Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

Confidential submission 843, Queensland: woman removed at 11 years from an informalfoster placement with an uncle and aunt arranged by her father due to his travelling forseasonal work and after the death of her mother and placed in an orphanage in the early1940s.The broad definition of the Indigenous family adopted by the Inquiry means thatsome experiences of separation from parents are beyond our terms of reference.Typically, too, these did not involve the application of laws, practices and policies offorcible removal. One example is the child reared by her maternal grandparents whonow seeks to trace her father without assistance from her mother or her family(confidential evidence 216, Victoria). Another example is the child fostered by herhalf-sister upon the death of her mother (confidential evidence 159, Victoria).Another is the woman whose own mother has raised her children and refuses to returnthem to their mother (confidential evidence 144, Victoria).The effectsTerm of reference (a) further requires the Inquiry to detail the effects of the pastlaws, practices and policies traced. Part 3 of this report details the effects for childrenremoved, their families left behind and their communities. The effects for the childrenremoved ranged from psychological harm to loss of native title entitlements. Mostsuffered multiple and disabling effects.We may go home, but we cannot relive our childhoods. We may reunite with our mothers,fathers, sisters, brothers, aunties, uncles, communities, but we cannot relive the 20, 30, 40years that we spent without their love and care, and they cannot undo the grief and mourningthey felt when we were separated from them. We can go home to ourselves as Aboriginals,but this does not erase the attacks inflicted on our hearts, minds, bodies and souls, bycaretakers who thought their mission was to eliminate us as Aboriginals (Link-Up (NSW)submission 186 page 29).The bulk of the evidence to the Inquiry detailed damaging and negative effects.However, our terms of reference clearly are not confined to these. The Inquiry didreceive some submissions acknowledging the love and care provided by non-Indigenous adoptive families (and foster families to a much lesser extent) or recordingappreciation for a high standard of education. However, all of the witnesses whomade these points also expressed their wish that they had not had to make thesacrifices they did.… even though I had a good education with [adoptive family] and I went to college,there was just this feeling that I did not belong there. The best day of my life was when Imet my brothers because I felt like I belonged and I finally had a family.Confidential submission 384, Tasmania: woman removed in the 1960s and adopted by a non-Indigenous family; no contact with brothers for 35 years.I’ve got everything that could be reasonably expected: a good home environment,education, stuff like that, but that’s all material stuff. It’s all the non-material stuff thatI didn’t have – the lineage. It’s like you’re the first human being at times. You know,you’ve just come out of nowhere; there you are. In terms of having a direction in life,how do you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve come from?Confidential evidence 136, Victoria: man adopted into a non-Indigenous family at 3 months;still grieving that he was unable to meet his birth mother before she died.