Stuart Rintoul has been a writer and journalist for more
than 30 years. He was with The Australian, for 2 decades and
he is its former Victorian editor. He's written for
leading magazines including, Good Weekend. He's also the
author of "Ashes of Vietnam," and "Australian Voices."

As for what Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue felt about her being
removed from her family and culture by the Aboriginal
Protection Board and her life at the Mission. Quotes have been
provided as to what she said and felt at the time. And how she
overcame the adversity and prejudice.

http://theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/04/lowitja-odonoghue-formidable-advocate-for-aboriginal-australians-who-overcame-adversity-and-prejudice

Yes. Rintoul has been practising lying for years.

Stuart Rintoul would rather be called a liar for telling
the truth than being praised with kudos for a lie.
(smile).

Now back to the topic:

http://harpersbazaar.com.au/sydney-mardi-gras/

I think the issue here is that there was a distinct change in the story Lois was telling the world around the early 1990s when there was a distinct change in the way aboriginals in general presented themselves to the world.

This was the time when ATSIC was being established with such high hopes and aboriginal leaders were vying to get on the grave-train. It was also the time when the stolen generation was being created via the "Bringing Them Home" report. All aboriginals wanted to stake their claim to being stolen so that even those obviously not stolen, like Charles Perkins, allowed themselves to be called stolen.

It was also when it became required to believe that all stolen kids were raised in the most appalling of conditions.

So Lois, who had previous spoken of how she was given up by her parents, and how good the various institutions she'd been in were to her, started instead talking of being 'stolen' - although she later altered that to 'removed' when her previous statements were bought to light - and she started to walk back her previous rosy picture about Colebrook and her time in the institutions.

Had she not done so, her status within the aboriginal industry would have been severely reduced - so who can blame her for the little white lies. (Are we allowed to call them 'white' lies?).

It is from this later version of the Lois story that the biased reporting Foxy refers to was born.

While we can excuse Lois for embellishing the truth, such leeway shouldn't be given to so-called historians who just regurgitate the stories without any effort to establish facts or even acknowledge competing facts.

But it is the nature of the aboriginal industry these days - the narrative is more important than the facts - and providing fantasies for the likes of Foxy to absorb defeats any concern about the truth.

mhaze,

In 2008 Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue gave a remarkable speech from
the pulpit of St Peter's Cathedral in Adelaide. She described
what it was like growing up in a missionary home.

If you are really interested in the truth there is so much
information available. Not only from her own mouth, but from
The Australian Museum, National and State Libraries. Many
historians have documented the history of the "Stolen
Generations."

The "Bringing Them Home " report deals with the national
Inquiry into the removal of First Nations children from
their families. It deal with the strength and struggles
and acknowledges the hardships they endured and the
sacrifices they made.

In Australia between 1910 - 1970s It was government policy
forcibly remove from their families many Australian
Aboriginal children because of assimilation policies.

This is on historical record. It is fact. And Dr Lowitja
O'Donoghue was one of those children.