'These stories rise out of the pain of separation and displacement. Showing hope and forgiveness, the writers give an insight into the strength of the human spirit. The Stolen Children - Their Stories is an acknowledgement of the human tragedy created during a misunderstood and shameful part of Australia's history. The Stolen Children - Their Stories includes a collection of documents and personal stories of Indigenous people that appear in the Report from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bringing Them Home. Also in this collection are the reactions to the Report by political and community leaders.'
'This collection of stories and perspectives is redemptive. It is a step toward healing the suffering of the stolen generations and it urgently demonstrates the importance to every Australian of national compassion and a true spirit of reconciliation.' (Source: Back cover, Random House, 1998 edition)
This work is divided into three main sections:
Section One: The Stories
'The following stories are written just as they were told to the Inquiry. The names of the authors are the false names used in Bringing Them Home for the purpose of preserving anonymity and protecting the privacy of the authors and their families.' (The Stories, Carmel Bird)
Section Two: Voices
'Throughout the report, as the history and practice of removal are examined, there are short quotations from dozens of submissions from Indigenous people.' This section comprises a selection of these brief 'anecdotes and comments', Indigenous voices describing their 'memories...frustrations and sorrows'. (Voices, Carmel Bird)
Section Three: Perspectives
This section contains 'a selection of some reactions to the stories of the stolen children, both within the Parliament and in the community'. Contributing writers include Kim Beazley, Veronica Brady, Martin Flanagan, Robert Manne, Henry Reynolds, Sir Ronald Wilson, and Jack Waterford. (Perspectives, Carmel Bird)
'Historians acknowledge that since the 1970s family history research has driven individuals to confront the silences within Australia’s colonial past, including ‘the convict stain’. However, little attention is given to how the practice has been used by the Stolen Generations to deal with the fracturing impact of ‘protectionist’ social policies on family and life histories. To explore this, I bring the concept of the intergenerational self into dialogue with ‘Paul’s Story’, a short memoir collected in Carmel Bird’s The Stolen Children: Their Stories (1998), and singer/songwriter Archie Roach’s testimony from the ABC Blackout television documentary ‘Best Kept Secret’ (1991). In these cases, the narrative continuity of family lines is severed. Faced with lost origins, the authors must reclaim an intergenerational self retrospectively through research and revision. The paper examines these cases in the context of an emerging focus on relational lives. It demonstrates how people write and tell family histories to rebuild an intergenerational identity in the wake of destructive colonial policies.' (Publication abstract)
