Daily Mail - UK March 27, 2011
How one letter let me expose Britain's worst child abuse scandal
Social worker uncovered the horrors faced by children shipped to far-flung corners of the Empire
By Margaret Humphreys
Sitting in a screening room last week, I watched my life portrayed by someone else. A stranger played my husband and there were different children in my house.
My daughter Rachel, son Ben and husband Mervyn had swapped jokes for months about what this moment might be like. Now we were nervous.
On screen, actress Emily Watson appeared as a social worker coaxing a distraught teenage mother into surrendering her baby. I held my breath. A vignette from my life had transported me back 25 years.
The film, Oranges And Sunshine, which opens this week, is based on my memoir.
It tells a story which began in 1986 when, as a social worker in Nottingham, I received a letter from a woman who claimed that, aged four, she had been shipped to Australia by our Government.
Soon afterwards, a second woman told me how she had traced her brother, who had also been sent abroad as a child.
As I researched their stories, I began to uncover what are known as the Child Migration Schemes and, in particular, the most recent one, which came in response to the Australian government's desire to boost its post-war population.
The children had mostly been in the care of voluntary agencies with religious ties.
From the middle of the 19th Century until as recently as 1970, 130,000 British children - some aged just three - were rounded up, with the knowledge and support of organisations such as Dr Barnardo's.
They were put on to ships and transported to distant parts of the British Empire.
Many were told their parents had died but, in fact, few were orphans.
Some were from broken homes or simply placed in care by their parents until they could get back on their feet. Mothers were frequently told their children were being adopted in Britain.
The children themselves were promised a better life, where they would be raised by loving families and enjoy lots of oranges and sunshine - hence the title of the film. In reality, they were often used as slave labour and endured physical and sexual abuse.
Some organisations were so determined these children would never find their way home that their names, dates and places of birth were changed.
In 2002, I was approached by Jim Loach, who was passionate about making a film about this shameful chapter in our history.
Meanwhile, I continued tracing families and organising reunions through the Child Migrants Trust, which I founded in 1987. I also lobbied governments for the public apology the children deserved.
That milestone came in 2010 when Gordon Brown told Parliament: 'To all those former child migrants and their families... we are truly sorry.'
Some migrants managed to find their parents or siblings; others were too late.
The film focuses on a handful of these stories, but its power is not diminished.
These people are survivors; picking up the pieces of their past lives while searching for identity.
Most of us know who we are. Imagine having this stripped away, being unable to get a passport because you have no birth certificate, no real name.
The most frequent statement I've heard is: 'I'm nobody.' That's what they had been told so often as children - their sense of rejection remains profound.
At Bindoon in Western Australia, boys as young as 11 hauled rocks until their hands were blistered and cut.
They were building a school for the Christian Brothers, a place of beauty that hides terrible secrets. I have listened to men sobbing as they revealed what they endured there.
One of the most powerful scenes in the film is of my first and only visit to Bindoon.
We went early on a Sunday. In newspapers that day, a historian hired by the Christian Brothers suggested that child migrants who alleged sexual abused were already sexually active when they arrived in Australia because they were products of British childcare institutions. I was appalled.
I didn't want to go inside the building, but I had no option. I found myself staring at these black-robed men, eating toast and drinking tea.
There was absolute silence. I had been told many times of the terrible crimes committed here. And they knew who I was.
They seemed uncomfortable in my presence. It was probably a moment they had thought would never happen: an Englishwoman confronting them, and confronting Bindoon's past.
I do hope the film reaches a wide audience. Aside from drawing attention to such a scandalous experiment, it has something important to say about loss, identity, family and relationships. I don't need to see the film again. Our search continues.
Oranges And Sunshine, by Margaret Humphreys, is published by Transworld priced £7.99. To order your copy for £7.49 inc p&p call the Review Bookstore on 0 45 155 0730 or visit www.Maillife.co.uk/books
This article was found at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370261/How-letter-let-expose-Britains-worst-abuse-scandal.html
***********************************************************************
The Guardian - UK April 7, 2011
Child migrants: 'I didn't belong to anybody'
Harold Haig was among thousands of child migrants who were deported to Australia and subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse. A new film depicts their plight
by Patrick Barkham
When Harold Haig was 10 years old, a man in a suit came to visit. "He said to me, 'Would you like to go to this wonderful place called Australia where the sun shines all day every day and you pick oranges off the trees, live in a little white cottage by the sea and ride a horse to school?'" remembers Haig, who is 73 but looks younger, with Pete Postlethwaite cheekbones and flowing white hair. "While I was letting this sink in, he added, 'Well, you know you're an orphan, your parents are dead, you've got no family, you might as well go.'"
Haig was one of 7,000 children from British care homes who were shipped mostly to Australia and Canada between the second world war and 1967. The scandal of the lies and abuse suffered by these child migrants was exposed thanks to the tireless work of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who, in 1987, took it upon herself to help them find their families. As Oranges and Sunshine, a moving new film by Jim Loach – son of Ken – shows, Humphreys defied death threats to discover the truth about these former child migrants and their past lives. When Haig begins to talk, it is eerie because his softly spoken words and manner exactly resemble those of Jack, a traumatised former child migrant in the film who is played by Hugo Weaving. The British-Australian actor met and talked to Haig about his experiences before taking the role.
Apart from the man in the suit talking of oranges and sunshine, Haig barely remembers anything of his childhood in Britain. "Because of my lack of memories, I may as well have been born in Australia when I was 11 years old," he says, bleakly. He was sure he had a sister called Marie, but he could not remember anything at all about his mother: no image, no voice, no smell. "Just a blank. An absolute blank."
