Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2376 ..

MRS MILLS (continuing):

Foster mother appears not much help to girl who appears unwelcomed at school -

I was 10 years old -

Girl rather sensitive about colour -

I was 12 years of age.

The six-monthly visits made by welfare officers were perhaps the most humiliating moments of my life. When the officer would visit the school, the headmaster's office would be the first point of call. I knew that whenever I was pulled out of my class to go to the headmaster's office it would be because the welfare officer was visiting. Visits usually meant that my hair, ears, teeth and on occasions my underclothing were checked. Other children in the school would ask, "Who was that lady who came to visit you and what did she want?". My only recall is that I was so ashamed I did not answer.

Mr Speaker, when I was 11 years of age, I was subjected to a psychological test. I was in my seventh year of primary school. What I had to do was thread coloured beads of different shapes onto a string. I recall the doctor threading her set of beads in front of me. Then she took them away and she said to me, "You thread them the same way as I did". The thought going through my head at that time was, "What would happen to me if I got it wrong?". When she finally laid our beads side by side, they were both exactly the same. I did not get them wrong. The results of that test revealed that I had an inferiority complex.

Mr Speaker, I did experience many good times in my childhood; but, because I was Aboriginal and separated from my family, to be brought up as a non-indigenous person, this made my life a continual struggle for survival. The other children in my foster family did not face the racial discrimination in the schoolyard as I did. They did not face the discrimination when seeking employment. They too were separated from their families. But one very clear distinction that I can establish between them and me was that they never received any word from their families during the time we were all together.

I did, however, receive letters from my mother and my eldest sister. Meetings between my family and my mother were arranged by the Welfare Department. Letters always came to me via the Welfare Department and were censored by them. Any information pertaining to their whereabouts was either crossed out or even cut out. I was told at a very early age that my mother did not want me and this was why she gave me away. Mr Speaker, that was one of the lies that I have lived with for most of my life, until the national inquiry was announced and my family and I made a decision to tell our stories. We made arrangements to obtain our records and any information on our family from the Lutheran archives in Adelaide. As mentioned previously, I have received very little information.

Last year, my eldest brother was sent 60 pages of information from his file. Contained on his file were many letters to the Welfare Department from our mother, always asking about her children and begging for her children to be returned. Mr Speaker, I have copies of two such letters, which I would like to read out. The first one was written in 1955.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .