AustLit

'...You tell me the story, I’ve always wondered why. Why was I the only one picked out of it. Maybe I was the worst one. I don’t know. But I can’t see anything bad that I’ve done. So they probably just had to pick somebody out of a family them days but I can’t work out why I was. I was ten when I was taken away. I started getting in a bit of trouble and everything else you know, growing up. So, welfare come around and said, “Right, Buddy, you’re messing your life up here”. He talked to the parents and they didn’t want me to go, I didn’t want to go, I was happy there, learning from my mother and father and growing up with the other brothers and sisters. That was the best life I’ve ever had, didn’t want … and they said, “Oh well, we’re taking you whether you like it or not.” And that was it, they were law. There was no bucking it...' (Transcribed from the Stolen Generations' Testimonies website)