Following my interview with Laura, Uncle Shane, as he introduced himself to me, said he wanted to tell his story. He said he wanted people to know what it was like being taken away from home and placed in state foster care or in residential care facilities. Uncle Shane said he was here to support GMAR and the work that they do as he never wanted to hear of another Indigenous Australian child being taken away from their family and culture.

As Uncle Shane told his story, he became angry at what had happened to him and others he knew, and at what was still taking place. Despite his anger, I was in awe at his apparent lack of bitterness and the enthusiastic and positive approach he had. But his past must have had some impact because I had thought Uncle Shane was in his mid-70s. In fact, Uncle Shane had just turned 59.

This is the story that Uncle Shane wanted to share as told to Dr Camille Nakhid:  

Uncle Shane: I’ve written to them, to the government, and to the opposition — suggesting to them that they should start concentrating on those who’ve perpetrated the crimes against us, you know, ex-state wards – against the children such as us. We are the vulnerable ones, the ones without the voice.

Uncle Shane had been removed from an abusive family home only to be placed in an even more abusive state system from 1959-1982.

Which we had none. We had no choice. It was all forced on us, including the abuse, the abuse of drugs to testing for pharmacies, and the abuse of the slavery of the hours, long hours. Five in the morning until 11 at night, seven days a week. That’s long hours. No play, no birthday cards, no presents, nothing.

In the morning, I’d have to get up at five o-clock, we’d do the dairy. That finishes at nine. We’d do that, we go up to the house, polish all the floors.

And then we do the laundry, all day, and then we do the dairy in the afternoon, then we go back up the house and scrub all the pots. Or, you know, other chores that need to be done in the house. Polish all the floors by hand. With long hours, no play. You know, that’s all gone. The time you spent playing in parks with kids, that’s all gone. I see that today and I’m really angry. Because we didn’t get it. You know, it’s gone.

We’ve lost that. We’ll never get that back. And no human being has the right to take that away from us. You know, we couldn’t even go to our – you can’t even have friends. Outside, outside they go to their friend’s place and they play, and they go to beaches, they go to – forget about that, that’s all gone. That wasn’t allowed. All we did was work. And all we did was whatever they wanted us to do. We were physically and sexually abused. We were at the mercy of them. That’s terrible. That’s not a way to treat a human being.

But I’m angry with the government because it hasn’t done anything. You know, it holds a royal commission, it’s only to shut up people, you know, because of the talk. When the abuse come out to the public, what’s the best way to shut the public up? What do you do as a government?

‘You get a media spin together’
You panic, you quickly get a media spin together, and you quickly turn it into a spin, a song and dance. And you say: “We’re going to hold a royal commission”. That should shut everything down. That should shut down the public talking and getting angry with the government of the day.

So you’re no better off.

How are you better off? You’re not safe at home, so you’re taken away and even then if you’d read the reports, the very DoCS department was at the home when these things were happening. And still nothing happened to protect you. They didn’t step up to the plate. Not a way to treat a human being – is it?

No clothes on a kid, walking around, smelly, wet urine all over the place – and you’re not going to go and write a report about that and take the kid away somewhere safe? You’re not going to step up to the plate and help that kid?

Now, I’m hoping to wake the people up, you know. To shake them up and to wake them up to the injustice out there of children like us, you know, people like us.

I forget my tribe. I don’t know the name of it but I’ve been accepted down here in Sydney by my step-brother, which is the Wiradjuri.

We’ve got a lot of injustice, as you know, in Australia. It’s not like any other – some countries have some, which I’ve watched injustice there – But we have a lot here.

I fail to see the benefit of taking children away from their parents. I don’t see the benefit. If DoCS is trying to punish the children, then they’re doing a good job. If they’re trying to punish the parents, they’re doing a good job. So I don’t understand what they’re trying to do.

‘They should set up a home visiting programme’
I believe that they should set up a home visiting programme where the department should come into the home and work with the parents.

It’s not what the parents can do for the department, but what the department should be doing for the children and the parents.

There’s so much injustice – the culture is stolen right beneath us. Their culture is being pushed, you know, into the children of today. What they should be doing, is doing what people are doing in New Zealand and letting the elders take over and letting them decide how their children should be brought up.

