron rang the police 248 00:14:50,992 --> 00:14:52,846 and they got him off the property 249 00:14:52,846 --> 00:14:55,880 because he was drunk and weren't allowed 250 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:58,130 to come up there like that. 251 00:14:59,209 --> 00:15:02,829 When we were all taken, he just took to drink. 252 00:15:02,829 --> 00:15:05,704 You know, all his kids were gone so what the hell? 253 00:15:05,704 --> 00:15:07,954 He had nothing to live for? 254 00:15:09,776 --> 00:15:12,695 - And poor dad wrote a letter to the welfare, 255 00:15:12,695 --> 00:15:15,583 "could I have my children back?" 256 00:15:15,583 --> 00:15:17,946 He said, "I'll get a home for 'em." 257 00:15:17,946 --> 00:15:20,444 He got a home for us. 258 00:15:20,444 --> 00:15:24,361 But they didn't, they wouldn't give 'em to him. 259 00:15:33,264 --> 00:15:36,019 - You know a girl came from Cootamundra. 260 00:15:36,019 --> 00:15:37,545 You know she used to tell me, 261 00:15:37,545 --> 00:15:39,231 she said Val, I asked her, I said, 262 00:15:39,231 --> 00:15:40,097 "have you got a mom?" 263 00:15:40,097 --> 00:15:40,930 And she said, "yes." 264 00:15:40,930 --> 00:15:43,149 And I said, "why are you in here if you got a mom?" 265 00:15:43,149 --> 00:15:46,918 I said, "I thought all the girls didn't have mom and dad?" 266 00:15:46,918 --> 00:15:51,025 And she said, "Val if you go out to the peppercorn tree, 267 00:15:51,025 --> 00:15:54,244 "put a cross on the peppercorn tree every night 268 00:15:54,244 --> 00:15:56,327 "and your mom will come." 269 00:16:06,649 --> 00:16:07,899 She never came. 270 00:16:13,621 --> 00:16:15,589 - You know I think for many of us 271 00:16:15,589 --> 00:16:17,691 have often heard our elders say, 272 00:16:17,691 --> 00:16:21,398 they said that this protection was kind of an ironic word 273 00:16:21,398 --> 00:16:23,255 just like welfare was. 274 00:16:23,255 --> 00:16:26,350 And that the motivations behind the policy 275 00:16:26,350 --> 00:16:30,517 were much more about protecting white people 276 00:16:30,585 --> 00:16:32,705 from aboriginal people. 277 00:16:32,705 --> 00:16:35,680 And although you know, in their usual way, 278 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:37,845 our eldest sort of say that it's a kind of joke, 279 00:16:37,845 --> 00:16:41,762 I think that there's a lot of pain behind that. 280 00:16:45,332 --> 00:16:47,866 - Tried to bring them up as normal children 281 00:16:47,866 --> 00:16:51,465 and to teach them whatever we could 282 00:16:51,465 --> 00:16:55,632 as far as cleanliness and that was concerned you know?" 283 00:16:55,929 --> 00:16:57,492 And to live as white children, 284 00:16:57,492 --> 00:17:00,782 that was all we were trying to do. 285 00:17:00,782 --> 00:17:04,449 It was the only thing we could do with them? 286 00:17:10,422 --> 00:17:12,835 - I loved school, I loved it with a dear passion. 287 00:17:12,835 --> 00:17:15,002 I did very well at school. 288 00:17:17,301 --> 00:17:18,984 We were all sitting on the outside, 289 00:17:18,984 --> 00:17:23,151 the officers where they had their meals, on the steps 290 00:17:23,384 --> 00:17:24,706 and the matron said, 291 00:17:24,706 --> 00:17:27,143 "oh Adelaide's a very clever little girl." 292 00:17:27,143 --> 00:17:29,380 And one of the officers said, 293 00:17:29,380 --> 00:17:32,091 "what's the point of the her being clever? 294 00:17:32,091 --> 00:17:34,955 "She's only going to be a domestic." 295 00:17:34,955 --> 00:17:36,478 And that stuck with me 296 00:17:36,478 --> 00:17:39,395 and I'll never try it again, never. 297 00:17:42,143 --> 00:17:43,968 - Well what they trained you for 298 00:17:43,968 --> 00:17:48,135 was to learn to scrub and wash and clean houses. 299 00:17:48,384 --> 00:17:50,967 You know, for the white people. 300 00:17:52,466 --> 00:17:55,049 Iron their clothes, milk a cow. 301 00:17:56,172 --> 00:17:57,945 You know, had to get up early in the mornin' 302 00:17:57,945 --> 00:17:59,203 and milk a cow. 303 00:17:59,203 --> 00:18:00,901 - They teach ya to cook, they teach ya to wash, 304 00:18:00,901 --> 00:18:03,318 they teach ya to iron, clean. 305 00:18:10,256 --> 00:18:13,173 I used to muck up, being who I was, 306 00:18:13,233 --> 00:18:16,092 they sort of targeted me because I wasn't flexible 307 00:18:16,092 --> 00:18:17,464 like the other kids. 308 00:18:17,464 --> 00:18:18,799 Come and do all your duties, 309 00:18:18,799 --> 00:18:20,466 do that, do whatever. 310 00:18:20,466 --> 00:18:22,893 And I used to say, no I'm not doin' it. 311 00:18:22,893 --> 00:18:24,718 I would just walk away 312 00:18:24,718 --> 00:18:28,885 but I used to end up then bein' locked in a store room, 313 00:18:29,217 --> 00:18:31,665 like a box room they called it. 314 00:18:31,665 --> 00:18:34,075 No lights, no nothing turned on. 315 00:18:34,075 --> 00:18:35,886 You'd be sittin' in this little box room 316 00:18:35,886 --> 00:18:37,803 for hours more or less. 317 00:18:44,721 --> 00:18:47,971 - They'd get ya and they'd push you in. 318 00:18:49,033 --> 00:18:52,700 You may try not go in, but they push you in. 319 00:18:58,047 --> 00:19:01,233 You'd sleep in the box with no bed. 320 00:19:01,233 --> 00:19:02,233 No mattress. 321 00:19:03,111 --> 00:19:06,811 They don't bring in food or water for ya. 322 00:19:06,811 --> 00:19:10,403 And you gotta stay there overnight, it's real dark. 323 00:19:10,403 --> 00:19:12,653 You know and you get scared 324 00:19:14,144 --> 00:19:15,884 and I thought to myself I can't cry, 325 00:19:15,884 --> 00:19:18,717 because you're not allowed to cry. 326 00:19:23,493 --> 00:19:27,263 - Across the country, children taken into state care 327 00:19:27,263 --> 00:19:29,086 whether they were put in institutions 328 00:19:29,086 --> 00:19:31,786 or sent out into employment situations, 329 00:19:31,786 --> 00:19:34,563 suffered an enormous amount of abuse. 330 00:19:34,563 --> 00:19:38,730 Psychological, emotional, physical and sexual abuse. 