Bernie Matthews’ article focused on the Stolen Generation – and rightly so. Marlene’s story is a classic case of abuse and neglect by the State.

However, his introduction placed the institutionalisation of indigenous children within a broader framework of the 500,000 Australian children who were incarcerated in institutions. Bernie summarised their experiences: “Many of these vulnerable children were subjected to an institutionalised reign of terror that saw childhood innocence replaced with fear and psychological degradation.”

My comments should not detract from the horror of that case or from the disgrace of the Stolen Generation generally. Australians should read the Stolen Generations report, Bringing Them Home (HREOC 1997) but also the Forgotten Australians (Senate 2004) which details the treatment of children in institutions generally.

Bernie is right: “No other Australians were subject to the same discriminatory assimilation policies from the day they were born.” But once locked inside these institutions the colour of your skin made little difference. Bernie’s assessment applies broadly: “They were state-raised in an incarceration process that created unintended and devastating consequences during their adult lives”.

Sexual and psychological abuse, violence and lack of love (not to mention lack of educational opportunities) were characteristic of a system that lacked accountability and public scrutiny. Sexual predators were common among staff and even when they were blatantly exposed they were often just transferred to another opportunity.

Children who ran away had their names recorded in the Police Gazette, were tracked down, recaptured and humiliated.

Many former inmates are like Marlene - the disintegration of their adult lives “the product of the brutalising child-care system that stole [their] childhood”.

Many Forgotten Australians and Stolen Generation members are desperate to recover their files to recreate the story of their missing childhood. Many are finding that they had siblings or other relatives despite their ‘carers’ telling them lies to the contrary.

Tasmania and Queensland and some churches have modest redress schemes to help people whose childhoods have damaged their adulthoods. Other States, while issuing apologies (not the Commonwealth of course), have left it to the courts to decide if accountability is enforceable retrospectively.

Thank you Bernie for writing this very sad, but informative article.

I hope, given the hardships the Federal Government have placed on single mothers and their families in recent times, that families and childrens lives will not be destroyed, as they were during the period of the article.

I also suffered a similiar fate due to being made a ward of the state in the late 1950's.
I was removed from my family as a young child, placed in a state run boys home in Victoria.
In the Victorian State run institutions I was subjected to being tampered with by a member of staff at the Salvation Army Boys Home Number 2 at the Basin Victoria.
I spent the next 40 or so years in boys homes and prisons for following a life of crime all of which I learnt in institutions.
I had good training as a criminal and climbed the ranks in the underworld which almost cost my life in 1990 in Sydney.
Many of my friends all of who I met in institutions died violent deaths in underworld fueds.
In the mid 1990's I decided I had had enough of following the life as a career criminal and broke all ties with past friends and disappeared.
I changed my name by deed poll and rehabilitated myself. Occassionaly I get the urge to contact past friends, but manage to resist the urge.

That is so sad, no child should have to go through that! Good job to you Gypsy for turning your life around, you must be a very strong man as I am sure it wasn't easy to do. You should be very proud of yourself.

Whatever became of Marlene? A person wth that much guts and sense of right could teach all of us something.

hows life bernie?

How much do i still owe you?

Did you charge me interest while I was away?