Child Migrants, film, Forgotten Australians, memories, Stolen Generations

The Making of Modern Australia

by Adele on 28 July, 2010

The first episode of the ABC-TV series The Making of Modern Australia dealt with Australian children.

The programme includes the accounts of a former Child Migrant and a member of the Stolen Generation but doesn’t represent the experiences of a large number of children who were wards of the state and also placed in Children’s Homes.

It is interesting to note, too, that former Child Migrant, Rose Kruger’s account of being “ruled by the strap” in a Sisters of Mercy Home, is followed by a comment on the historical use of corporal punishment in all schools. Was the treatment of all children in schools at that time equivalent to the abuse reported by Forgotten Australians in Homes?

Your thoughts?