331 00:19:44,792 --> 00:19:47,104 - I said to this officer Hailey, 332 00:19:47,104 --> 00:19:49,963 she said something and I said, "oh shut up." 333 00:19:49,963 --> 00:19:52,977 "That's the last time you'll ever say that to me" she said. 334 00:19:52,977 --> 00:19:54,507 I'll get you. 335 00:19:54,507 --> 00:19:56,924 Never thought anything of it. 336 00:19:59,384 --> 00:20:02,801 About a week later, she was on bath duty. 337 00:20:04,804 --> 00:20:07,030 There's two baths and they call you in. 338 00:20:07,030 --> 00:20:10,420 Betty Lee was in that bath and I was in the other bath. 339 00:20:10,420 --> 00:20:14,587 I was washin' myself quite happy, very happy, singin' away 340 00:20:15,744 --> 00:20:17,776 and Betty yells out, "watch it Adelaide, 341 00:20:17,776 --> 00:20:19,859 "watch it, she's coming." 342 00:20:25,439 --> 00:20:28,699 I felt this burnin' right across me back. 343 00:20:32,544 --> 00:20:35,298 I didn't cry, I didn't cry. 344 00:20:35,298 --> 00:20:38,069 I didn't give her the satisfaction. 345 00:20:38,069 --> 00:20:40,997 But that cat o nine tails, 346 00:20:40,997 --> 00:20:43,355 that bloke down near the stock yards 347 00:20:43,355 --> 00:20:45,110 gave one to the officers. 348 00:20:45,110 --> 00:20:47,610 That whip, to keep us in hand. 349 00:20:49,021 --> 00:20:51,415 And that's what they used to use on the cattle 350 00:20:51,415 --> 00:20:54,415 to get 'em into the different yards. 351 00:21:05,087 --> 00:21:09,254 - They used to call me a runner, I'm always on the run. 352 00:21:12,409 --> 00:21:15,002 I ran away from the home 353 00:21:15,002 --> 00:21:17,585 and the policeman picked me up, 354 00:21:19,118 --> 00:21:20,701 and I was about 12. 355 00:21:22,832 --> 00:21:24,749 And I was put in a cell 356 00:21:25,715 --> 00:21:28,132 and that's where he raped me. 357 00:21:31,996 --> 00:21:33,829 I kept that to myself. 358 00:21:35,007 --> 00:21:38,534 I kept the rape to myself 'cause I always thought 359 00:21:38,534 --> 00:21:40,065 well you don't say those things 360 00:21:40,065 --> 00:21:41,801 or you get into trouble. 361 00:21:41,801 --> 00:21:44,551 And they won't believe ya anyway. 362 00:21:58,071 --> 00:22:01,821 - They were so-called Christian missionaries. 363 00:22:03,048 --> 00:22:06,048 We was made to call him mom and dad. 364 00:22:08,415 --> 00:22:10,966 Or we used to call 'em little names on the side. 365 00:22:13,447 --> 00:22:16,364 I know you should not hate anybody, 366 00:22:18,707 --> 00:22:22,374 but he is one man that I really really hate. 367 00:22:26,286 --> 00:22:29,621 - Things he done was unbelievable 368 00:22:29,621 --> 00:22:32,954 and they were supposed to look after us. 369 00:22:36,305 --> 00:22:37,555 Used to hit us. 370 00:22:38,580 --> 00:22:39,913 Do other things. 371 00:22:40,851 --> 00:22:43,184 Things you wouldn't believe. 372 00:22:45,829 --> 00:22:47,246 He abused me bad. 373 00:22:48,575 --> 00:22:49,575 Done things, 374 00:22:51,617 --> 00:22:55,034 that I was too frightened to tell people. 375 00:22:58,565 --> 00:23:02,482 'Cause I always thought no one would believe me 376 00:23:05,177 --> 00:23:08,074 and I'm still goin' in surgeries. 377 00:23:08,074 --> 00:23:12,241 From this day on I'm still havin' surgery over this. 378 00:23:12,357 --> 00:23:13,846 That messed me, I'd go there 379 00:23:13,846 --> 00:23:17,214 and I'm gettin' tubes put in me. 380 00:23:17,214 --> 00:23:20,297 I still let it happen to me you know? 381 00:23:23,777 --> 00:23:25,944 Made me sit on his lap and 382 00:23:26,936 --> 00:23:29,971 he used to bounce up and down. 383 00:23:29,971 --> 00:23:31,888 It was dirty, very bad. 384 00:23:32,761 --> 00:23:35,511 And he calls himself a Christian. 385 00:23:56,956 --> 00:24:00,104 The tree was shaped like a horse, 386 00:24:00,104 --> 00:24:02,104 like gettin' on a horse. 387 00:24:04,685 --> 00:24:06,229 I jumped on it one day, 388 00:24:06,229 --> 00:24:09,266 I made out that I was takin' off from Marella. 389 00:24:09,266 --> 00:24:12,594 Sittin' on a nose, "yahoo" and all this, 390 00:24:12,594 --> 00:24:14,261 thinkin' I was free. 391 00:24:16,573 --> 00:24:18,488 But the day had to end ya know? 392 00:24:18,488 --> 00:24:21,874 It was make believe days, stories. 393 00:24:24,729 --> 00:24:27,128 It's very very hard when you're in a home, 394 00:24:27,128 --> 00:24:28,787 being treated, 395 00:24:28,787 --> 00:24:30,286 treated like slaves. 396 00:24:30,286 --> 00:24:33,869 Little children, we were kids, just slaves. 397 00:24:34,791 --> 00:24:37,062 To me I don't like workers sayin' dogs, 398 00:24:37,062 --> 00:24:38,895 but we were like dogs. 399 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:53,684 In 1897, the aboriginal protection 400 00:24:53,684 --> 00:24:56,422 and restriction of the sale of opium act 401 00:24:56,422 --> 00:24:58,505 was passed in Queensland. 402 00:24:59,845 --> 00:25:02,553 Under the guise of protecting aboriginal people 403 00:25:02,553 --> 00:25:05,278 from physical and financial exploitation 404 00:25:05,278 --> 00:25:06,802 by their employers, 405 00:25:06,802 --> 00:25:09,699 this legislation allowed the state government 406 00:25:09,699 --> 00:25:13,866 to assume complete control over aboriginal people's lives. 407 00:25:14,373 --> 00:25:17,222 Including the power to control their welfare entitlements 408 00:25:17,222 --> 00:25:18,055 and wages. 409 00:25:18,988 --> 00:25:22,155 A strategy repeated across the nation. 410 00:25:25,358 --> 00:25:27,130 - What happened for an aboriginal person 411 00:25:27,130 --> 00:25:29,897 sent out to work under the government control 412 00:25:29,897 --> 00:25:32,483 was that firstly you had no idea 413 00:25:32,483 --> 00:25:35,313 how much the government was selling your labour for. 414 00:25:35,313 --> 00:25:39,480 They didn't tell you what wage you were supposed to get. 415 00:25:40,542 --> 00:25:42,778 Secondly, while you're working, 416 00:25:42,778 --> 00:25:44,420 up to 80% of your wage, 417 00:25:44,420 --> 00:25:47,394 in theory was paid as, what they call pocket money, 418 00:25:47,394 --> 00:25:49,321 which was money that the employer paid you 419 00:25:49,321 --> 00:25:52,788 during the 12 month work period. 