TRANSCRIPT
A group of First Nations men have made an emotional journey retracing a painful past.
The survivors of the infamous Kinchela Boys Home on the mid-north coast of New South Wales are heading back to remember the past and celebrate their resilience.
Uncle Bobby Young says he has mixed feelings about the return.
"Feeling happy and sad to go back to that place. I still think of the memories of it, of all that we went through and all that."
The Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home was run by the New South Wales Government for over 50 years from the 1920s to the 1970s.
Under the guide of the so-called Aborigines Protection Act of 1909, the government forcibly removed boys aged five to 15 from their families and sent them to Kinchela if their removal was determined to be, as they stated, "in the interest of the moral or physical welfare".
Uncle Bobby Young says there were around 600 young boys like him who were stolen to be re-programmed to assimilate into white Australian society.
"There was 600 boys that went through there. There's only 49 of us left. When you walked through the gates of hell, which is what we called it, because it wasn't a happy place, it was sad. So there's going to be sad memories there when I get back there as well."
Some of the survivors and their families have made the seven and a half hour journey from Central Station by train for a three day gathering on Dunghutti country for the 100 year anniversary of the opening of Kinchela Boys Home.
The site has now been handed over to First Nations ownership, run by a not-for-profit Aboriginal community controlled organisation called Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation.
Taylor Fitzgerald from the organisation says it will be a challenging weekend but the community hopes to come together and celebrate survival.
"There's boundaries and battles that come with that, but really making sure that we're surviving through what has happened to us as people, not only just for our uncles. So it's going to be a really deadly weekend. There's going to be music, there's going to be dancing, there's going to be art, there's going to be kids activities. Just really promoting everything of what Kinchella Boys Home is as an organisation, but mainly supporting that truth telling that our uncles do on a daily basis."
Another survivor, Uncle Willie Leslie, says he's looking forward to visiting the site.
"I'm looking forward to it, really looking forward to it. It's a nice area, I love it."
In 2018, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found there were 17,000 survivors of the Stolen Generations still alive in Australia, and The Healing Foundation estimates more than a third of all First Nations Australians are descendants of survivors.
Taylor Fitzgerald says the act of starting the trip from Central Station is significant as it reflects the journey the men were forced to make as children.
"Of course, our uncles, in part of their truth telling, they say that Central Station has such a massive impact as a lot of the time that this is where their story or their personal experiences started taking that journey to be placed into that boys' home. And then of course, some uncles talk about how being dumped here after that and then just with all that trauma and impact and then having to make their own way."
Brian Shimadry from Transport for New South Wales says it's important that his department and the New South Wales government as a whole acknowledges its role in facilitating the Stolen Generations in order to move forward with healing.
"I think it's very important to acknowledge the trauma and pain that trains paid in part of the journey for Aboriginal people. Certainly with the Illa boys and from other sites and homes, I think the trauma and inter-generational trauma that that's caused is something that Transport and New South Wales trains certainly want to work forward with reconciliation and continue to support our Aboriginal people and Aboriginal communities and our Aboriginal workforce."
It’ll be a significant three days of truth-telling, stories of survival, strength and hope for the future.
Uncle Bobby Young says he'd like to see Kinchela become a place of healing for future generations.
"What I would like to see happen is if we can get the site back, we want to turn it into a healing place museum and units and cafe and that, and there's opportunity for our families, our grandkids, and our descendants so they can carry that future on for us."