Not like these government departments. They’re, to me, government departments only amp up the situation and make the situation worse, as you’ve seen.

I just think that, you know, the United Nations should’ve been doing more. All they’ve done is close their eyes on all this. They must’ve seen what was going on. They must see, they must know what’s going on. But they don’t raise their eyebrows to the abuse.

In the Northern Territory — the children that were abused there, they’re only now being mentioned by the UN Human Rights giving the Australian government a stern warning. But what they should’ve done is do that years ago. This has been going on for many, many years. This is not just a one-year off, you know, or a two-year trick.

It should be the community that should decide what should happen to the children. It should be the parents and the whole community to be involved in what they want for their own community and what they want for their own parents, you know, from what they want for their own children. And their housing, their legal services, all that has been cut as you are aware.

‘You never know what fight’s next’
Uncle Shane is a volunteer with GMAR.

GMAR teaches us further stuff as well, which is good. You never know what’s going to come around that corner. You never know what fight’s there for you.

It was only two months ago we held a rally in Campbelltown and we set that up, put it together with everybody and the first time they didn’t bite.

The second time outside the courthouse they bit. At the end I did ring them up and I told them: “We’re gonna keep doing this, we’re gonna keep coming back until the woman’s kids were given back. The next job we’re gonna do after the court case, we’re coming into your office –  And we’re not moving”.

We’ve got a hell of a struggle ahead.

Look at my case. The royal commission said to me, wanted to ask one question: “How the hell…did you survive?” Hope.

And hope’s a dangerous word for people like us. Hope is a very dangerous word. You’re hoping, you’re just praying that you get out of there one day. You know, they could have kept me further – You know, much more than 22 years. And in there, you probably notice, that they did pretend I was 80 percent retarded.

So these are the names you’re left with. The stigma that they put on you. When, if anything, the only thing you don’t have is the education — because of them.

Associate Professor Camille Nakhid has written a series of articles about the Stolen Generations. Other articles can be viewed here. Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Kendall Hutt assisted with today’s publication by transcribing the interview.

Other Stolen Generation stories on Asia Pacific Report:

• A Wiradjuri grandmother’s sad story: ‘The Stolen Generations have never stopped’
• Still stealing the generations
• GMAR wins justice award

More about Grandmothers Against Removals

If you wish to donate to GMAR, click on this link:

Contact | Donate

If you want to sign the petition, click here

Grandmothers Against Removals (GMAR) were recipients of the Aboriginal Justice Award at the Justice Awards in Sydney this month.

The group were recognised for their advocacy against indigenous children being forcibly taken away from families as well their contribution to guiding principles for strengthening the participation of local Aboriginal community in child protection decision making.

Laura Lyons, a member of GMAR Sydney, told Asia Pacific Report earlier this year of the forced and unjustified removal of her children and the abuse they faced in a residential care facility.

‘Proud moment’

She said the award was a “proud moment” for the group and believed their ancestors were present to witness it.

‘On our way to the awards we saw a rainbow,’ Lyons explained.

“It was actually Bianca (Lyons daughter) who looked up in the sky and said, ‘mum there’s the rainbow’. I said to her, ‘that’s our ancestors with us’ and I knew we were going to win the award.”

‘Ongoing’

Lyons said her case with the Department of Children Services (DoCS) is ongoing but GMAR continues to be busy travelling to other communities to assist and support families.

GMAR have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for transport costs to visit other families who need their help.

• Guiding principles for strengthening the participation of local Aboriginal community in child protection decision making
• Laura Lyons case: ‘stolen generations’
• Still stealing the generations – the abduction of Indigenous Australian children goes on
• Stop Stolen Generations

In March 2014, my daughter got on drugs and she had to have a meeting with the Department [Department of Children Services – DoCS] because she was at risk of losing her children. And I totally understood that because our priority is to keep our children safe.

Anyway, I went into the meeting to support my daughter and the case worker was using language that my daughter couldn’t understand. So I kept on pulling her up [the case worker] and said: “Listen, could you please use language or words that my daughter would be familiar with so that she could understand?”

And this case worker took offence to what I was doing. I said: “How can my daughter answer you honestly and openly if she doesn’t understand what she’s being asked or what you’re saying to her?”

So she got offended, looked at me and said: “What’s happening with your case?” And I said “My case file is closed. The allegations about me were never proven. And she looked at me and said: ‘We’ll see about that!’”