420 00:25:52,788 --> 00:25:54,297 But this pocket money quota, 421 00:25:54,297 --> 00:25:57,377 the government always knew from the very very beginning 422 00:25:57,377 --> 00:26:00,127 was probably never properly paid. 423 00:26:01,446 --> 00:26:03,554 It was so easy for employers to say, 424 00:26:03,554 --> 00:26:05,657 yes you got a shirt worth X amount, 425 00:26:05,657 --> 00:26:07,966 he got food worth X amount, he got tobacco 426 00:26:07,966 --> 00:26:10,668 and that takes up the whole 80%, 427 00:26:10,668 --> 00:26:14,451 so there's only 20% of the wage to be paid. 428 00:26:25,544 --> 00:26:27,927 - On many stations in to Kimberley right through 429 00:26:27,927 --> 00:26:31,548 until the late 1960s, all people were getting still 430 00:26:31,548 --> 00:26:35,715 was basic rations of meat, flour, tea, sugar 431 00:26:35,921 --> 00:26:37,921 and a ration of tobacco. 432 00:26:39,714 --> 00:26:42,973 For many aboriginal workers and their families on stations, 433 00:26:42,973 --> 00:26:44,380 that's all they got. 434 00:26:44,380 --> 00:26:48,547 Just this really meagre amount of food and tobacco rations 435 00:26:49,143 --> 00:26:51,976 in exchange for working full time. 436 00:26:56,130 --> 00:26:59,163 - One of the ways the government funded itself 437 00:26:59,163 --> 00:27:00,920 from aboriginal work was 438 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:03,881 through the Aboriginal Welfare Fund. 439 00:27:03,881 --> 00:27:07,827 This had been set up in 1943 and was always notorious 440 00:27:07,827 --> 00:27:09,744 for it's mismanagement. 441 00:27:10,384 --> 00:27:13,849 And the fund comprised a levy on the wages 442 00:27:13,849 --> 00:27:16,338 of all aboriginal workers which had been in place 443 00:27:16,338 --> 00:27:17,498 since 1919, 444 00:27:17,498 --> 00:27:19,361 and was used supposedly 445 00:27:19,361 --> 00:27:22,778 for the benefit of aboriginals generally. 446 00:27:25,505 --> 00:27:28,278 - Aboriginal workers on stations just couldn't up and leave 447 00:27:28,278 --> 00:27:29,235 when they wanted to. 448 00:27:29,235 --> 00:27:31,045 They were bound by employment contracts 449 00:27:31,045 --> 00:27:32,962 and employment permits. 450 00:27:34,310 --> 00:27:35,405 In economic terms, 451 00:27:35,405 --> 00:27:37,561 they were making so much money 452 00:27:37,561 --> 00:27:39,012 for the pastoral station owners 453 00:27:39,012 --> 00:27:41,370 because they were being paid either nothing at all 454 00:27:41,370 --> 00:27:44,120 or a fraction of the award wages. 455 00:27:45,945 --> 00:27:48,738 One of the complaints that station owners started making 456 00:27:48,738 --> 00:27:52,655 in the 1940s and 1950s when agitation for wages 457 00:27:53,594 --> 00:27:56,445 was coming from aboriginal workers themselves, 458 00:27:56,445 --> 00:27:58,045 one of those complaints was, 459 00:27:58,045 --> 00:27:59,979 if we have to pay these people wages, 460 00:27:59,979 --> 00:28:02,556 we can't run the station. 461 00:28:02,556 --> 00:28:05,427 These pastoral stations simply weren't viable economic 462 00:28:05,427 --> 00:28:09,228 propositions without the huge economic contribution 463 00:28:09,228 --> 00:28:13,395 that aboriginal people made to the industry. 464 00:28:13,452 --> 00:28:17,198 So it was really a one-way transfer of economic resources, 465 00:28:17,198 --> 00:28:20,865 from the aboriginal community to the nation. 466 00:28:22,799 --> 00:28:25,212 - Well generally speaking I find them quite good. 467 00:28:25,212 --> 00:28:26,868 I think I prefer the native neighbour. 468 00:28:26,868 --> 00:28:27,701 Why? 469 00:28:27,701 --> 00:28:30,088 - I get along quite well with my girls. 470 00:28:30,088 --> 00:28:32,921 Well if I had one white housemaid, 471 00:28:33,181 --> 00:28:35,580 well if she resigned I'd get left with nothing, 472 00:28:35,580 --> 00:28:39,747 but I've always got another girl to take one's place. 473 00:28:42,131 --> 00:28:44,898 - Aboriginal girls were taken from their families 474 00:28:44,898 --> 00:28:46,345 at such a rate. 475 00:28:46,345 --> 00:28:49,952 This was partly fueled by the insatiable desire 476 00:28:49,952 --> 00:28:52,981 for cheap domestic servants. 477 00:28:52,981 --> 00:28:54,377 These young aboriginal workers 478 00:28:54,377 --> 00:28:56,077 and some of them were really little more 479 00:28:56,077 --> 00:28:57,418 than children themselves, 480 00:28:57,418 --> 00:28:59,655 they were paid so little. 481 00:28:59,655 --> 00:29:02,084 Like in their hand they only got a few shillings 482 00:29:02,084 --> 00:29:05,991 and the rest was managed by the aborigines department. 483 00:29:05,991 --> 00:29:07,480 What it meant was that, 484 00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:09,975 even really modest households could expect to 485 00:29:09,975 --> 00:29:14,142 be able to employ an aboriginal domestic servant. 486 00:29:15,916 --> 00:29:17,539 This is an area of stolen wages 487 00:29:17,539 --> 00:29:19,683 where I don't think you can actually separate 488 00:29:19,683 --> 00:29:22,081 the stolen generation's story 489 00:29:22,081 --> 00:29:26,248 from the stolen wages story, they're completely entwined. 490 00:29:35,744 --> 00:29:38,755 - When you reach 14 and a half or something like that, 491 00:29:38,755 --> 00:29:42,005 you get your report sent up to the home 492 00:29:42,884 --> 00:29:45,423 and the matron sends it up to the welfare, 493 00:29:45,423 --> 00:29:47,489 Aborigine Welfare Board. 494 00:29:47,489 --> 00:29:50,160 If they think you can't go any further, 495 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:52,071 they stop you from going to school 496 00:29:52,071 --> 00:29:55,738 and then you're put out to domestic service. 497 00:30:00,831 --> 00:30:02,043 When you go on the farm, 498 00:30:02,043 --> 00:30:05,313 you're supposed to do the washing, clean the house, 499 00:30:05,313 --> 00:30:08,396 if there's kids there, gotta look after them. 500 00:30:08,396 --> 00:30:12,563 'Cause you never had a day off, you just kept on going. 501 00:30:22,357 --> 00:30:23,774 - I was 16 or 15, 502 00:30:25,263 --> 00:30:27,846 matron put me out on a property 503 00:30:29,257 --> 00:30:31,098 and I didn't know how to milk a cow. 504 00:30:31,098 --> 00:30:32,913 I used to put water in the bucket. 