Introduction
The ‘Stolen Generations’ Testimonies’ project is an initiative to record on film the personal testimonies of Australia’s Stolen Generations Survivors and share them online.
The Stolen Generations' Testimonies Foundation hopes the online museum will become a national treasure and a unique and sacred keeping place for Stolen Generations’ Survivors’ Testimonies. By allowing Australians to listen to the Survivors’ stories with open hearts and without judgement, the foundation hopes more people will be engaged in the healing process.
The Stolen Generations' Testimonies Foundation hopes the online museum will become a national treasure and a unique and sacred keeping place for Stolen Generations’ Survivors’ Testimonies. By allowing Australians to listen to the Survivors’ stories with open hearts and without judgement, the foundation hopes more people will be engaged in the healing process.
Summary (7:13 mins)
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The Testimonies
In 2009 more than thirty Stolen Generations’ Survivors shared their stories, their memories and themselves in the first round of interviews for the ‘Stolen Generations’ Testimonies Foundation’. These are their testimonies. Thank you to those Survivors for their generosity of spirit in sharing their testimonies with us.
"There’s nothing more powerful than the personal story. For people to understand, we have to open ourselves up. It’s hard to tell our personal stories but we are doing this to educate people. For us to heal as a country these are the stories we need to share. They’re sad stories but they’re important stories. For me as a Stolen Generations’ Survivor, I know you don’t get over things. You sometimes don’t fully recover. What you do is you adjust and you build your life around the scars and that’s what you have to do in order to survive. And many of us have survived. Whatever this resilience is, whatever this stuff is that keeps us going, it is the strength of the Aboriginal spirit that keeps us alive. For those people who do feel challenged about the ‘Stolen Generations’, we ask you to listen to just one of these testimonies to see if you still feel the same. That’s all we ask" - Debra Hocking
Please click on the images to view the video testimonies.
Rita Wenberg
Vince Wenberg
Donna Meehan
Frank Byrne
Marie Melito Russell
Johnny Ross
Buddy Morrison
Glenys Ward
Michael Hannah
Paul Parfitt
Athol Mourish
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Murray Harrison
Debra Hocking
Marita AhChee
Daniel Forrester
Val Linnow
Kathleen Farrell
Ernie Sarah
Eileen Moseley
Herbie Laughton
Mohammad Ali McKee
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Ruth Mackenzie
Melbourne Hart
Rita Wright
George Tongerie
Jane Butters
Bill Simon
Kennedy Edwards
Barbara Kickett
Harold Furber
Lorraine Mcgee-Sippel
Harold Harrison
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Howard Edwards
Joan Saylor
Cecil Bowden
Maria Starcevic
Charles Kickett
Lester Maher
Clara Johnson
Keith Kitchener
Nita Marshall
Gus Wenberg
Marjorie Woodrow
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Background to the Project
The Stolen Generations Testimonies Project was initiated by filmmaker Melanie Hogan (www.melaniehogan.com) soon after the release of her acclaimed documentary film Kanyini (www.kanyini.com), featuring Stolen Generation Survivor Uncle Bob Randall.
One of the key aims and objectives when making Kanyini was to encourage more Australians to walk in the shoes of their Indigenous brothers and sisters. To go deeper. To begin to learn, to respect, to understand, and to start a friendship with Indigenous Australians; a friendship that has been missing for so long.
One key element in the film KANYINI was the importance of Aboriginal people to connect to family, in order to feel whole. The policies that created the Stolen Generations of Australia cut very deeply, the chord between many Aboriginal children and their parents. Uncle Bob Randall and Melanie Hogan therefore felt it was incredibly important to create a platform so that survivors of the Stolen Generations could share with Australians their loss and their resilience, so that we could all heal together. Thus the Stolen Generations Testimonies project was born.
One of the key aims and objectives when making Kanyini was to encourage more Australians to walk in the shoes of their Indigenous brothers and sisters. To go deeper. To begin to learn, to respect, to understand, and to start a friendship with Indigenous Australians; a friendship that has been missing for so long.
One key element in the film KANYINI was the importance of Aboriginal people to connect to family, in order to feel whole. The policies that created the Stolen Generations of Australia cut very deeply, the chord between many Aboriginal children and their parents. Uncle Bob Randall and Melanie Hogan therefore felt it was incredibly important to create a platform so that survivors of the Stolen Generations could share with Australians their loss and their resilience, so that we could all heal together. Thus the Stolen Generations Testimonies project was born.