Surrounded by other "orphaned" children, the voyage to Australia was an adventure ("we ran riot"). When Haig arrived, he was dispatched to a Church of England boarding school in Melbourne. Other child migrants were less fortunate, as Oranges and Sunshine reveals through the story of Len, played by David Wenham. Many ended up in the care of the notorious Christian Brothers where they were treated as slave labour and suffered horrific physical and sexual abuse. One victim told an official inquiry that his Christian Brother carers competed to become the first to rape him 100 times.
Haig escaped such trauma – he would be beaten with a strap if he did anything wrong – but, as he says: "The thing missing in an institution for children is that there is no love. You get punished but there is no one there to put their arm around you and say it's OK." One of many powerful scenes in Oranges and Sunshine is when the character based on Haig falteringly explains how he feels: "There's an emptiness in me. There always has been and I think the only thing that could fill it was her, my mother." Haig says something similar when he talks of how he married, had three children and established a successful signwriting business: "Anyone would've thought there's a fella who's got everything, but it was like I had a block of ice inside me. I felt empty. I knew I was missing something. I couldn't work out what it was. And there was this feeling – I didn't know who I was. I didn't know where I'd come from. I didn't belong to anybody. I was in this void."
In the 1960s, Haig sank into a deep depression. He was prescribed antidepressants, saved them up and swallowed them all. "I wanted to die. I wanted to go to sleep and not wake up to get rid of this pain, this emptiness," he says. His wife, normally a good sleeper, woke up and saved his life. He wishes he hadn't tried to take his life at home, while his children slept.
The "beautiful" younger sister he was always convinced he had eventually traced him through the Salvation Army. Marie had been separated from their mother and Haig, and raised in care homes in Britain; unlike Haig, she remembered her sibling. One day, in 1987, Marie told him she was coming to Australia with a social worker, Margaret Humphreys, who she wanted him to meet. Haig, by then divorced and wandering the Australian outback ("I don't know what I was looking for"), was unimpressed. "I'd seen a lot of social workers and I had no respect for any of them," he says.
While Oranges and Sunshine shows Humphreys struggling to win the trust of some child migrants, Haig quickly came to respect her. She was the first to raise the possibility that Haig had been told a terrible untruth – that he might not be an orphan after all. "I didn't think anyone would be so cruel to tell you that sort of a lie," he says. He is amazed by Emily Watson's performance as Humphreys in the film. "I could've been watching Margaret," he says.
Haig visited Britain for six months in 1989 to get to know Marie, who passed away 14 years ago, and to help Humphreys track down his mother. With so little record-keeping by the authorities, still in denial over the scale of the trauma they created, it took another few years for them to get confirmation that Haig had not been an orphan. His parents had separated during the war, and with two children, no benefits and no relatives nearby, his mother had been forced to give up her son and daughter.
Humphreys discovered Haig's mother had lived two miles from where he was kept in homes (eight institutions in 14 months before he was "deported" – as the former child migrants say – to Australia) and had died just a year before he first visited Britain. The belated release of more suppressed information 10 years ago also helped Humphreys, who was awarded a CBE this year, finally identify Haig's deceased father.
No photographs remain of his mother, and Haig will forever wonder why he was given up and whether his mother tried to find him. As Oranges and Sunshine shows, parents were often deceived by the authorities and told their children had been adopted or even that they were dead. "Mothers went to their graves never knowing that their children were still alive, and happy, and well," says Haig. "It's criminal. I don't know what worse you can do to people."
Why did this happen? For the British authorities, a one-way ticket to Australia was cheaper than looking after children in care homes. For the Australian government, petrified they would be overrun by Asian immigrants, white children were ideal fodder for the racist "White Australia" policy.
In 2009, the Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd apologised to child migrants. "It's a day we'll never forget," says Haig, who is secretary of the International Association of Former Child Migrants and their Families, and is still good friends with Humphreys. Gordon Brown followed with an apology on behalf of the British government a year later.
The trauma of all these state-sanctioned lies and abuse has left a long, scarring legacy. Haig is still estranged from his two daughters who felt deserted when his depression destroyed his marriage. "They think I abandoned them, and in many ways I did. I had trouble looking after myself," he says, anguish in his voice. He has since been reconciled with his son, and he hopes the film might yet bring him back together with his daughters.
"What Margaret did for me and for thousands of child migrants is to give us back our lives, give us back our identity, and shine a light in where there was just darkness." Where would he be without Humphreys? "I have my doubts about whether I'd be here alive," he says. "You should ask, where would all of us be?"
This article was found at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/apr/07/child-migrants-oranges-and-sunshine-film
RELATED ARTICLES ON THIS BLOG:
Germany will compensate thousands subjected to slavery and brutality in Catholic, Protestant and state-run youth homes after WW2
Canadian Indian residential schools designed to assimilate natives traumatized individuals and generations
A brief history of Canadian residential schools designed to indoctrinate and assimilate aboriginal children
Pope expresses 'sorrow' for abuse at residential schools - but doesn't apologize
When will church learn lessons about abuse scandals?
Fresh allegations of historical sex crimes prompts new inquiry into Christian Brothers order in U.K.
Leader of Christian Brothers based in Rome refuses to talk about his role enabling pedophile priest to continue abuse
Christian Brothers cry crocodile tears, say sorry for child abuse
Dublin clergy abuse survivor saw "toxic nexus between church & state" 40 years ago, feels vindicated by exposé of cover-up
Northern Ireland clergy crimes survivors campaign for independent inquiry into religious and state institutional abuse
Witnesses say they reported Catholic Bishop recently charged with child porn to police 20 years ago
North Dakota sex abuse lawsuit is the tenth one against Christian Brother school teacher who has never been charged with a crime
Author Margaret Humphreys who works at the Child Migrant Trust in Nottingham has had a film made about her work and life reuniting children
Sitting in a screening room last week, I watched my life portrayed by someone else. A stranger played my husband and there were different children in my house.