505 00:30:32,913 --> 00:30:35,569 And I put the bucket on top of the kitchen table 506 00:30:35,569 --> 00:30:37,291 and next minute I could hear this man say, 507 00:30:37,291 --> 00:30:39,958 "Valerie, Valerie, get in here!" 508 00:30:44,952 --> 00:30:46,565 I went in there and he said, 509 00:30:46,565 --> 00:30:48,635 "you put water in this milk." 510 00:30:48,635 --> 00:30:52,535 And I was shakin' like a leaf, I didn't know what to do. 511 00:30:52,535 --> 00:30:55,702 So he said, "next time just watch it." 512 00:30:59,228 --> 00:31:03,061 And then one day I was vacuuming in the lounge 513 00:31:04,148 --> 00:31:05,971 and he came back 514 00:31:05,971 --> 00:31:09,641 and he said, "Valerie" he said, "get in here!" 515 00:31:09,641 --> 00:31:12,004 He said, "you haven't done the kid's room." 516 00:31:12,004 --> 00:31:13,937 And I, I'd done the kid's room. 517 00:31:13,937 --> 00:31:17,400 I'd went in and vacuumed and cleaned the kid's room up. 518 00:31:25,686 --> 00:31:29,686 And he just threw me on the bed and he raped me. 519 00:31:34,613 --> 00:31:38,194 And that night when he came home, 520 00:31:38,194 --> 00:31:40,424 I had a cup and a plate in my hand 521 00:31:40,424 --> 00:31:42,484 and as soon as I'd seen him, 522 00:31:42,484 --> 00:31:45,292 I broke the cup and plate 523 00:31:45,292 --> 00:31:47,188 and then he gets this big fence boy 524 00:31:47,188 --> 00:31:50,188 and he belted me with the fence boy. 525 00:31:54,548 --> 00:31:55,934 And I went runnin' out 526 00:31:55,934 --> 00:31:59,278 and I slept in the wooden box outside all night. 527 00:31:59,278 --> 00:32:00,278 It was cold. 528 00:32:03,778 --> 00:32:05,681 Then I woke up the next mornin' 529 00:32:05,681 --> 00:32:09,614 and I looked up and seen if they were gone. 530 00:32:09,614 --> 00:32:11,077 And they were gone, 531 00:32:11,077 --> 00:32:13,632 so I went, I dunno I just went back into the house 532 00:32:13,632 --> 00:32:16,009 not realizin' what he's done, 533 00:32:16,009 --> 00:32:17,495 I just got his shoes 534 00:32:17,495 --> 00:32:20,986 and I started to clean his bloomin' shoes. 535 00:32:20,986 --> 00:32:22,494 'Cause I was frightened I was goin' to get myself 536 00:32:22,494 --> 00:32:26,577 in trouble with matron if I didn't behave myself. 537 00:32:32,594 --> 00:32:36,761 Then the knock came on the door and it was the police. 538 00:32:39,451 --> 00:32:41,802 And he said, "what's wrong Valerie?" 539 00:32:41,802 --> 00:32:43,663 And I said, "this man's been beltin' me 540 00:32:43,663 --> 00:32:46,609 "with this fence boy and he's done somethin' to me." 541 00:32:46,609 --> 00:32:49,966 And the police said, "you go and get your case 542 00:32:49,966 --> 00:32:52,685 "and pack your case, you're goin' back to the home." 543 00:32:52,685 --> 00:32:56,419 When I was goin' back to the home all matron would say, 544 00:32:56,419 --> 00:32:58,033 "now Valerie," she said, 545 00:32:58,033 --> 00:32:59,600 "don't mention or tell any of the girls 546 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:00,943 "what has happened to you 547 00:33:00,943 --> 00:33:02,982 "and tomorrow I shall buy you a new dress." 548 00:33:02,982 --> 00:33:05,016 And tomorrow came, she bought me a new dress 549 00:33:05,016 --> 00:33:08,004 but I didn't know where I was goin' in the new dress. 550 00:33:08,004 --> 00:33:09,506 And a week later after that, 551 00:33:09,506 --> 00:33:11,123 she sticks me out onto another property. 552 00:33:11,123 --> 00:33:15,237 I was so frightened of the man, I ran away. 553 00:33:27,086 --> 00:33:29,499 Government control over their wages 554 00:33:29,499 --> 00:33:31,506 effectively condemned many thousands 555 00:33:31,506 --> 00:33:33,219 of aboriginal girls and boys 556 00:33:33,219 --> 00:33:35,458 to a treadmill of abuse 557 00:33:35,458 --> 00:33:39,041 from which their was little hope of escape. 558 00:33:40,541 --> 00:33:44,260 Internal investigations from the early 1920s 559 00:33:44,260 --> 00:33:45,916 reveal aboriginal wages 560 00:33:45,916 --> 00:33:48,304 were misappropriated by governments 561 00:33:48,304 --> 00:33:50,886 to cover their own liabilities, 562 00:33:50,886 --> 00:33:53,056 including the cost of removing people 563 00:33:53,056 --> 00:33:54,603 to missions and reserves 564 00:33:54,603 --> 00:33:57,686 and the forcible removal of children. 565 00:33:59,216 --> 00:34:02,389 In essence, aboriginal people unwittingly funded 566 00:34:02,389 --> 00:34:04,806 their own disenfranchisement. 567 00:34:07,794 --> 00:34:09,526 Even thought the racial discrimination act 568 00:34:09,526 --> 00:34:12,776 established a legal award wage in 1975, 569 00:34:13,682 --> 00:34:17,420 many aboriginal workers continue to be underpaid 570 00:34:17,420 --> 00:34:21,420 and had no control over their financial affairs. 571 00:34:24,410 --> 00:34:27,528 - There is almost no proper money trail 572 00:34:27,528 --> 00:34:29,867 of what happened to aboriginal savings, 573 00:34:29,867 --> 00:34:33,930 individual savings, because people were never given 574 00:34:33,930 --> 00:34:36,101 any record of what was being done to their money 575 00:34:36,101 --> 00:34:39,036 until 1968 when they were given bank books 576 00:34:39,036 --> 00:34:41,069 which showed just the amounts 577 00:34:41,069 --> 00:34:42,837 still sitting in their account, 578 00:34:42,837 --> 00:34:45,376 and for many people that was a tiny amount 579 00:34:45,376 --> 00:34:48,376 after perhaps three decades of work. 580 00:34:50,713 --> 00:34:54,071 So the profitability of the state, 581 00:34:54,071 --> 00:34:57,458 it was built on the backs of black workers 582 00:34:57,458 --> 00:34:59,762 and it was built to a large extent 583 00:34:59,762 --> 00:35:02,587 with the money, which black workers earned, 584 00:35:02,587 --> 00:35:04,337 but governments took. 585 00:35:28,547 --> 00:35:30,393 - Stroke of luck came. 586 00:35:30,393 --> 00:35:32,753 I was sent to Sydney. 587 00:35:32,753 --> 00:35:34,253 I was goin' on 16. 588 00:35:42,740 --> 00:35:45,501 I went to work for this beautiful woman at Double Bay, 589 00:35:45,501 --> 00:35:47,327 her and her mother. 