Donnas Barker and her two sisters were brought up by their father because their mother died when they were young. The family moved to the Brewarrina mission during the Depression because work was hard to find. Barker received schooling from the age of six to fourteen and then went to work as a housemaid on a station. Barker ran away from the station for fear of being raped. She was picked up by the police and kept in the lock-up before being sent to Cootamundra Girls' Home. Barker was at Cootamundra for six months before she was moved on to Galong, New South Wales, where she stayed for three years with an apprenticeship at the Post Office. Her father tried to find her but was unsuccessful in his search.