My daughter Rachel, son Ben and husband Mervyn had swapped jokes for months about what this moment might be like. Now we were nervous.
On screen, actress Emily Watson appeared as a social worker coaxing a distraught teenage mother into surrendering her baby. I held my breath. A vignette from my life had transported me back 25 years.
The film, Oranges And Sunshine, which opens this week, is based on my memoir.
It tells a story which began in 1986 when, as a social worker in Nottingham, I received a letter from a woman who claimed that, aged four, she had been shipped to Australia by our Government.
Soon afterwards, a second woman told me how she had traced her brother, who had also been sent abroad as a child.
As I researched their stories, I began to uncover what are known as the Child Migration Schemes and, in particular, the most recent one, which came in response to the Australian government's desire to boost its post-war population.
The children had mostly been in the care of voluntary agencies with religious ties.
From the middle of the 19th Century until as recently as 1970, 130,000 British children - some aged just three - were rounded up, with the knowledge and support of organisations such as Dr Barnardo's.
They were put on to ships and transported to distant parts of the British Empire.
Many were told their parents had died but, in fact, few were orphans.
Some were from broken homes or simply placed in care by their parents until they could get back on their feet. Mothers were frequently told their children were being adopted in Britain.
The children themselves were promised a better life, where they would be raised by loving families and enjoy lots of oranges and sunshine - hence the title of the film. In reality, they were often used as slave labour and endured physical and sexual abuse.
Some organisations were so determined these children would never find their way home that their names, dates and places of birth were changed.
In 2002, I was approached by Jim Loach, who was passionate about making a film about this shameful chapter in our history.
Meanwhile, I continued tracing families and organising reunions through the Child Migrants Trust, which I founded in 1987. I also lobbied governments for the public apology the children deserved.
That milestone came in 2010 when Gordon Brown told Parliament: 'To all those former child migrants and their families... we are truly sorry.'
Some migrants managed to find their parents or siblings; others were too late.
The film focuses on a handful of these stories, but its power is not diminished.
These people are survivors; picking up the pieces of their past lives while searching for identity.
Most of us know who we are. Imagine having this stripped away, being unable to get a passport because you have no birth certificate, no real name.
The most frequent statement I've heard is: 'I'm nobody.' That's what they had been told so often as children - their sense of rejection remains profound.
At Bindoon in Western Australia, boys as young as 11 hauled rocks until their hands were blistered and cut.
They were building a school for the Christian Brothers, a place of beauty that hides terrible secrets. I have listened to men sobbing as they revealed what they endured there.
One of the most powerful scenes in the film is of my first and only visit to Bindoon.
We went early on a Sunday. In newspapers that day, a historian hired by the Christian Brothers suggested that child migrants who alleged sexual abused were already sexually active when they arrived in Australia because they were products of British childcare institutions. I was appalled.
I didn't want to go inside the building, but I had no option. I found myself staring at these black-robed men, eating toast and drinking tea.
There was absolute silence. I had been told many times of the terrible crimes committed here. And they knew who I was.
They seemed uncomfortable in my presence. It was probably a moment they had thought would never happen: an Englishwoman confronting them, and confronting Bindoon's past.
I do hope the film reaches a wide audience. Aside from drawing attention to such a scandalous experiment, it has something important to say about loss, identity, family and relationships. I don't need to see the film again. Our search continues.
Oranges And Sunshine, by Margaret Humphreys, is published by Transworld priced £7.99. To order your copy for £7.49 inc p&p call the Review Bookstore on 0 45 155 0730 or visit www.Maillife.co.uk/books
This article was found at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370261/How-letter-let-expose-Britains-worst-abuse-scandal.html
***********************************************************************
The Guardian - UK April 7, 2011
Child migrants: 'I didn't belong to anybody'
Harold Haig was among thousands of child migrants who were deported to Australia and subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse. A new film depicts their plight
by Patrick Barkham
When Harold Haig was 10 years old, a man in a suit came to visit. "He said to me, 'Would you like to go to this wonderful place called Australia where the sun shines all day every day and you pick oranges off the trees, live in a little white cottage by the sea and ride a horse to school?'" remembers Haig, who is 73 but looks younger, with Pete Postlethwaite cheekbones and flowing white hair. "While I was letting this sink in, he added, 'Well, you know you're an orphan, your parents are dead, you've got no family, you might as well go.'"
Haig was one of 7,000 children from British care homes who were shipped mostly to Australia and Canada between the second world war and 1967. The scandal of the lies and abuse suffered by these child migrants was exposed thanks to the tireless work of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who, in 1987, took it upon herself to help them find their families. As Oranges and Sunshine, a moving new film by Jim Loach – son of Ken – shows, Humphreys defied death threats to discover the truth about these former child migrants and their past lives. When Haig begins to talk, it is eerie because his softly spoken words and manner exactly resemble those of Jack, a traumatised former child migrant in the film who is played by Hugo Weaving. The British-Australian actor met and talked to Haig about his experiences before taking the role.
Apart from the man in the suit talking of oranges and sunshine, Haig barely remembers anything of his childhood in Britain. "Because of my lack of memories, I may as well have been born in Australia when I was 11 years old," he says, bleakly. He was sure he had a sister called Marie, but he could not remember anything at all about his mother: no image, no voice, no smell. "Just a blank. An absolute blank."
