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The forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait 

Islander children from their families was official 

government policy in 1909 until 1969. Children 

could then be removed without court order or 

parental consent, although that was already 

happening before and after the policy.

They came by boat in 1788. Convicts from 

Britain, they were. We are the custodians of 

this land but they took it from us, mercilessly 

claiming something that was not theirs’. 

Spilling our blood, countless of my brothers 

and sisters have fallen to their unrighteous 

ways. 

And now they take from us, yet again. Our 

children.

A truck came to the camp one day. There were 

rusty old cages on the back, covered by a big 

green tarp. Rattling and the sound of quiet sobs 

came from inside the cages. Three bulky White 

men stepped out, each carrying a shot gun. They 

yelled in a language I didn’t understand as they  

pointed their dirty weapons at us. Then one of 

them pointed a stubby finger at me and started 

walking towards me. Mother jumped in front of me, 

blocking me from the man's view, her eyes 

pleading.The man simply shoved her to the 

ground. The man grabbed my arm and shoved me 

roughly towards the back of the truck. 

He tore the tarp off the cages on the back of the 

truck, revealing their contents. Several ‘half-blood’ 

Indigenous children occupied the cages. Their skin 

covered in cuts, bruises, dried blood and dirt. Each 

had a sorrowful and pained look in their eyes. An 

evil grin plastered on my captor’s face, he 

unlocked the rusty old cage and then, pressing the 

end of the shotgun into my back, forced me into 

the cage and locked it. The man pulled the tarp 

back to cover the rear of the truck. The engine 

roared to life, and I was slowly being driven away 

from camp, from my family and my life.

I woke up in a dark room, shackles on my wrists and 

feet, chaining me to the walls of the cold stone-walled 

room. A steel collar around my neck chained me to the 

other half-caste children. Someone drew a curtain and 

sent bright morning sunlight flooding into the room. 

The woman, dressed in a high-class dress, looked at us 

in disgust, as if we were pests. She released the 

shackles on each child’s wrist and feet, and yelled and 

pushed us towards the door. ‘We’re being taken to the 

market,’ said a boy who appeared not to be much 

older than myself, ‘to be sold.’ ‘As slaves to the White 

men’, interjected a young girl.

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