So next minute I had DoCS on my door and my case file was opened back up! So this case worker put in her affidavit at the court that I had an open case file! She was the one that got my case opened back up so that I couldn’t go for my grandchildren.

And in the process I ended up losing my own children. This was March 24 and I eventually did lose my children on 4 December 2015. I clearly became a target because I supported my daughter.

I only get to see my children once every three weeks for an hour and a half, maybe two hours.

My children are supposed to go with family members, there was no consultation process. They took my children from school, they placed them into what is known as a residential care facility. It’s similar to an institution. The residential care facility was getting paid $11,000 + a month to have my kids there. That’s been confirmed.

[Laura’s children that were allegedly stolen from her are aged 11, 10 and eight years old — two girls and a boy respectively.]

The abuse in care
My 8-year-old boy was getting put in a corner. Being isolated as a form of punishment. My 10-year-old daughter was apparently getting dragged along the ground by the hair of the head by an 18-year-old worker. This was a high cost placement with high qualified and skilled staff to support my children to ensure that my children will be kept safe.

They [the case workers] are 18 years old! How could they be qualified? They would have just finished school! (My children) were getting locked in their room. My daughter would be threatened when she was to leave the property, “If you run away, if you misbehave, when you get back you will have no dinner. You will go straight to your room. You’ll be separated from your siblings!”

My children were being forced fed because they didn’t like the food, and were only allowed water and cordial to drink. The manager is also the owner of this residential care facility. So initially it’s her own privatised enterprise, it’s her business. They make large amounts of money by taking our children.

The manager’s 17-year-old son was speaking rude to my daughters in Spanish. I said to my daughter, “How do you know that it’s rude because you don’t speak Spanish?” And my two daughters replied, “Because he always tells us in English afterwards”.

My children eventually ran away from this facility because of how they were being treated.  I found my children and took them to the police station and my little 10-year-old daughter screamed and begged and cried to the police officers from Kogarah police station not to send them back there.

They did not listen! They did not believe my children and what they were telling them. They left us sitting in the police station for four hours. Eventually they sent my three children back there.

And then it escalated, the manager’s 17-year-old son was making sexual advances towards my 10-year-old daughter. He was having free access to my children. He didn’t have a criminal record check! Or a “working with children” check! He was on the property with them, unsupervised.

So when further allegations were disclosed to me I didn’t tell the Department. I couldn’t trust them because they didn’t believe my children the first time. They didn’t believe me. So I called the Hotline. And I contacted the Ombudsman. And as a result of my actions to keep my children safe, that facility is no longer an out-of-home care provider and are under investigation, and my children were removed from that facility.

My children were supposed to be kept safe. My children were supposed to be supervised 24 hours a day, seven days a week

My children were then placed with another non-Aboriginal placement called Interactive Community Care service. They are a little bit different because they don’t have a live in facility. My children were then being dragged from motel to motel.

We [taxpayers] would have been paying for that. I pay taxes, I work. Here I was at home with a three-bedroom loving home and they wouldn’t let my kids come home. And they were saying that (the motel) was suitable! That it was safe for them! That was in their best interest, and that they had routine and structure.

So while they were in the motel, with the new workers that were supposed to be supervising them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, my daughters locked themselves into a bathroom. They had iPods and they were taking nude photos of themselves and sending the photos to some unknown paedophile online.

Where was the staff when my children were doing that? They said that my children were going to be supervised again. That they were going to be kept safe. That’s obviously proven that they failed again!

Their system

The system that they’ve got set up here in Australia is what we call flawed, very flawed.

Anyone can ring up and make false allegations. Once you do that, they will act on that information. You will not get an opportunity to fight those allegations until after the removal of your children. Then it will take you a lengthy period of time to go through the white society’s court system – to try and prove that these allegations are not true.

When any Aboriginal child is placed into care with the Department, they’re supposed to place Aboriginal children with families, extended families or remain in their communities. It’s in their own policies and procedures.

But they don’t that. The majority of Aboriginal children are placed with non-Aboriginal white carers or placed in residential care facilities just like my children were.

