by Nikki Daniels (guest author) on 22 April, 2010
I really don’t like the label forgotten. forgotten would be to me – that when i was a child calling asking for help – there was none. I was drugged on nuelactyl (heavy tranquiliser)at 5 years of age for 6 solid weeks locked in a child’s hospital/ orphanage . They shipped me around from one paedophile family to the next. The doctor report says.. she denies her anus is sore… i think i would like to know.. 2 things actually. why was my anus sore.. and why was the doctor looking at my anus ? i have been a mother for over 22 years and never has a doctor ever looked at my child’s anus.. It was so easy for paedophiles to get acess into orphanages and group homes because it wasn’t actually his job. his wife was employed and he was just her husband. the new house father. they changed every couple of years. Because the husband was not actually employed by the state or the church – it makes an open case for anyone wanting to press charges upon that particular perpetrator. Paedophiles seem to do life long damage to children into adulthood and even elderly have hidden it all their life. most children asked for help and were denied the basic right of a human being. We had noone to turn to, the children that is. Most of the boys at a certain age were shipped out to prison youth farms westbrook and boystown.. what kind of a start to life is that. one would have thought that the government should have been educating these children properly as her own children. Would have made the country half a million people smarter and the rest of the generations there after. The government again i feel apologised only to protect their own ass. not that true care and concern was shown – after it was too late. the damage done. i have had the prime minister apologise to me and half a million other people. but the prime minister does not know who i am.. so facts are what i am saying is correct. i am still that little girl.. money does not and will not fix peoples problems. it gives them a moment .. of freedom. i have a lot of things i can say about this topic being a forgotten australian … The way that i was treated has had much impact on the way i approach society and how i involve myself in society. I don’t and i wonder sometimes would i be a different person if the abuse had never happened and i had a normal family. Finding my mother 41 years later – did not fix the problem. more it was a disappointment that i waited my whole life for what.. i cannot enjoy to be a child in her mothers arms. i cannot enjoy my mother showing me how to cook and wash my hands sing me songs or kiss me goodnight. . i cannot show my mother my first day at school . i was robbed of all these normal… things that any child should have. things that even a child in a third world nation does have. meeting my mother was like another slap in the face.. to meet a woman whom i should be attached but we are complete strangers.. an emptiness .. that cup will never be full. there lingers the scent only a hint.. of what should have been or could of been if it would have been.
who decides what goes into this book..?? more government officials ? more people paid a government grant for fundings? or do the actual people who are the forgotten australians get a choice..??? or is that right going to be taken as well.???. just like the unsigned federal apology…
I was at St.Vincents from the mid 70’s to the early 80’s
For most of my adult life I was made to feel guilty for my time at the home, I did not seem to be grateful enough for all the things they did for me. For a long time I thought I was the problem. I was the bad one.
Not until I had counseling and was made aware I was a child, I was influenced by those around me, they were in control. Not me. I still have trouble sleeping at night, I still have the dreams and the nightmares. My time “in care” will be with me always. I now have some tools on how to deal with it. Fixed… no… not by a long shot.
To Bruce and to all who suffered at St Vincent’s:
I went to a Catholic boarding school in England which was owned by the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy. I started at the age of four, and no adults were ever so mean, or as cruel, to me as those nuns. But the order also owned orphanages where, as I now know, the abuse and cruelty to small children was far worse.
When I was older, my parents lived in Nudgee for about a year with no knowledge of what was happening at St Vincent’s Orphanage. But no one would have believed that the Mercy Sisters who, I believe, also owned All Hallows’ would perpetrate such atrocities on innocent children.
It would appear that Catholic orders regarded the unfortunate children who were placed in orphanages as inferior and easy prey. Shame on the lot of them!
Does anyone know if you can obtain actual records of a relative’s time in an orphanage? My father was at St Vincent’s Nudgee from 2 and a half till eleven and a half ( 1911-1921). I have received from the nuns a piece of paper with his name and his parents’ names and also the dates of entry and exit. Is it possible to get more details of their lives? How do you go about it?
Hi Pam,
Thanks for your query.
You could try the Aftercare Resource Centre in Queensland.
Their website is at:
https//www.aftercareresourcecentre.org.au/arc.asp