ABSTRACT
Apologists for the removal of Aboriginal children frequently cite the success of high achievers and exceptional individuals like Charles Perkins and Lowitja O’Donoghue as evidence that the practice was not only full of good intentions but achieved good outcomes for individuals. Part of the complexity is that while the children suffered traumas, in some cases they came into contact with loving and caring individuals who nurtured them and for whom they maintained a life-long respect and affection. While they might see the system as evil, individuals within it might be good. The church underpinned daily life. In a converted room there was chapel twice a day. On Sunday the boys dressed up in their suits and went across for Holy Communion. Sometimes they went three times in a single day: ‘You’d spend more time on your knees than you would standing up.’.