It is important that they follow their own policies and procedures. That then guarantees that our children remain connected to their families, their culture and their communities

Laura fighting to get her children and grandchildren back
I’m fighting. I love my children and grandchildren more than life itself. I miss my children and my grandchildren. The department had me doing alcohol testing, drug testing. I’ve been sober for 26 years. I spent two and a half years in a rehabilitation centre back in 1990.

Even though I was having ongoing drug testing, and ongoing alcohol testing, people were still ringing up anonymously and saying that I’m drinking alcohol in front of my kids. So I was just basically discriminated against, labelled and stereotyped.

They fabricate evidence and they will manipulate and twist your words to suit them. They are corrupt. They went from me to my mother. I wanted my mother to care for my children and they said the same thing about my mother. She’s 69 and they said that she abuses alcohol and that she’s a gambler!

They stated that they received an allegation about my mother in 2013 that she was abusing alcohol. People who know my mother know she is a non-drinker. This clearly displays the level of discrimination and corruption.

Laura is very clear about why this is happening
Because of the power and control. Because they can take our children and keep them! And it’s all about the money they get. For every child that goes into out of home care, they get an income stream.

I went to a forum about the escalating numbers of Aboriginal children. The forum was held at Little Bay, at old Prince Henry Hospital on the May 27 this year. That was organised by the Minister for DoCS Brad Hazzard. He is even aware that there are too many Aboriginal children in care.

Why are all those Aboriginal children in care! We make up a minority of the population in our country. We’re only like two percent of the country but thirty percent of our children are in care. Our children can stay in care until they turn 18.

DoCS believes that my kids shouldn’t be with me. DoCS have discriminated against me. DoCS have no understanding or acknowledge our model of raising our children. It’s like the saying, it takes a village to raise a child. That’s how we are and we’ve raised our kids for thousands of years before colonisation.

Grandmothers Against Removal is a New South Wales body set up now locally state-wide and also nationally. We’ve got GMAR set up all over Australia. I am part of the Sydney, branch. Other branches are Moree, Campbelltown, and Ballina with the intention of growing.

Our own individual GMAR set up in our own communities is to fight issues at the local level. There’s probably only about 30 to 40 members [in GMAR Sydney]. We’re not a very big group but we’re a very powerful group.

Anybody can join. There are Aboriginal grandmothers like myself. GMAR New South Wales was formed back in 2014 and was formed by Aunty Hazel, Suellyn Tighe, Aunty Deb Swann and Jennifer Swann. All these strong black deadly women provided me with hope and inspired me at a time when I needed it most. Our Sydney branch was formed on December 7, 2015.

We’ve been going for about six months. Everything we do is as volunteers. We try and function on donations, at times can be quite difficult. And then there is Werribee, the self help support group that me and my daughter Bianca are the founders of. Werribee is a Wiradjuri word that means backbone in Wiradjuri language. That’s my culture, that’s my tribe.

When me and Bianca lost our children we had nowhere to go. No one to talk to. Nobody to tell how we were feeling, that we were angry, that we were hurting. We were very emotional. Every time they [Bianca’s children] see me and Bianca, they say they wanna come home.

We’re fighting! Bianca’s been fighting for two years. Her children have been in care for two and a half years and she’s still fighting to get them back. She’s lost her children because of drugs, you know? We accept that.

However, she’s not on drugs anymore. She hasn’t been on drugs for 17, 18 months. Give her children back! They don’t want to give her, her children back. We will fight and continue to fight not only for our children but for all Aboriginal children that are in care.

GMAR wants people to know about their cause
We gather every Sunday (at a market in Marrickville) just to make people aware of what’s going on. We say, “Have you heard about Grandmothers Against Removal?” No? And I say, “Well do you remember when Kevin Rudd said sorry for the Stolen Generations?”

They say “Yes”. “Well, the Stolen Generations haven’t stopped!”

There are actually more kids in care now than there ever was! And Kevin Rudd said sorry on the 11 February 2008. And when you say sorry, it means that you don’t do it again.

And all these people in Australia are oblivious to the fact that there’s more kids in care than there ever was! Around about 20,000, and that the stolen generations have never stopped. It’s just been covered up by their policies.

More about Grandmothers Against Removal

If you wish to donate to GMAR, click on this link:

http://stopstolengenerations.com.au/contacts

If you want to sign the petition, click here

• Still stealing the generations