They took you away when I was twenty. The man from the Aborigines Protection Board said it was the best thing. He said that black mothers like me weren't allowed to keep babies like you. He didn't want you brought up as one of our people. I didn't want to let you go, but I didn't have any choice. That was the law. That was the law.
This web page is about the book entitled "My Place" by Sally Morgan and the child removal policies enacted upon Aboriginal people in Australia. Sally Morgan is a woman of Aboriginal descent who was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1951. She had no knowledge of the traumas in the lives of her own mother and her grandmother. While Sally was writing this book, her mother would not talk, her grandmother would not talk. The traumas of their pasts were too overwhelming to bear looking at again. But Sally had the persistence and tenacity that psychiatrists call 'positive rebellion', though Nan called her a 'stirrer' and her teachers called her a 'troublemaker'.
"My Place" is the life stories of these three strong and extraordinarily vibrant women -- Sally herself, her mother Gladys, and her grandmother Nan. It is a historical document of women who lived within systems designed to enforce assimilation by brutally separating children from their mothers and kin, and in the process the system took away their Aboriginal culture.
Sally discovers her mixed heritage only late in adolescence because her mother and grandmother had purposefully kept it from her.
Sally Morgan & Her WorkSally Morgan Biography on Oz Lit This site provides a brief autobiography of Sally Morgan and a list of the books which she has published.
Synopsis of "My Place" from the Australian On-Line book shop For a quick introduction to what "My Place" is about, check this out.
Our Response to "My Place" We are a group of 5 women who studied "My Place" as part of a Writing by Aboriginal Women course at the University of Calgary. We are the authors of this web site. This is our response to "My Place". We also used this material to give a class presentation.
Reviews & Commentary for "My Place" on amazon.com Look here for a number of interesting (although brief) reader responses to "My Place".
Engendering the Bicentennial Reader: Sally Morgan, Mark Henshaw and the Critics" by Wenche Ommundsen This is critical literary analysis of "My Place". It explores how those who read "My Place" are positioned to the text. It attempts to explain how readers are likely to respond to "My Place" as an autobiography that also includes structural elements similar to the detective novel and other genres. The author of this paper implies that “My Place” positions the reader to accept as historical fact that which may not actually be true. The author of this paper also claims that “My Place” is presented as a confidence between women that excludes men. We disagree.
Engendering Cultural Responsibility This is our response to Wenche Ommundsen's paper.
Aboriginal Culture Yesterday & TodayAboriginal Art & Culture Center Check out this site to learn more about Aboriginal history, culture, music, and community. In her book called “My Place”, Sally Morgan writes about how her mother and grandmother heard Aboriginal music at sunset. For information about the significance of this music which is part of ceremonies that include both mime and song, take a look at the Ceremony/Corroborees page.
Roebourne Primary School Web Site This beautiful and informative web site was created by primary school kids in a community composed mainly of Indigenous Australians. There’s a Yindjibarndi dictionary and traditional song clips along with the stories behind them. Roeborne is in the same region as Corunna Downs to which Sally Morgan returned in order to learn her family history.
The Koorie Australian Indigenous Population This site contains information about the lifestyle, history, culture, and present day political concerns of the Indigenous people of Australia.
Aboriginal Australians This web site provides a broad overview of Aboriginal history and culture. It was the introduction used for shows about Australia’s First Nations people on a television series called the Lonely Planet.
Face the Facts Produced by the Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner 1997 Questions and Answers About Aboriginal People and Torres Strait Islanders Action for Aboriginal Rights Web Site If you read nothing else, read this! It explodes the many misconceptions about Aboriginal people, their history, their culture, and their lives today.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) Homepage, Australia This web site provides current census information about the health, education, employment and housing of Aboriginal communities. Sally Morgan’s people now live within the South Hedland region. You can get to information about South Hedland, by clicking on the Regional Info button at the left of the web site and then clicking on the South Hedland region shown on the north west area of the map.
Historical BackgroundHistorical Overview of Aboriginal Child Removal Policies in Australia For an overview of the policies and conditions related to the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and culture, check this out. It was written by one of the authors of this site!
Reconciliation & Social Justice Library - Bringing Them Home This site contains an extensive report about the effects of the child removal policies in Australia.
"Race and Remembrance: Contesting Aboriginal Child Removal in the Inter-War Years" by Fiona Paisley This article discusses the efforts of white women in Australia to stop the Aboriginal child removal policies. Mary Bennett and other women gave testimony against these policies in an inquiry conducted by the Royal Commission in 1934.
Legal & Political Issues
Regulations, legislations and laws in Australia currently do not protect the interests of Indigenous people. These regulations, legislations and laws comply with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples, but equality is not equal treatment for people who are different, who have different circumstances and situations; this is not equality.
Legal Issues Related to the Removal of Aboriginal Children in Australia For an overview of legal issues related to the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and culture, check this out. It was written by one of the authors of this site!
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Report to Parliament The Council for Reconciliation of Aboriginal People is a government group whose purpose is to foster a “united Australia which respects this land of ours; values the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage; and provides justice and equity for all”. The Council has 25 members in total, of whom 12 are Aboriginal and two are Torres Strait Islander. In response to the findings of the inquiry presented in the “Bringing Them Home” report, the Council supports the introduction of a public education program and a National Sorry Day.
The Stolen Generations - Apology Australia This site includes the signatures of Australians who “believe an apology is owed to those of our fellow citizens who were separated from their families as a direct result of government policy."
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