590 00:35:47,327 --> 00:35:49,898 She was paralysed from the waist down. 591 00:35:49,898 --> 00:35:52,378 She gave me all the respect I needed 592 00:35:52,378 --> 00:35:54,815 and she was the only one that did. 593 00:35:54,815 --> 00:35:56,667 She always made sure if I was upset, 594 00:35:56,667 --> 00:35:59,220 she'd say to me, "what's your problem Adelaide?" 595 00:35:59,220 --> 00:36:01,233 And sometimes I couldn't tell her 596 00:36:01,233 --> 00:36:03,663 and then other times I could tell her. 597 00:36:03,663 --> 00:36:07,163 And she said, "oh we'll get through this." 598 00:36:17,078 --> 00:36:19,411 - I'd run away from Marella. 599 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:24,767 I went in a red fern and lived in there for three months, 600 00:36:25,489 --> 00:36:27,250 on the streets. 601 00:36:27,250 --> 00:36:29,965 Stealin' milk and snow drop and takin' clothes 602 00:36:29,965 --> 00:36:32,573 off the lines and puttin' my clothes back on the line 603 00:36:32,573 --> 00:36:33,490 to survive. 604 00:36:35,743 --> 00:36:37,976 I seen these group of aboriginal people 605 00:36:37,976 --> 00:36:39,620 come towards me. 606 00:36:39,620 --> 00:36:42,808 I crossed the road, I was frightened. 607 00:36:42,808 --> 00:36:46,975 'Cause you know, you grew up with the kids in the home 608 00:36:47,441 --> 00:36:49,691 but seein' the free people, 609 00:36:50,678 --> 00:36:52,837 you know people that was free? 610 00:36:52,837 --> 00:36:55,670 Havin' them do what they wanna do. 611 00:37:04,192 --> 00:37:08,359 - I used the bloody men, they used me and I used them. 612 00:37:09,788 --> 00:37:11,868 It wasn't for love. 613 00:37:11,868 --> 00:37:14,774 They might've loved me, but I never loved them. 614 00:37:14,774 --> 00:37:17,629 What the hell's love gotta do with it? 615 00:37:17,629 --> 00:37:20,528 I had to go with these white fellas, 616 00:37:20,528 --> 00:37:22,053 'cause I believed that white fellas 617 00:37:22,053 --> 00:37:25,102 are a better race that me own people. 618 00:37:25,102 --> 00:37:27,185 I learnt different later, ha! 619 00:37:27,185 --> 00:37:29,602 I used these white fellas up. 620 00:37:30,547 --> 00:37:31,625 Reason why I used to go in the pub 621 00:37:31,625 --> 00:37:33,825 to meet me own people, I'm trying to find who I belong to, 622 00:37:33,825 --> 00:37:36,825 where I come from, things like that. 623 00:37:38,832 --> 00:37:41,315 - It's taken a long time for me to realise 624 00:37:41,315 --> 00:37:43,565 that I wasn't really white. 625 00:37:44,538 --> 00:37:48,538 That's how good they are, it's like a brainwash. 626 00:37:50,039 --> 00:37:51,911 You know, when I seen a dark person 627 00:37:51,911 --> 00:37:53,567 I used to cross the road, 628 00:37:53,567 --> 00:37:56,716 'cause I didn't wanna associate. 629 00:37:56,716 --> 00:37:58,826 You're brought up that way. 630 00:37:58,826 --> 00:38:01,159 You accept things, you know? 631 00:38:03,083 --> 00:38:05,866 - They said not to marry an aborigine person, 632 00:38:05,866 --> 00:38:08,783 because they were dirty and the white race 633 00:38:08,783 --> 00:38:11,700 was better than the aborigine race. 634 00:38:15,641 --> 00:38:17,400 - I'm sure it gives people some comfort 635 00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:18,658 to think that these were things 636 00:38:18,658 --> 00:38:20,749 that all happened in the past. 637 00:38:20,749 --> 00:38:23,533 But the fact of the matter is that it's just not true. 638 00:38:23,533 --> 00:38:25,097 You've first of all got people 639 00:38:25,097 --> 00:38:28,202 who live in our community who lived this. 640 00:38:28,202 --> 00:38:30,284 To them it wasn't just yesterday, 641 00:38:30,284 --> 00:38:32,599 they live with this every day. 642 00:38:38,645 --> 00:38:41,462 The sorts of traumas that they've suffered as children. 643 00:38:41,462 --> 00:38:45,013 The impact of separation from their families. 644 00:38:45,013 --> 00:38:48,438 These traumas do get handed down. 645 00:38:48,438 --> 00:38:51,699 Their removal as children made it very difficult for them 646 00:38:51,699 --> 00:38:53,199 to be in a family. 647 00:39:07,955 --> 00:39:09,535 When I got married, 648 00:39:09,535 --> 00:39:13,702 I was lookin' for somebody to look after me for a change. 649 00:39:16,618 --> 00:39:18,951 It didn't work out that way. 650 00:39:22,228 --> 00:39:25,061 Used to come home drunk, you know? 651 00:39:27,399 --> 00:39:30,399 And all he wanted was you know what. 652 00:39:31,505 --> 00:39:32,818 And I thought to myself, 653 00:39:32,818 --> 00:39:35,519 I suppose it was meant to happen again. 654 00:39:35,519 --> 00:39:38,179 I got so used to bein' abused 655 00:39:38,179 --> 00:39:40,429 and I didn't trust anybody. 656 00:39:41,539 --> 00:39:44,372 I think that trust is a big thing. 657 00:39:45,332 --> 00:39:48,701 People say you've gotta move forward. 658 00:39:48,701 --> 00:39:50,538 How does one move forward 659 00:39:50,538 --> 00:39:52,672 when you still go that in your mind, 660 00:39:52,672 --> 00:39:55,339 what happened to you as a child? 661 00:40:08,464 --> 00:40:10,020 - As much as I love my husband, 662 00:40:10,020 --> 00:40:12,005 I did still have no trust in him you know? 663 00:40:12,005 --> 00:40:13,422 It was very hard. 664 00:40:16,096 --> 00:40:19,576 My husband never smoked, he never drunk 665 00:40:19,576 --> 00:40:21,613 and he never got into me. 666 00:40:21,613 --> 00:40:23,696 He taught me how to cook, 667 00:40:24,914 --> 00:40:28,331 but then he had to die from the dialysis. 668 00:40:29,852 --> 00:40:32,465 From this day on I still haven't got a boyfriend 669 00:40:32,465 --> 00:40:35,000 'cause I'm too frightened, 670 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:37,000 for what I went through. 671 00:40:58,158 --> 00:41:00,329 - When I did go out and have my own family, 672 00:41:00,329 --> 00:41:03,961 I used to check the kids every night. 673 00:41:03,961 --> 00:41:05,406 I put my hand on their chest 674 00:41:05,406 --> 00:41:06,584 to see if they were still breathin' 675 00:41:06,584 --> 00:41:07,717 or see if they were still in their bed 676 00:41:07,717 --> 00:41:09,881 because they had no idea, 677 00:41:09,881 --> 00:41:12,796 they're not takin' my kids. 678 00:41:12,796 --> 00:41:15,133 And in the end of it, I just reared my kids on my own, 679 00:41:15,133 --> 00:41:18,050 I worked and reared my kids myself. 