Indledning
Well my name is Marjorie Woodrow. I was born on the 28th of May 1926. I was born under a tree in front of Keewong Station, it’s up near Hillston way, like through the Riverina.

Cause there was a mission out there called Carowra Tank. You see the mission was a mission that they took over then, and they moved them from there to Menindee then. So then there's cattle trucks and things like that. I was a baby then, you see.

I was born there, that’s where my mother lived and worked for these people on the property you see. And that's where she was raped and fell pregnant, and I was the one then, was the baby to be born from there.

Indholdsfortegnelse
I was born under a tree in front of Keewong Station, it’s up near Hillston way, like through the Riverina.
- [Living with her grandfather]
- [Marjorie lived with Alice Smith]
- [Marjorie told Alice she wanted a job so she could be independent and buy herself things]
- [Marjorie was sent to Cootamundra Girl’s Home aged 13 years old]
- [Marjorie was picked up by the police and had to go to court in Glebe, Sydney]
- [Parramatta Girls Home]
- [People in charge]
- [Marjorie speaks up]
- [Slave labour and stolen wages]
- [Marjorie wrote to the Aboriginal Welfare board when she turned 18]
- [Marjorie met her mum in 1993]
- [Her mum asked her one thing]
- [Her mother’s experience]
- [Marjorie’s mum]
- [The lies in Marjorie’s file]
- [Reasons for removal]
- [Healing]

Optimer dit sprog - Læs vores guide og scor topkarakter

Uddrag
[Living with her grandfather]
I can’t – really can’t understand why he made me call him uncle all them years. I can remember like he was my uncle.

But when I went home and found my mum and told my mum, I kept talking about him, see. She said, that wasn’t your uncle that was your grandfather. That's my dad, my father, she said.

He didn’t tell me anything that where I was from, who owned me.

They had three children of their own. The kids didn’t know either, their children, I don't think their children knew the truth. Think they thought I was one of them.

There was no love and affection from my grandfather or his wife towards me. It wasn’t like an uncle I’d have liked to have had. And I can't say the things I’d like to say on film.

He was the cause of some of my heartaches, you know, and I was nine when I went through that terrible strain.

And old Alice Smith, when she come, she come later on and asked me what was wrong, and I told her I was sick. You know, told her the truth so she took me away from them, never brought me back to them.

I knew when Alice Smith took me that I was Aboriginal, where I came from. She knew my mother.

She said, one day you’ll grow up and you’ll come home to your mother. Don't forget she's at Menindee Mission.

[Marjorie lived with Alice Smith]
I could see the culture, she used to teach me the culture. And the way they cooked, the way they slept, the culture. I learnt the culture from that.

She showed me how to make the Johnny cakes, you know, and how to put the damper in the ashes. And all the things, how to cook all that, you know.

How the meat was cooked on a piece of net and over the fire, over the coals. Learnt all that type of thing, you know. And of course then, they had the goannas and things.

I started to learn to eat that as well. And it was just like eating fish, you know. No difference.

So you get used to it, get used to all the wild fruits and out of the ground, she showed me what to look for in the ground, if you ever get lost you could always keep alive.

---

[Marjorie was picked up by the police and had to go to court in Glebe, Sydney]
I can remember crying when I went into it. And the police said, it’s no good you crying because they said, you're going to Parramatta Girls Home.

And he said, you don’t have to talk, we’ll do all the talking for you. Yeah, so I went in, and they just done it all, and they said like, I was uncontrollable, run away from the home. And uncontrollable, couldn't you know, be ah, managed.

So the best place was to send me to Parramatta Girls Home because that was where they could manage us, like you know. I tell you it was a tough place.

[Parramatta Girls Home]
It was the toughest place I ever was in but I mean Cootamundra was, you know, not too bad, but when you went to Parramatta, cause it’s just pure jail.

And you’d have to get down and scrub the floors and every day that floor had to be scrubbed, and everything to be spotless.

If you didn’t do it, well then you went into a room, seven days on bread and water for seven days, that was your meal for seven days. And I was in there quite a few times, I can tell you that now.