Surrounded by other "orphaned" children, the voyage to Australia was an adventure ("we ran riot"). When Haig arrived, he was dispatched to a Church of England boarding school in Melbourne. Other child migrants were less fortunate, as Oranges and Sunshine reveals through the story of Len, played by David Wenham. Many ended up in the care of the notorious Christian Brothers where they were treated as slave labour and suffered horrific physical and sexual abuse. One victim told an official inquiry that his Christian Brother carers competed to become the first to rape him 100 times.
Haig escaped such trauma – he would be beaten with a strap if he did anything wrong – but, as he says: "The thing missing in an institution for children is that there is no love. You get punished but there is no one there to put their arm around you and say it's OK." One of many powerful scenes in Oranges and Sunshine is when the character based on Haig falteringly explains how he feels: "There's an emptiness in me. There always has been and I think the only thing that could fill it was her, my mother." Haig says something similar when he talks of how he married, had three children and established a successful signwriting business: "Anyone would've thought there's a fella who's got everything, but it was like I had a block of ice inside me. I felt empty. I knew I was missing something. I couldn't work out what it was. And there was this feeling – I didn't know who I was. I didn't know where I'd come from. I didn't belong to anybody. I was in this void."
In the 1960s, Haig sank into a deep depression. He was prescribed antidepressants, saved them up and swallowed them all. "I wanted to die. I wanted to go to sleep and not wake up to get rid of this pain, this emptiness," he says. His wife, normally a good sleeper, woke up and saved his life. He wishes he hadn't tried to take his life at home, while his children slept.
The "beautiful" younger sister he was always convinced he had eventually traced him through the Salvation Army. Marie had been separated from their mother and Haig, and raised in care homes in Britain; unlike Haig, she remembered her sibling. One day, in 1987, Marie told him she was coming to Australia with a social worker, Margaret Humphreys, who she wanted him to meet. Haig, by then divorced and wandering the Australian outback ("I don't know what I was looking for"), was unimpressed. "I'd seen a lot of social workers and I had no respect for any of them," he says.
While Oranges and Sunshine shows Humphreys struggling to win the trust of some child migrants, Haig quickly came to respect her. She was the first to raise the possibility that Haig had been told a terrible untruth – that he might not be an orphan after all. "I didn't think anyone would be so cruel to tell you that sort of a lie," he says. He is amazed by Emily Watson's performance as Humphreys in the film. "I could've been watching Margaret," he says.
Haig visited Britain for six months in 1989 to get to know Marie, who passed away 14 years ago, and to help Humphreys track down his mother. With so little record-keeping by the authorities, still in denial over the scale of the trauma they created, it took another few years for them to get confirmation that Haig had not been an orphan. His parents had separated during the war, and with two children, no benefits and no relatives nearby, his mother had been forced to give up her son and daughter.
Humphreys discovered Haig's mother had lived two miles from where he was kept in homes (eight institutions in 14 months before he was "deported" – as the former child migrants say – to Australia) and had died just a year before he first visited Britain. The belated release of more suppressed information 10 years ago also helped Humphreys, who was awarded a CBE this year, finally identify Haig's deceased father.
No photographs remain of his mother, and Haig will forever wonder why he was given up and whether his mother tried to find him. As Oranges and Sunshine shows, parents were often deceived by the authorities and told their children had been adopted or even that they were dead. "Mothers went to their graves never knowing that their children were still alive, and happy, and well," says Haig. "It's criminal. I don't know what worse you can do to people."
Why did this happen? For the British authorities, a one-way ticket to Australia was cheaper than looking after children in care homes. For the Australian government, petrified they would be overrun by Asian immigrants, white children were ideal fodder for the racist "White Australia" policy.
In 2009, the Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd apologised to child migrants. "It's a day we'll never forget," says Haig, who is secretary of the International Association of Former Child Migrants and their Families, and is still good friends with Humphreys. Gordon Brown followed with an apology on behalf of the British government a year later.
The trauma of all these state-sanctioned lies and abuse has left a long, scarring legacy. Haig is still estranged from his two daughters who felt deserted when his depression destroyed his marriage. "They think I abandoned them, and in many ways I did. I had trouble looking after myself," he says, anguish in his voice. He has since been reconciled with his son, and he hopes the film might yet bring him back together with his daughters.
"What Margaret did for me and for thousands of child migrants is to give us back our lives, give us back our identity, and shine a light in where there was just darkness." Where would he be without Humphreys? "I have my doubts about whether I'd be here alive," he says. "You should ask, where would all of us be?"
This article was found at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/apr/07/child-migrants-oranges-and-sunshine-film
RELATED ARTICLES ON THIS BLOG:
Germany will compensate thousands subjected to slavery and brutality in Catholic, Protestant and state-run youth homes after WW2
Canadian Indian residential schools designed to assimilate natives traumatized individuals and generations
A brief history of Canadian residential schools designed to indoctrinate and assimilate aboriginal children
Pope expresses 'sorrow' for abuse at residential schools - but doesn't apologize
When will church learn lessons about abuse scandals?
Fresh allegations of historical sex crimes prompts new inquiry into Christian Brothers order in U.K.