680 00:41:30,766 --> 00:41:33,930 - I don't think I was meant to be a mother. 681 00:41:33,930 --> 00:41:36,742 I just haven't had it in me. 682 00:41:36,742 --> 00:41:37,575 I tried. 683 00:41:40,375 --> 00:41:42,341 We weren't brought up with a mother, 684 00:41:42,341 --> 00:41:45,275 so how do you expect to be a mother to your children 685 00:41:45,275 --> 00:41:47,327 when you don't even know how to be a mother to them 686 00:41:47,327 --> 00:41:51,494 when you've never had one, to help ya, to guide you. 687 00:41:55,551 --> 00:41:57,155 - I used to say to the kids, 688 00:41:57,155 --> 00:41:58,994 if you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend, 689 00:41:58,994 --> 00:42:01,732 I wanna know who they are 690 00:42:01,732 --> 00:42:04,773 and I wanna know who their parents are, 691 00:42:04,773 --> 00:42:07,385 because they could have been related, you know? 692 00:42:07,385 --> 00:42:10,670 You get around the same area where you come from, 693 00:42:10,670 --> 00:42:13,590 everybody's more or less related to this one or that one 694 00:42:13,590 --> 00:42:15,270 and I'm thinkin' well no, 695 00:42:15,270 --> 00:42:17,502 I wanna know who they are and who their parents are 696 00:42:17,502 --> 00:42:19,585 and where they come from. 697 00:42:23,354 --> 00:42:27,140 - I was just goin' on 26 when I found out I was pregnant. 698 00:42:27,140 --> 00:42:29,835 And I was cranky, cranky as hell. 699 00:42:29,835 --> 00:42:32,385 So I went to see an abortionist, 700 00:42:32,385 --> 00:42:34,474 I didn't want a kid, never wanted a kid, 701 00:42:34,474 --> 00:42:36,219 never wished to have any kids. 702 00:42:36,219 --> 00:42:38,447 If this is the way they treat aborigine kids, 703 00:42:38,447 --> 00:42:40,600 never will I bring a child into this world 704 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:44,350 to be abused like this, that's how I thought. 705 00:42:46,697 --> 00:42:48,197 Well I had Robert, 706 00:42:51,334 --> 00:42:53,258 and I said to the lady, I'll leave if you like 707 00:42:53,258 --> 00:42:56,904 and she said, "no you're not, we'll bring him up together." 708 00:42:56,904 --> 00:42:58,691 And she brought him up. 709 00:42:58,691 --> 00:42:59,941 He wasn't mine. 710 00:43:01,431 --> 00:43:03,329 She took control of him. 711 00:43:03,329 --> 00:43:06,496 I was just the one who gave the birth. 712 00:43:09,237 --> 00:43:12,568 And I've never said to him I love you, never. 713 00:43:12,568 --> 00:43:13,818 'Cause I can't. 714 00:43:15,228 --> 00:43:19,193 Because of what happened up at that home. 715 00:43:19,193 --> 00:43:21,769 Taught me not to trust people, not to love anyone, 716 00:43:21,769 --> 00:43:24,269 not even to love me own child. 717 00:43:40,300 --> 00:43:43,967 - I was goin' through depression pretty bad. 718 00:43:45,764 --> 00:43:47,761 I was havin' flashbacks 719 00:43:47,761 --> 00:43:50,928 so I had to go and see a psychiatrist. 720 00:43:53,028 --> 00:43:54,924 I told him what happened 721 00:43:54,924 --> 00:43:56,783 and he said, "why don't you sketch 722 00:43:56,783 --> 00:43:59,515 "what happened to you as a child?" 723 00:43:59,515 --> 00:44:02,515 And I've been doin' that ever since. 724 00:44:03,540 --> 00:44:06,651 When you're paintin' you're in a world of your own. 725 00:44:06,651 --> 00:44:10,604 Your mind's occupied by the paint your doin'. 726 00:44:10,604 --> 00:44:14,771 'Cause if I don't paint, I start to have the flashbacks. 727 00:44:15,446 --> 00:44:17,863 I start to get panic attacks. 728 00:44:32,471 --> 00:44:34,087 - I do what they taught me to do. 729 00:44:34,087 --> 00:44:37,004 I just clean and look after myself. 730 00:44:37,471 --> 00:44:39,721 Play tennis and play bowls. 731 00:44:40,851 --> 00:44:44,074 Very sporty, I get out and play a lot of sports. 732 00:44:44,074 --> 00:44:47,407 I used to always play sports, years ago. 733 00:44:50,190 --> 00:44:52,991 Even had a go at football. 734 00:44:58,895 --> 00:45:01,693 - And when I went to Sydney, 735 00:45:01,693 --> 00:45:05,860 I couldn't understand why I was gettin' pains all the time. 736 00:45:07,731 --> 00:45:10,720 I was playin' tennis and I used to double up with pains. 737 00:45:10,720 --> 00:45:14,887 I used to play with these white people out at Rose Bay. 738 00:45:15,672 --> 00:45:17,095 Went home to the lady I worked for, 739 00:45:17,095 --> 00:45:19,631 I said, "I dunno I've got these two pains under here." 740 00:45:19,631 --> 00:45:23,660 She said, "we'll send you to the doctor." 741 00:45:23,660 --> 00:45:24,921 Now I went into hospital, 742 00:45:24,921 --> 00:45:26,643 not knowing what was going to happen. 743 00:45:26,643 --> 00:45:27,953 Not knowing. 744 00:45:27,953 --> 00:45:30,232 Doctor came around, looked at my chart, 745 00:45:30,232 --> 00:45:33,558 he said, "look girly I'm gonna ask you one simply question 746 00:45:33,558 --> 00:45:35,368 "and one simple question only. 747 00:45:35,368 --> 00:45:38,716 "You can give me that answer or not? 748 00:45:38,716 --> 00:45:42,275 "That kidney was caused through trauma. 749 00:45:42,275 --> 00:45:43,929 "Did you fall? 750 00:45:43,929 --> 00:45:47,678 "Or fall off a horse, fall down out of a tree?" 751 00:45:47,678 --> 00:45:51,241 That's what that bloody thing did, that whip. 752 00:45:51,241 --> 00:45:52,613 I didn't say nothin'. 753 00:45:52,613 --> 00:45:55,946 I said, nah I don't wanna talk about it. 754 00:46:02,085 --> 00:46:05,507 - Now it's gone, why'd he put me through that? 755 00:46:05,507 --> 00:46:09,121 I get angry and I swear, to myself. 756 00:46:09,121 --> 00:46:12,416 'Cause you gotta get everything out you know? 757 00:46:12,416 --> 00:46:14,650 When you got that anger, you do anything. 758 00:46:14,650 --> 00:46:18,299 I threw plates, I wanted to jump on the railway tracks 759 00:46:18,299 --> 00:46:19,632 down Rooty Hill. 760 00:46:21,234 --> 00:46:23,117 And even when my husband died I said Doug 761 00:46:23,117 --> 00:46:27,284 what've you left me for 'cause I need ya but where are you? 762 00:46:34,913 --> 00:46:37,879 So I went back just to sit there. 