Rosalie Fraser was two and a half when she was taken away from her parents by Native Welfare officials. Fraser found herself placed with a foster family where she was faced with daily physical and mental abuse. When Fraser was 21 she found out the name of her real parents and brothers and sisters. She managed to find them all except for her father.
It took Fraser ten years to develop her autobiography Shadow Child : A Memoir of the Stolen Generation (1998). In her own words, Fraser began writing because 'One night I was so down, even alcohol could not help, so with the kids in bed, I just sat down and started writing.' (Shadow Child p.272)
