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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2372 ..

MR WILLIAMS-MOZLEY (continuing):

Because of the fact that I was taken from my natural family at such a young age and thereafter denied access to my language, my culture, my land and my place in my family, I have no claims to my Aboriginal heritage. And, although I was raised in what could only be termed a "typical" white Australian family, white society will not accept me as white. I am neither black nor white. My identity resides somewhere in the hyphen in the middle of my name. In every respect, that is nowhere.

Three generations of my family, beginning with my mother and continuing with my sister's children, were removed over the last 40 years and either placed in institutions or adopted in the name of assimilation. We were not allowed to grow up with each other or within our families. Consequently, we do not know each other. We can, in all honesty, be described as "dysfunctional". We have no past and, given the mean-spirited and heartless treatment of the stolen generations issue by the current Federal Government, we have no future.

Mr Speaker, if I may be permitted, I would like to conclude by reading a poem that I wrote when I met my mother. It is titled "Assimilation" and represents my experience of being taken away. It says:

Tonight we met by white design
and through our tears, no cries of protest
we sat and talked from one so young,
of the many years brown skinned baby
we didn't share, motherless son,
together, twenty seven years
alone groping,
divided lives, unknown love, stumbling,
twenty seven years of coping,
tears, ambiguity the impetus of my mind,
fears, conjoined,
desires dual identity,
to perceive dissipated being,
a vaguely recalled connection shadow between two worlds
between mother and son, that never meet on one plane,
nine months as one save pain,
we shared life's blood, the only common feature,
before extrusion Mother
to an unfriendly world, tonight we met
conception of hate, and through our tears,
prejudice, we sat and talked
and alien rules, of the many years,
for the foetal bond we didn't share
that was our tie, together.
like the cord
was severed,

MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Williams-Mozley.

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