763 00:46:37,879 --> 00:46:41,046 To see a little creek runnin' through. 764 00:46:47,636 --> 00:46:51,053 Now it's a recreation centre built there. 765 00:46:52,538 --> 00:46:54,544 And I wanna try and get a plaque put up 766 00:46:54,544 --> 00:46:57,877 for the Marella children that was there. 767 00:47:08,816 --> 00:47:11,071 In 2006, a senate legal 768 00:47:11,071 --> 00:47:13,259 and constitutional affairs committee 769 00:47:13,259 --> 00:47:17,016 established an inquiry into stolen wages nationally. 770 00:47:17,016 --> 00:47:20,626 Almost 170 years after a British committee 771 00:47:20,626 --> 00:47:24,256 first recommended that protectors of aborigines 772 00:47:24,256 --> 00:47:26,423 be appointed in Australia. 773 00:47:28,914 --> 00:47:31,541 The senate committee found extensive evidence 774 00:47:31,541 --> 00:47:35,067 of misappropriated trust funds, welfare entitlements 775 00:47:35,067 --> 00:47:37,069 and stolen wages. 776 00:47:37,069 --> 00:47:39,995 Estimated to be at least 500 million dollars 777 00:47:39,995 --> 00:47:42,476 in Queensland alone. 778 00:47:42,476 --> 00:47:45,573 It recommended that indigenous people be supported 779 00:47:45,573 --> 00:47:47,406 to tell their stories. 780 00:47:48,024 --> 00:47:50,955 Given unhindered access to government archives 781 00:47:50,955 --> 00:47:53,765 and that a national scheme be established 782 00:47:53,765 --> 00:47:56,329 to undertake preliminary legal research 783 00:47:56,329 --> 00:47:57,829 into stolen wages. 784 00:48:01,238 --> 00:48:05,405 Almost 10 years later, claimants are still waiting. 785 00:48:07,923 --> 00:48:12,081 - Reparations have been a really tricky legal issue. 786 00:48:12,081 --> 00:48:15,224 For an average person who hears what happens, 787 00:48:15,224 --> 00:48:17,492 to many of the people who were taken 788 00:48:17,492 --> 00:48:20,857 and then suffered horrendous abuse, 789 00:48:20,857 --> 00:48:24,235 have long psychological damage, 790 00:48:24,235 --> 00:48:27,630 it becomes a real question as to why 791 00:48:27,630 --> 00:48:30,630 there isn't a legal remedy for that? 792 00:48:36,582 --> 00:48:40,406 - In May 2002, Queensland Labour Premier Peter Beattie 793 00:48:40,406 --> 00:48:43,999 made an offer of reparations in parliament. 794 00:48:43,999 --> 00:48:47,024 He said, "we have no idea how much money has gone missing 795 00:48:47,024 --> 00:48:49,620 "from people's accounts over the decades." 796 00:48:49,620 --> 00:48:52,128 He quoted it was a least half a billion dollars 797 00:48:52,128 --> 00:48:54,163 over an 80 year period. 798 00:48:54,163 --> 00:48:57,726 From all of the whole range of funds that went missing 799 00:48:57,726 --> 00:49:01,893 and so he offered 55.6 million dollars was his offer. 800 00:49:03,113 --> 00:49:06,465 What it worked out to was $2000 per person 801 00:49:06,465 --> 00:49:09,577 for a younger claimant and $4000 per person 802 00:49:09,577 --> 00:49:12,391 for somebody 55 years and older. 803 00:49:12,391 --> 00:49:16,558 To get that money, you had to sign away your legal rights. 804 00:49:16,622 --> 00:49:18,681 There was such a poor take up of the offer, 805 00:49:18,681 --> 00:49:20,339 people were so disgusted 806 00:49:20,339 --> 00:49:22,892 that the subsequent labour government 807 00:49:22,892 --> 00:49:25,516 increased the amount to $7000 which again 808 00:49:25,516 --> 00:49:28,317 is still an absolute pittance. 809 00:49:28,317 --> 00:49:32,484 Certainly the Queensland government, in it's conditions 810 00:49:32,810 --> 00:49:36,304 said that only people who were alive on the date 811 00:49:36,304 --> 00:49:38,614 in May 2002 when they made the offer, 812 00:49:38,614 --> 00:49:41,202 only they could apply for the money, 813 00:49:41,202 --> 00:49:43,705 so anybody who's parents, grandparents, 814 00:49:43,705 --> 00:49:46,640 great grandparents had lost money under the system, 815 00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:48,473 they were out of luck. 816 00:49:51,663 --> 00:49:55,288 - I think it's important that what they do do 817 00:49:55,288 --> 00:49:58,823 is recognise that there was a structural harm 818 00:49:58,823 --> 00:50:02,990 that was being committed against a broad group of people. 819 00:50:08,886 --> 00:50:12,219 Their experience was continually denied. 820 00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:15,839 There's something very important about 821 00:50:15,839 --> 00:50:17,872 a formal structure that says, 822 00:50:17,872 --> 00:50:19,974 well yes it did take place 823 00:50:19,974 --> 00:50:24,141 and yes there were people who worked in these circumstances 824 00:50:24,549 --> 00:50:27,105 and were effectively treated as slave labour 825 00:50:27,105 --> 00:50:30,188 and we need to do something about it. 826 00:50:31,803 --> 00:50:35,259 When you look at the poverty within indigenous communities, 827 00:50:35,259 --> 00:50:36,919 the fact that there's so little 828 00:50:36,919 --> 00:50:40,073 that people had to hand down, in a material sense, 829 00:50:40,073 --> 00:50:42,221 it is a way in which people 830 00:50:42,221 --> 00:50:44,643 who have been exploited for their labour 831 00:50:44,643 --> 00:50:48,810 are unable to even bequeath that to their children 832 00:50:49,571 --> 00:50:51,571 and their grandchildren. 833 00:50:56,913 --> 00:51:00,158 - There really needs to be a political will 834 00:51:00,158 --> 00:51:03,972 at both the federal level and the state and territory level 835 00:51:03,972 --> 00:51:05,687 to drive this issue, 836 00:51:05,687 --> 00:51:09,645 until aboriginal workers and their families 837 00:51:09,645 --> 00:51:12,812 receive the justice that they deserve. 838 00:51:14,722 --> 00:51:17,743 - The money that should've gone to aboriginal workers 839 00:51:17,743 --> 00:51:21,347 was used to continue to remove children. 840 00:51:21,347 --> 00:51:22,845 And when you think that this was a policy 841 00:51:22,845 --> 00:51:25,369 that went form the 1880s informally, 842 00:51:25,369 --> 00:51:28,031 through to a very strong state structure 843 00:51:28,031 --> 00:51:31,635 by the early 1900s, right into the 1960s, 844 00:51:31,635 --> 00:51:34,385 you're talking about generations. 