Paul:

Paul Angus was taken away from his mother, put into a new family, where he never fitted in, and finally after 17 years he was reunited with his mother. 

Paul was born in May 1964, he lived with his mother in an inner suburb in Melbourne. His mother took him to the Royal Children’s Hospital by the age of five and a half month, because both of them became ill. Under the recovery the Social welfare department of the Hospital said to his mother that she should put him into St Gabriel’s Babies’ Home in Balwyn. They said that it only should be until both of them were well again.
They took Paul away, not for a couple weeks, but for 18 years.

This is not a picture of Paul, but we think it looked like a Paul.

They sent him into adoption, with the reason that his mother was unable to take good care of him. They said she couldn’t locate his mother, so he needed to be in the Blackburn South Cottage for adoption chances.
In October 1967 he was placed with a family, but it only lasted 7 month, because the family rejected him because of his unresponsive behaviour. He was again put into another orphanage. Here he lived in the next to years. Every fortnight all the children lined up, and there came visitors, to look after child to adopt. Paul had that complexion that he was very dark, so not many would to have him as a foster kid.

In January 1970 he was placed in his last family, a mother, a father and four sons.
Paul knew he was different from the others, but his family said it was wrong, and lied to him about who he was. He was treated badly. His “brothers” bullied him, and called him names as “Abo”, and his “father” beat him, until he was pleading him to stop. At home he was punished for the slightest things and in the school he was bullied or punished of pupils and teachers. He was at the family until he was 17, and in may 1982 he got discharged from the State wardship, where he has been known as No 54321, because they only were interested in his file.
They told him that he was of aboriginal descent, and his whole family was alive. They gave him a bunch of paper, at all 368 pages, and lot of letter, photos and birthday cards. They were from his mother, who never stopped looking for him. She had visited the orphanages, sent letters to him the whole life through, sent tons of letters to the government, to get an explanation, and to get her son back, who the stole from her.

The welfare office gave him his mother’s current address, in the case he actually wanted to meet his aboriginal mother. He finally met his mother after 18 long years, she worked in a hostel for aboriginals children.

On the last page of his file papers, these words stood:

Paul is a very intelligent, likeable boy, who has made remarkable progress, given the unfortunate treatment of his Mother by the department during his childhood.


http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/stories-report

Greg

Greg is born on Cape Barren. At the time he was taken the family comprised, her mom, sister, two brothers and her grand mother. He lived in a small isolated community, it was a very peaceful and loving community. He recalls spending the most of his childhood living in the home of his grandparents.

He was taken a day, were he was in school. It was morning and he was in the classroom. The schoolmaster comes, and after he had a conversation with somebody. After that he came to get Greg, the schoolmaster took him out to a motorbike held by the officer and driven to the airstrip. This happen in October 1959 and Greg was 12 years. He was placed in a family in Hobart. It was a good family, they look on him as their son. The family had self one daughter, but Mrs… used to care for foster children and the house was full of other non-Aboriginal children. Thirty years after he was taken he went back. He walked around the sand spit, he saw the school and the places where he used to live as a kid. He saw his life flashed, he collapsed in the sand and start crying. He wants to be a part of his family that he was taken from.
This is not a picture of Greg, but it looked like a Greg.

The reason for his removal was that’s his mother was a widow in a poor health. After he was taken his mother was in total despair. She get drinking and suffered a fatal accident, the police came and collect the other children. The first time after Greg was taken, where the siblings were together was in 1995.

Karen:

Karen is an Aboriginal woman, but a white Australian family adopted her and they move to New Zealand when Karen was 6 month old. When she grew up, she didn’t know anything about her birth family. The only information Karen had about her natural family was hers mothers surname.



This is not a picture of Karen, but it looked like a Karen.

She guess that she had a quiet good relationship to her adopted family though her adopted mother said that she kept a lot to her self when she was growing up.

It was first when she get older she noticed that her skin colour was different from her adopted family, then her adopted mother tells her she was adopted from Australian and therefore a part aboriginal.

When she was a teens she was mixed up about where she belong because she was adopted. A result of that she started to have some psychiatric problems.

When she get an adult she get married to a New Zealander, and together there have 2 boys. One of her boys was black like herself and also was interesting in his heritage but she was unable to tell him about it because she didn’t know anything about it herself.

For 7 years ago took her and her family to Melbourne for a working holiday for like 10 weeks. In Melbourne she took to an officer for talking with a social worker and then she had bring a copy of her birth certificate. On the birth certificate was her birth mothers name on. The social worker got touch with her aunty, and then she got her birth mothers phone number.

She got contact with her birth mother and then they meet each other. She got information’s about the mother’s family. She knows now that she had 2 half brothers and her birth parents never get married.

She put an article in the local newspaper of her and her mom hope she finds her father.

The father recognized her mother and get in touch with her but the mother wouldn’t give the father her address in New Zealand and therefore the father took to the officer and from there the father got contact with her. She meet her father first time when she was going to a wedding in Melbourne, that was shortly after she got in contact with him.

Karen and her birth mother and father still have contact with each other today but she never will be able to make up the time she have lost because she live in New Zealand and her birth parents live in Australia.

Today she stills confused about where she belongs, and that have been very emotional for her. The result of that sometimes she get nervous breakdown. She’s on medication daily today and she sees a counsellor they’re trying to help her with accepting the situation. Her adopted family don’t want to know much about her birth family and that just make it’s harder for her.

Joyce Injie's story

Not all stories about the aboriginals end in tragedy, Joyce Injie's story is a good example of a girl who was allowed to stay with her parents. But she and her parents weren't left without the fear of separation. One day a welfare lady and her husband who stayed next day approached them, Joyce's father told her to run, and if she stopped, they would grab her and never let go. Joyce ran and they didn't catch her. The welfare lady reported them to the police, but they moved away to Rocklea station where her father got a job. One day a police officer came looking for her, but the station manager told him that Joyce was doing good, and since then the police left her alone. Even though they escaped the arms of the police they could only watch as Joyce's cousins were all taken away, never to return. 

Netta's story

Netta is an aboriginal girl who had been taken away from her mother. 
A police officer lured her away with a tasty treat and put her in a truck headed for an institution in Alice springs where she would be trained as a domestic servant. 
Netta was only 5 years old at the time, and unable to communicate, because she only knew her native aboriginal language, not english. Luckily one of the older girls was an aboriginal, and therefore she could explain to Netta that she would be at the institution for the rest of her life, and never see her mother again. Netta had described the institution as a prison.

When Netta grew up she got married and had children of her own, she had thought that her mother was dead for the last 30 years. But after a call from an office worker she had a surprise. Her mother had found her and they reunited. They both broke down and cried at the reunion.
"My girl has come home" her mother said. 

“Where’s my baby gone?”, a sculpture of a grieving mother by artist Silvio Apponyi in Adelaide, South Australia. 

The mother is an aboriginal who has lost her child, like many others.

Bill Simon's story

The story of Bill Simon is an example of an aboriginal boy who was forcibly removed from his family.

Bill was ten years old when it happened, it was the winter of 1957. He and his brothers were preparing for school, when three men knocked on the door. They were taken by these men, even though their mother screamed. Bill saw his mom crying on the road as they drove away. 

"My mother ran out onto the road, fell on her knees and belted her fists into the bitumen as she screamed. "

He was taken to Kinchela where he stayed until he was 17 years old. He suffered from severe abuse which left him unable to obtain healthy relationships and he quickly fell into drug and alcohol abuse. 

When he reached the 30's he met his mother again, but she had re-married and had other children, she rejected him. 

Even though the government thought they were helping, the children often ended up as victims to an abusive family.