Leader of Christian Brothers based in Rome refuses to talk about his role enabling pedophile priest to continue abuse
Christian Brothers cry crocodile tears, say sorry for child abuse
Dublin clergy abuse survivor saw "toxic nexus between church & state" 40 years ago, feels vindicated by exposé of cover-up
Northern Ireland clergy crimes survivors campaign for independent inquiry into religious and state institutional abuse
Witnesses say they reported Catholic Bishop recently charged with child porn to police 20 years ago
North Dakota sex abuse lawsuit is the tenth one against Christian Brother school teacher who has never been charged with a crime
Posts
Forgotten Australians call for Royal Commission into sexual abuse
ReplyDeleteBy Chris Peterson, GreenLeft Melbourne October 16, 2012
Members of the Forgotten Australians rallied in Melbourne on October 13 to demand a Royal Commission into the sexual abuse, emotional and criminal assault, and torture of children in church and government-run homes, orphanages and foster care homes. The term Forgotten Australian refers to children who were placed in care outside of their family home during the 20th century.
The Australian Mental Health Human Rights and Law Reform Coalition’s Greg Oke said: “The aim of today is to highlight the lack of resources provided to Forgotten Australians to get some justice for the absolutely hideous crimes that were committed while under state care.
“Many Forgotten Australians are still living in appalling housing conditions. Many are still suffering from disabilities and traumas inflicted on them by the institutionalised and systemic abuse while under the care of the church and the state. So far nothing has been put in place to help these survivors improve their quality of life.”
Indigenous rights activist Kelvin Onus-King said: “This is the first time many of these survivors have taken part in a political protest. These people were subject to torture including medical experiments without their consent. Successive governments failed in their duty of care and provide adequate resources to achieve redress and justice.”
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/52524
The Horror That Was Bindoon (Or: The Orphans’ Fiend)
ReplyDeleteby Lewis Blayse, Commentary on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Australia)
April 26, 2013 http://lewisblayse.net/2013/04/26/the-horror-that-was-bindoon-or-the-orphans-fiend/
Bindoon Boys’ Town was a Christian Brothers’ facility in Western Australia. It was run by Br. Kearney, known in his circles as “The Orphans’ Friend” but as a “Christian Bugger” monster by the boys who passed through the facility. It was the first of the old “Homes” to come to public attention, in the late 1980’s. A recent U.K. House of Commons report describes events at Bindoon as “quite exceptional depravity, so that terms like ‘sexual abuse’ are too weak to convey it.”
The purpose of this article is not to detail the events at Bindoon so much as to provide a concise source of references to that awful place. There have been several books, press articles, television documentaries and even a film based on Bindoon. Former Bindoon boy, Lionel P. Welsh, and co-editor and founder of the Bindoon activist group VOICES, Bruce Byth, published “The Bindoon File”. Lionel also published “Geordie: Orphan of the Empire” and “Geordie: An Incredible Story of the Human Spirit”.
“Who Am I?” by Robert Taylor, also a former Bindoon boy, was published by Chargan of Perth and, according to the Nothern Territory Times, is available for $35 from Mr. Taylor (see reference below).
As many of the Bindoon boys were child migrants from the U.K. (see previous posts), the facility caught the eye of Margaret Humphreys, who founded the Child Migrant Trust to fight for the rights of former child migrants and did much to publicize the plight of former residents of the place. Her non-fiction book, “Empty Cradles” became the basis for the film, “Oranges and Sunshine”.
Alan Gill, a former religion writer, is the author of “Orphans of the Empire.”
A particularly good, complete yet concise account, presented to the British Parliament by VOICES is available at http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199798/cmselect/cmhealth/755/755ap12.htm
The gather.com site (listed below) gives an excellent set of photographs of Bindoon Boys’ Town.
Bindoon represents the epitome of a scheme gone wrong. From the middle of the 19th Century until as recently as 1970, 130,000 British children – some aged just three – were rounded up, with the knowledge and support of organisations such as the Dreadnought Trust, Barnardo’s, Fairbridge and the Big Brother Movement. They were shipped off to the Empire and ended up in places like Bindoon, as “Child Migrants”.
In 1998 a House of Commons select committee described the migration scheme as “Britain’s shameful secret”. An inquiry by the Australian Senate in 2001 heard stories of rape, abuse and cruelty, including children scrambling for breadcrumbs on the floor and a boy being forced to shoot and skin a horse he considered his only friend. Almost as shocking was the deceit that had been practised on children who had been robbed of their country, roots and identity. “We were told we were orphans, that we had no one,” says Mick Snell, but this was not true. Many were just illegitimate or from impoverished families.
Although children were also shipped to Canada, Rhodesia and New Zealand, Australia became the favoured destination after the war. The young immigrants were cheap to house and a good source of labour. And, importantly, they were white. As the Archbishop of Perth declared in 1938, at a time when Australia was desperate to boost its population: “If we do not supply from our own stock, we are leaving ourselves all the more exposed to the menace of the teeming millions of our neighbouring Asian races.”
continued in next comment...
One former child migrant recalls his welcome to Australia by the Bishop who said “We welcome you to Australia. We need you for white stock. The reason why we do is because we are terrified of the Asian hordes!” This was when Australia had the infamous “White Australia Policy”, introduced by a Labor Government, which banned non- whites from entering, or living in, the country. It was only abolished in the late 1950s.
ReplyDeleteChild migration to Canada had been a regular, but small-scale feature of Catholic ‘rescue’ for deprived British children from 1872. The emigration to Canada continued until the Depression in 1930. When the Canadian government finally refused entry to unaccompanied children, Catholic organisations saw Australia as a possible destination for the youngsters.
One of the major destinations was Bindoon, an isolated institution 60 miles north of Perth, run by the Christian Brothers. The first shock for new arrivals was the desolate landscape; the second was the place itself, an abandoned farm property. It was the boys who were to build Bindoon, and children as young as 10 (some accounts indicate children as young as 8) were set to work, constructing schools, dormitories and kitchens. They hacked at the ground with picks and shovels, and mixed concrete by hand in the blazing heat. Those unable to cope with the back-breaking labour were flogged, sometimes until their bones were fractured. Then there was the third shock of rampant sexual abuse.
