I’d be locked in there for hours - different days, different times, she said.
“I’d say a prayer that my real mum would come and get me. Take me home. I didn’t want to be there.”
It wasn’t until she turned 25 that Aunty Julie was finally reunited with her mother.
“She came out. I said, ‘Are you Patsy Black?’ and she said, ‘No. I’m your mum. I’m your mummy’. First cuddle I’ve had since I was a baby.”
Barkindji woman Julie Black was taken from her mother shortly after she was born.
Healing Foundation
The Healing Foundation
February 13 each year marks the anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations, who suffered trauma because of past government policies of forced child removal.
Many of these removals occurred as the result of laws and policies aimed at assimilating the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population into the predominately white community.
Stolen Generations survivors are some of Australia’s most vulnerable people and many have kept their stories and experiences secret for many years, even decades.
One such story comes from Stolen Generations survivor Aunty Julie Black, a 64-year-old Barkindji woman, who was taken from her mother shortly after birth.
– Don’t attempt to lead the march
– Don’t start chants this is for the organisers to do!
– Don’t play music this was a big issue in the BLM protests, with non-Indigenous marchers playing music over the top of chants and cries. It disrupts the attempt of a unified message and displays a total disregard for the Aboriginal people which we are marching for and along. It also shows that you value your voice and music over those who are fighting and suffering.
– Don’t play up or do anything illegal in clothing that could have you mistaken for Mob
5 Ways To Support First Nations Peoples on January 26 and Beyond
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(Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images)
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The 26th of January is a complicated day for Australians. While many still celebrate this date as Australia Day, the event is one that brings a lot of pain and sadness to First Nations communities. January 26, Invasion Day, is a marker of beginnings of the colonisation of this country – and for Indigenous Australians, it is a time of deep mourning.
Intergenerational Trauma Animation screenshot. The Healing Foundation.
As the Federal Government calls for feedback on the second stage of the Indigenous Voice co-design process, The Healing Foundation has today reiterated its strong support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The Healing Foundation is a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation which partners with communities to heal trauma caused by the widespread and deliberate disruption of populations, cultures, and languages. This includes specific actions such as the forced removal of children from their families.
CEO Fiona Petersen says that Stolen Generation survivors and their descendants see all elements of the Uluru Statement – the Constitutional change, the Legislative change, and the Makarrata Commission – as crucial to the process of healing for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.