845 00:51:35,743 --> 00:51:37,512 You can even conceive where people 846 00:51:37,512 --> 00:51:40,564 would've been funding these bodies that would then 847 00:51:40,564 --> 00:51:43,688 come and take their own children. 848 00:51:48,712 --> 00:51:51,843 - An awful lot of the despair on the communities, 849 00:51:51,843 --> 00:51:55,918 is rooted in the institutionalised dis-empowerment 850 00:51:55,918 --> 00:51:57,335 over generations. 851 00:51:58,260 --> 00:52:00,925 And I believe that the government is responsible 852 00:52:00,925 --> 00:52:03,291 for the conditions today. 853 00:52:03,291 --> 00:52:04,949 Legally responsible. 854 00:52:04,949 --> 00:52:06,279 I think they had a duty of care. 855 00:52:06,279 --> 00:52:08,504 They gave themselves that duty of care 856 00:52:08,504 --> 00:52:11,004 in their laws and regulations. 857 00:52:12,595 --> 00:52:14,133 - There is probably a short answer 858 00:52:14,133 --> 00:52:16,888 to what you call someone who is in that circumstance, 859 00:52:16,888 --> 00:52:20,244 especially a child who is getting no wages 860 00:52:20,244 --> 00:52:22,327 or is severely underpaid. 861 00:52:23,245 --> 00:52:26,432 The United Nations human rights standards 862 00:52:26,432 --> 00:52:28,599 would say that is slavery. 863 00:52:31,667 --> 00:52:33,730 People will say, "well you know that's what happened 864 00:52:33,730 --> 00:52:35,747 "in the southern states of America 865 00:52:35,747 --> 00:52:37,595 "and we didn't have that here." 866 00:52:37,595 --> 00:52:39,871 But for the child who was working for nothing 867 00:52:39,871 --> 00:52:43,394 in someone else's kitchen with no other choice, 868 00:52:43,394 --> 00:52:45,067 cannot escape, 869 00:52:45,067 --> 00:52:48,663 is beaten when they don't do their work, 870 00:52:48,663 --> 00:52:51,830 is abused in other ways, it's slavery. 871 00:53:05,517 --> 00:53:07,017 It hurts, 872 00:53:07,046 --> 00:53:09,218 to think what the welfare done to them 873 00:53:09,218 --> 00:53:11,301 and what they done to us. 874 00:53:13,402 --> 00:53:15,902 The pain that we went through. 875 00:53:18,110 --> 00:53:22,277 To look back on my life, it wasn't a life. 876 00:53:24,755 --> 00:53:26,588 It just wasn't a life. 877 00:53:35,490 --> 00:53:38,046 I got my freedom. 878 00:53:38,046 --> 00:53:39,559 I got a lot of love 879 00:53:39,559 --> 00:53:42,892 and I got my children, my grandchildren. 880 00:53:44,602 --> 00:53:46,776 And now they give me support. 881 00:53:46,776 --> 00:53:47,609 They give me the strength, 882 00:53:47,609 --> 00:53:49,293 'cause I can stand up and talk to them, 883 00:53:49,293 --> 00:53:53,405 tell them what's right from wrong you know? 884 00:54:04,358 --> 00:54:05,386 - I will never forgive them 885 00:54:05,386 --> 00:54:08,199 for what they done to me you know? 886 00:54:08,199 --> 00:54:11,423 I mean I wasn't the only one who got raped and abused. 887 00:54:11,423 --> 00:54:14,546 There was thousands of aborigine kids, boys too, 888 00:54:14,546 --> 00:54:17,713 they got raped, I wasn't the only one. 889 00:54:23,179 --> 00:54:24,777 - I was determined not to be broke, 890 00:54:24,777 --> 00:54:27,429 they wasn't gonna break me, 891 00:54:27,429 --> 00:54:29,679 I wanted to be me own self. 892 00:54:30,615 --> 00:54:32,241 I was seein' what happened with other kids 893 00:54:32,241 --> 00:54:34,339 and the way it affected them. 894 00:54:34,339 --> 00:54:36,468 A lot of them come out and all they wanted to do 895 00:54:36,468 --> 00:54:37,705 was they get on the drugs 896 00:54:37,705 --> 00:54:39,010 and they get on the alcohol 897 00:54:39,010 --> 00:54:41,187 and all this sorta thing. 898 00:54:41,187 --> 00:54:45,166 I never went that way, I was determined not to. 899 00:54:45,166 --> 00:54:48,575 I was gonna make somethin' of myself. 900 00:54:48,575 --> 00:54:51,143 But I ended up married with a mob of kids. 901 00:54:52,921 --> 00:54:54,338 Lovin' it though. 902 00:54:56,906 --> 00:54:58,565 - Why do you think a lot of these young boys 903 00:54:58,565 --> 00:55:02,732 and the men and the fathers went to drink and died? 904 00:55:02,848 --> 00:55:06,266 Because they lost their kids like my father. 905 00:55:06,266 --> 00:55:08,590 He had nothing to live for, nothing. 906 00:55:08,590 --> 00:55:10,142 So he just threw in the towel, 907 00:55:10,142 --> 00:55:11,884 they weren't going to give his kids back, 908 00:55:11,884 --> 00:55:14,631 he asked for them back, so what? 909 00:55:14,631 --> 00:55:15,631 That was it. 910 00:55:16,975 --> 00:55:20,892 - I had to go to TAFE to learn about my people. 911 00:55:21,666 --> 00:55:23,405 I was very proud you know? 912 00:55:23,405 --> 00:55:26,519 I was hurt to learn about them, very hurt, 913 00:55:26,519 --> 00:55:27,664 'cause I was sayin' to myself, 914 00:55:27,664 --> 00:55:31,831 why didn't I learn these things while I was at school? 915 00:55:32,315 --> 00:55:35,692 And I'm proud to be an aborigine. 916 00:55:35,692 --> 00:55:37,753 And I always will be. 917 00:55:37,753 --> 00:55:41,358 I'm proud to be a proud black woman. 918 00:55:41,358 --> 00:55:42,691 Proud to be one. 919 00:55:43,641 --> 00:55:44,474 Okay? 920 00:56:06,472 --> 00:56:10,601 ♫ As I went down to the river to pray 921 00:56:10,601 --> 00:56:14,283 ♫ Studying about that good ol' way 922 00:56:14,283 --> 00:56:18,240 ♫ And who shall wear the starry crown 923 00:56:18,240 --> 00:56:21,907 ♫ Good Lord show me the way 924 00:56:22,899 --> 00:56:26,779 ♫ Oh sisters let's go down 925 00:56:26,779 --> 00:56:30,700 ♫ Let's go down, come on down 926 00:56:30,700 --> 00:56:34,545 ♫ Oh sisters let's go down 927 00:56:34,545 --> 00:56:38,212 ♫ Down to the river to pray 928 00:56:39,981 --> 00:56:44,148 ♫ As I lay down in the river to pray 929 00:56:44,256 --> 00:56:47,759 ♫ Studyin' about that good ol' way 930 00:56:47,759 --> 00:56:51,757 ♫ And who shall wear the starry crown 931 00:56:51,757 --> 00:56:55,924 ♫ Good Lord show me the way 932 00:56:56,150 --> 00:57:00,057 ♫ Oh sisters let's go down 933 00:57:00,057 --> 00:57:03,907 ♫ Let's go down, come on down 934 00:57:03,907 --> 00:57:07,964 ♫ Oh sisters, let's go down 935 00:57:07,964 --> 00:57:11,631 ♫ Down in the river to pray