The Christian Brothers member, who headed the place for many years, will be the subject of the next posting, particularly from the viewpoint of the extreme differences of accounts of the man from the boys and from church and state authorities.
Read more here:
Authors: Welsh, Lionel P and Byth, Bruce and Welsh, LP (eds); Title: The Bindoon file; Imprint: P&B Press, Perth, 1990; ISBN/ISSN0959660666; Description: ‘The Bindoon File’ is available in Western Australian libraries. Call No. Q362.732 WEL Abstract’
Welsh, Lionel P, Geordie: orphan of the empire, P&B Press, Perth, 1990. Details: Welsh, Lionel P, Geordie: an incredible story of the human spirit, ELJAE Press, Victoria Park East, 2004
http://nla.gov.au/andb.bib-an7535446
http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/wa/biogs/WE00698b.htm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/bindoon-boys-town-the-sad-truth-behind-britains-lost-children-1782544.html
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199798/cmselect/cmhealth/755/755ap12.htm
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=26766
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/stories/s17579.htm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-shameful-secret-of-britains-lost-children-brother-keaneys-brutal-attack-1484623.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370261/How-letter-let-expose-Britains-worst-abuse-scandal.html#ixzz2ROlwUrhG
http://ukpaedos-exposed.com/cover-ups/uk-child-migrants/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3475_162-40269.html
http://www.cacbindoon.wa.edu.au/history.html
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/keaney-paul-francis-6902
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977911039
http://www.senatormarkbishop.com.au/library/plugin/plugin/library_document/plugin/library_file/mode/view_file/identifier/u7oTEr6dmlXyQxgkvK9CfpGSwQVKbU9j/
http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2011/06/14/240421_ntnews.html
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/52941843
http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Public/Inventory/Details/d2853405-8f13-40a4-9d42-dfbebdb6336b
http://guides.naa.gov.au/good-british-stock/chapter3/roman-catholic-church.aspx
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/christian-brother-guilty-of-sex-abuse-1.1354385
Brother Francis Paul Keaney, the Abuser (Or: Spare the Rod? No Way!)
ReplyDeleteby Lewis Blayse, Commentary on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Australia)
http://lewisblayse.net/2013/04/27/brother-francis-paul-keaney-the-abuser-or-spare-the-rod-no-way/ April 27, 2013
Brother Kearney, of Bindoon notoriety, was a saint to the Catholic Church and a monster to the boys placed in his “care”. The Catholic Church erected a huge statue of him at Bindoon. In a case of typical Aussie larrikinism, former boys at the Home knocked its head off one day. Reports indicate that they were observed attempting to use it as a football.
One of the six Royal Commissioners, former Senator for Western Australia, Andrew Murray, once described Kearney as “a sadist who indulged in criminal assault and who knowingly protected rings of predatory Brothers engaged in systemic, long-term sexual assault on defenceless children (Hansard 2001, p.27275 – Matter of Public Interest). Presumably, Mr. Murray will be eager to revisit the matter during the course of the Royal Commission.
Former inmates of Bindoon also pull no punches with regard to “The Orphans’ Friend” (as the plaque on his statue reads) Kearney, an abuser who stood 6ft. tall and weighed 17 stone. Laurie Humphreys says that “I guess you could call him a sadist”. John Hennessy, also from Bindoon, speaks with a stutter which he says is a legacy of being stripped naked and publicly flogged by Kearney. He notes that “At Bindoon, the threat of violence was ever present. The Brothers carried a strap consisting of leather stitched together and a metal weight.”
In a glowing tribute to Kearney, even the Christian Brothers had to acknowledge that “Conversely, some former inmates remember him as a brutal disciplinarian with an ungovernable temper, who neglected their education, exploited their labour and turned a blind eye to sexual abuse of them by other members of the staff.” Note the use of “some” rather than “all” in that statement. The paragraph concludes, for some reason, with the statement that “An enthusiast, Keaney was easily depressed by criticism.”
The 2001 Australian Senate Community Affairs and References Committee Report, titled “Lost Innocents: Righting the Record – Report on Child Migration”, detailed evidence which revealed the “depraved, violent and abusive nature” of Brother Keaney and his role in the “systematic abuse of children under his care”. In submissions to the Committee report, individuals who had been abused by Keaney described his brutality; "I lost my teeth at Bindoon – my face kicked repeatedly by Brother Keaney". Similarly - "Br. Keaney was a very sadistic, perverted and deviant paedophile. He abused many of the boys... in his care. Tragically, there was just no one that we victims could go to for help. Who would have believed us anyway?"
continued in next comment...
Another former Bindoon resident stated that “The Christian Brothers used to walk around with a thick 18in leather strap hanging from the waist of their long, black outfits, and they'd give you a wallop at the slightest opportunity. They'd hit you wherever they could – be it on the backside or sole of the foot – and boy, did it hurt. Once I was on the receiving end of a real hiding from one of them. He was giving a younger lad a hard time and I must have said something under my breath. He lashed out with his strap and put in his boot. I ended up cowering under my bed, trying to escape him, and was left covered in bruises.”
ReplyDeleteYet another noted that “He liked to prod us with a walking stick, and was one of the cruelest people I've ever met.”
A secret church report about Christian Brothers’ institutions such as Bindoon in Western Australia from the mid-30s right up to the mid-60s refers to:
--brothers who were "odd or mentally unstable",
--of a "sex underworld"
--of brothers who "shared boys" for sexual purposes
--and that often the church hierarchy knew of the abuse and did nothing about it.
