I must confess – at the time I had no idea what that meant, let alone that then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, had made a formal apology to me us!
Forgotten Australians are people who were placed into care, whether for a short period (like me, at Sandgate Children’s Home in 1978), or perhaps for all of their childhood years. According to Wikipedia:
Forgotten Australians are the estimated 500,000 … children who experienced care in institutions or outside a home setting in Australia during the 20th century …
Children ended up in out-of-home care for a variety of reasons, mainly relating to poverty and family breakdown at a time when there was little support for families in crisis …
Many of these children suffered from neglect and were abused physically, emotionally or sexually while in care. Survivors to this day still suffer the effects of the child abuse. The trauma experienced in care has impacted negatively on care leavers throughout their adult lives. Their partners and children have also felt the impact, which can then flow through to future generations.
In 2009 an official Australian government apology was made to people who had grown up in the institutional system … by then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
In 2011 I was interviewed for the Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants oral history project, being conducted by the National Library of Australia. You can listen to a recording of the interview, and find out more, here. I was even quoted in the Forgotten Australians booklet (see image – click to enlarge)!
Around the same time I wrote a post on my old blog, sharing my experiences about my spell in the Sandgate Children’s Home. It received so much feedback and comments from other former residents that I transferred it to this blog when the old one closed. It seems there are a lot of us out there, seeking information about the Home – and it is almost impossible to find, even in these days of the worldwide web. (You could almost be forgiven for wondering if it has been deliberately hushed up!)
I think it’s important to make this sort of information freely available, to validate the painful memories of the many children who filed through it’s doors, and to help them as they seek healing and wholeness.
I’m also not ashamed to admit that I have sought professional counselling at times to help me deal with things whenever an issue arises or the past tries to haunt me again. I can’t recommend it highly enough – if you are in Brisbane, you might like to check out Vision Psychology. It’s a 7 day a week psychology clinic, and they offer a free emotional health checkup to help you determine firstly if you would benefit from counselling, and secondly to help match you up to the therapist that will best suit you and your budget.
Had you ever heard of the term “Forgotten Australians” before, or were you as clueless as I was?!
Linking up with My Home Truths for “I Must Confess”.