Kearney’s Bindoon was billed as an educational institution, but as one former resident claimed, “There was no teaching at Bindoon, and I know of several former inmates who still cannot read or write.” Another reported that “there wasn't much in the way of schooling. I'd always been good at school in England but it pretty much ended overnight. A lot of the boys at Bindoon never learnt how to read or write.”
A CBS Television documentary aired in the U.S. claimed that, at Bindoon, “The priority was construction. Brother Francis Keaney, an imposing, white-haired Irishman who ran the place, was obsessed with building the largest Catholic institution in Western Australia. He used his charges as labor. From sunrise to sunset, the boys built Brother Keaney's shrine, with no shoes, and no questions asked.”
When the Christian Brothers arrived in 1939 with the first group of seven boy labourers, the only building on the property was a mud-brick homestead which became their home. After the work of a generation of boys, the facility is grandiose and has been listed by the West Australian Government as a heritage-listed property. The “Statement of Significance” refers to “The design, use of local materials, use of child labour, relationships of the buildings, and period during which they were constructed, make the places exceptionally significant, both individually and in their precinct setting. The place has an exceptional 'sense of place' for the 'boys', and their families.”
When Kearney arrived in 1940, with another eight boys, foundations were dug and one wing of the first building, the dormitory block now known as Edmund House, was officially opened by 1941. Most of the building work was completed by 1953. During construction, two boys died in accidents and a third died from an undefined cause. They are buried in simple graves on the site, while Br. Kearney’s grave has a large marble headstone, and, of course, a (headless) statue.
continued in next comment...
Not only did Kearney use forced child labour to build his edifice, he treated the boys badly in ways other than sexual abuse and violence. One of his slaves remembered that, on arrival, “We were immediately put to work. I learnt how to milk a cow within a week, and then we began constructing a new building. By the time I was 14, I was driving a truck. We'd work, sleep and eat. That was it.”
ReplyDeleteHe also reported that “We slept on open verandas all-year round – and when a wind blew up, it got pretty cold. Foodwise, we'd get crushed wheat or porridge for breakfast, followed by bread in dripping (cow fat). The rest of the meals were similarly plain: we seemed to subsist on a diet of swedes and turnips.”
For his efforts, Kearney received Imperial Honours awards, known as an MBE and ISO. Despite all of the evidence of his unworthiness for such prestigious awards, attempts by many people to have the awards rescinded have, so far, been unsuccessful.
[Postscript: Still up to their old tricks. Christian Brother, Edward Bryan, 59, has recently been found guilty of indecently assaulting three boys.]
Read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Keaney
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1238063/It-happened-I-sent-Australia-child-migrant.html
http://nla.gov.au/andb.bib-an7535446
http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/wa/biogs/WE00698b.htm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/bindoon-boys-town-the-sad-truth-behind-britains-lost-children-1782544.html
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199798/cmselect/cmhealth/755/755ap12.htm
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=26766
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/stories/s17579.htm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-shameful-secret-of-britains-lost-children-brother-keaneys-brutal-attack-1484623.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370261/How-letter-let-expose-Britains-worst-abuse-scandal.html#ixzz2ROlwUrhG
http://ukpaedos-exposed.com/cover-ups/uk-child-migrants/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3475_162-40269.html
http://www.cacbindoon.wa.edu.au/history.html
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/keaney-paul-francis-6902
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977911039
http://www.senatormarkbishop.com.au/library/plugin/plugin/library_document/plugin/library_file/mode/view_file/identifier/u7oTEr6dmlXyQxgkvK9CfpGSwQVKbU9j/
http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2011/06/14/240421_ntnews.html
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/52941843
http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Public/Inventory/Details/d2853405-8f13-40a4-9d42-dfbebdb6336b
http://guides.naa.gov.au/good-british-stock/chapter3/roman-catholic-church.aspx
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/christian-brother-guilty-of-sex-abuse-1.1354385
Eden Park Salvation Army Boys Home: (Or: The Coward)
ReplyDeleteby Lewis Blayse, Commentary on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Australia)
May 9, 2013 http://lewisblayse.net/2013/05/09/eden-park-salvation-army-boys-home-or-the-coward/
Eden Park Salvation Army Boys’ Home (pictured above) was run in the 1960s by Salvo Officer, William Ellis. He was a large man who beat, raped and otherwise abused boys over a long period of time. This cowardly man showed how he could dish out punishment, but not take it himself. When found guilty and sentenced to 16 years prison for his crimes, Officer Ellis “shrieked hysterically and refused to leave the courtroom.” His appeal against the sentence was rejected unanimously.
The modus operandi of religious child sexual abusers varies according to denomination. Mainstream religious groups often rely on the prestige of the offender to get away with their crimes. The child is unlikely to be believed. Further, the victim feels that God is on the side of the abuser, which is why victims from particularly devout families are targeted. In some cases, the religious community in question treats the victim with rejection and other forms of disdain if they report abuses.
The method of choice for Salvation Army abusers lay in the type of victim. Typically, the Salvation Army relates to people who have been in trouble with the law, or come from very deprived backgrounds. Here, it is not so much the positive reputation of the abuser which gives them protection so much as the low reputation of the victims.
The Eden Park Home had the typical inmates. These were boys who were described as “troubled”, “delinquent”, “offenders”, ”neglected” , “in moral danger”, “homeless,” etc. Some, of course, were Indigenous youth forcibly removed by the authorities (members of the “Stolen Generation”). Either way, their complaints were easily dismissed against the denials of the Salvation Army.
When a former worker at Eden Park informed the Dunstan Government in South Australia, of abuses at the home, the complaints were not acted upon. The whistleblower lost his job.
continued in next comment...
The South Australian Government has a responsibility to the boys of Eden Park, since it was operated by the Salvation Army under the control of the state government. When asked about the fact that the government had been advised of the problems forty years ago, the responsible minister, Jay Weatherill (now Premier) hid behind the catch-cry of “client confidentiality” to neither confirm nor deny the claim. Dunstan is a political God in the memory of Labor in South Australia, so it is not surprising that many would not like to see his legacy sullied in this way.
ReplyDeleteWhen sentencing Ellis, Judge Michael David described the Eden Park Salvation Army boys’ home as a disgrace. “It was a horrific place by any standards, let alone modern standards,” he said.
The Salvation Army continues to block moves for decent compensation through litigation, according to victims’ lawyers. The very valuable Eden Park property was sold into private hands in 1997 for an undisclosed sum. That sum belongs to the victims.
[Postscript: One of the journalists who broke the Eden Park story was Joanne McCarthy, who also broke the Newcastle story (see yesterday’s posting).]
Read more here:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/boys-abuse-raised-in-1973/story-e6frea83-1111113093542
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/salvation-army-officer-loses-rape-appeal/story-e6frfku0-1225858916430
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-11-16/we-were-scum-boys-home-horror-recalled/1143634
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national-old/salvos-sued-for-brutal-home/story-e6freooo-1111113052700
http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac;jsessionid=693FA5023393D7D7F5BE3594F320305F?sy=afr&pb=all_ffx&dt=selectRange&dr=1month&so=relevance&sf=text&sf=headline&rc=10&rm=200&sp=brs&cls=19019&clsPage=1&docID=NCH121110105J1D6RQST
http://www.rct-law.com.au/blog/litigation-has-failed-the-victims-of-institutional-abuse.html
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/pedophile-salvo-to-die-behind-bars/story-e6frg6nf-1225710650880
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-03-27/number-claiming-abuse-at-salvation-army-homes/2226918
http://archive.aiatsis.gov.au/removeprotect/60860.pdf
Salvation Army Fullarton Girls’ Home: (Or: Are Your Hands Clean?)
ReplyDeleteby Lewis Blayse, Commentary on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Australia)
May 10, 2013
http://lewisblayse.net/2013/05/10/salvation-army-fullarton-girls-home-or-are-your-hands-clean/
The Fullarton Girls’ Home (pictured above) was run by the Salvation Army from 1912 to 1987, under funding and control by the South Australian Government. It was unusual in that about 15-20% of inmates were Indigenous girls, many taken away from their families under the “Stolen Generation” policy. A report from that era notes that “many of the girls were very dark.”
One former inmate, Doreen Kartinyeri, wrote a book with Sue Anderson, about her cultural heritage and includes data on her time in the Fullarton facility. Dooreen was awarded an honorary doctorate. She passed away in 2007.
Like most girls at the Home, she was trained to be a domestic servant. Much was made by the Salvation Army about such training as being a really good thing. However, it merely reflected the low expectations for the inmates. Some of the girls, who were placed with families under the scheme, were subsequently sexually assaulted.
Many were merely trained to act white to gain employment. They were also trained to be subservient. One contemporary report noted that “daily life in Fullarton Girls’ Home involved strict routine and abject obedience.”
The low status was reinforced by descriptions of the girls as “troubled”, “difficult” and “delinquent”, which is typical for the Salvation Army. The Home was usually referred to as a “Probationary School”. Girls who did not toe the line were sent to the Reformatory. This was another typical tactic by the Salvation Army to control inmates. The author remembers the dread inmates felt at the threat of being sent on to the Westbrook Reformatory operated at Toowoomba in Queensland (which was the subject of an enquiry in 1961 for abuses).
Records note that the majority of Fullarton girls had been charged with, and convicted for, being neglected children by the State Children’s Court. Records from police stations record entries stating “convicted as a neglected child, sentenced to seven years at…” Some were placed there for truancy or other “troublesome behaviour”. Until the 1960s, a child under 15 found smoking in public could be sentenced to one of these Homes.
In 1997, the South Australian State Parliament issued the following apology to the “Stolen Generation”, after debate specifically mentioning the Fullarton Salvation Army facility: “That the South Australian Parliament expresses its deep and sincere regret at the forced separation of some Aboriginal children from their families and homes which occurred prior to 1964, apologises to these Aboriginal people for these past actions and reaffirms its support for reconciliation between all Australians.”
The Salvation Army has yet to issue a similar apology for its involvement in the “Stolen Generation” scandal. It now uses the old Home building as its administrative headquarters in South Australia.
The time people take to get to the point where they can report abuses varies enormously. Sometimes it can be over 40 years. It is likely that, given the lowly status of the inmates of the Fullarton Girls’ Home, more claims will emerge under the impetus of the Royal Commission than have surfaced to date.
Read more here:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/printArticlePdf/30500740/3?print=n
http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/elder-at-centre-of-hindmarsh-
affair/2007/12/13/1197135650736.html
Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin: “A World That Is, Was, and Will Be” (http://www.amazon.com/Ngarrindjeri-Wurruwarrin-World-That-Will/dp/187555971X)
http://findandconnect.gov.au/sa/objects/SD0000188.htm
http://archive.aiatsis.gov.au/removeprotect/60728.pdf
http://www3.worldlii.org/au/other/IndigLRes/1998/2/sa.html
Doreen KARTINYERI and Sue ANDERSON – “My Ngarrindjeri Calling” (http://www.amazon.com/Doreen-Kartinyeri-My-Ngarrindjeri-Calling/dp/0855756594)