My stolen childhood, and a life to rebuild | Sheila Humphries | TEDxPerth

[Music] the story I'm going to tell you today is not a very pretty one it's about my childhood thousands of children have been into orphanages institution across Australia mum placed me in the orphanage when I was four years old at New Norcia for education at the age of eight she removed me and my older sister she saw that we weren't getting an education the moment that we left the orphanage there was a state alert for the West Australian police to have Rend and arrest us hate ural ten year old never committed a crime we were arrested we were handcuffed and we were taken back the only time I can remember being with mum and dad is three months of my life two years after we were removed mum passed on we were in the laundry working Reverend mother came in to call myself and my sister aside what she said to us I don't think I ever forgave her your mother's dead get on with your work this is coming from a so-called Christian person many times as a child I tried to take my life it was easy how could have thrown myself down two stairwells the orphanage wasn't a very nice place to be in we weren't orphans we had family we had mum and dad the reason we were taken away the colour of our skin we were placing that orphanage and forgotten during my time there was some 110 girls in the ohm we did laundry for the Old Mission there were the Aboriginal boys about sixty 3960 monks 205 white boys now that's a lot of work we were only children that work had to be done everything had to be ironed sewn putting back in the laundry bags and taken back to where it came from on Thursday morning so we had three days to do all that work give her five of us girls ining I used to do dining I don't know and today I Chuck my clothes in the dryer the big machine that we put the sheets through if the sheets are too damp the machine will get stuck so you gotta open it up to get the sheets flowing again my sister put her arm in it to get the sheets the girl on the other side didn't see her arm in the machine she closed that machine on her arm it had taken all of this off she had one big burn from there all the way down they didn't take her to a doctor they set her outside in the Sun what I burned to dry I said what my sister cry it was so painful the laundry was part of our everyday life as children we went to school until we turned 13 from 13 we were in the laundry a lot of the girls in the owned were in their mid 20s late 20s there was one girl who stayed in that home for 44 years she had nowhere to go we did all of Pitkin for the monastery take a good look at that picture now correct me if I'm wrong all of this arrived June July have a good look at what we're wearing we're kneeling in the wet grass no jumpers one little girl got a short sleeve jumper we suffered with chilblains stone bruises abscess you name it we'll never taken to the doctor now we never wash shoes I need to go to church on Sunday we were dressed up the rest of the week we walked around bare feet you know see if any of you there's a very gravel place we suffered a lot with stone bruises because their skin was so hard underneath our feet they couldn't get a needle into let the yucky stuff out when it got infected what the nuns used was a razor blade to cut away hard skin this little children we were talking about and then dead criss cross it across I'm a squeeze order yuck out I got a scar in the middle of my foot I still got it today one of the girls said abscess on her breast to help them that up would erase away the girl faintly we were never taken to the doctor I remember three girls that were brought down here to Princess Margaret's we never saw him again don't know if they passed away down here or what we were never told I talked about putting you in a home so you can learn hygiene we lived in these clothes that you see in the picture we had a bath once a week about eight or ten girls bathed in the same water we put those clothes on we had a Nickerson a dress that's about it my shoes we lived in those clothes from Saturday to Saturday you know sale was a very rich farming town fed a lot of cattle shape Pig Ray took run you name it they killed about eight to ten sheep every day except on a Friday because of the amount of people in on the mission you had a lot of Aboriginal families they lived on a mission to have food if you can call it food I wouldn't give it to my dog today we got the scrap meat in the orphanage we get ads of the shape the flaps and whatever what scrap meat now summertime you got the big blow ease around they thought dad's over to us we had to clean those heads chop the ones off watch the maggots off that went in the pot for our breakfast in the morning no veggies sheephead salt water we've got a ladle full of that water in our plate a dry slice of bread and a maggoty Friday's been Catholics we weren't allowed to eat meat so we had either had porridge well milk bread boiled in milk I looked forward to that I think that was the nicest meal we got for breakfast the porridge weevils and the worms right through it we had to fish all that out we had nothing to eat there are many times as kids went to the scrap bin from the nuns to fish you have something to eat back in my days when I went to school in the 40s there do inkwell and the pen and of course as kids we blotted our paper the punishment for that we knelt on the floor and from the class both arms outstretched no we didn't get the cane we didn't get the strap we got a brick 13 and under the brick on each end the nun went around or the sawing off piece our darling and a mop and a broom and or whatever it was either to brick there someone hitting you here with that stick under your elbows and ran on your ankles kids walked around swollen joints for days they'd pick anything up it out of the would eat the nuns and flog you with it I mean flog you mum took us out of there because she saw that we weren't getting that education now education came later on in my life after I had my children my firstborn 1960 I had twin daughters I was healthy my children were I started wondering why I was kept in hospital longer than four days I ended up being in there for two weeks towards the end of two weeks I had five visitors by my bedside now when Aboriginal women went into hospital he didn't go in a normal hospital ward you were out on the veranda my babies were born in June I was out on the veranda with Lewis on wind coming through the bottom of the Brenda achates five people came to my bedside and I was wondering what's going on okay two doctors a matron and two police officers we'd like to know how you gonna cope this is the matron talking when you leave the hospital said I'll be fine I got a husband there who cares for me I think it would be better if we took the children from you repeat my mother was taken I was taken they wanted to take my twins standing beside my bed saying are you only gonna take their moment they all died my two girls are grandmothers today [Applause] [Music] I met and married a wonderful man who taught me a different way of living how to forgive 1994 so the year that changed my life I woke up one morning two o'clock in the morning I suffered my hard hat and my late husband said to me what's the matter with you thought well I could say to him at that time was I want my mommy I want my mommy he said I'll tell you what I'll take you back mom's buried in you know it's here I'll take you back tomorrow and we'll go and visit her grave so in fact the next day and it was like I was going to a funeral for the first time in my life her mother whose name I didn't know until 30 years later found out her real name mother darling had nine different names she was placed in so many institutions baptized into so many religions and given so many names the only name that we knew of I was chickapedia I cried a little help to him back when I got home he said to me I do believe if you write things down it will help you it took me three weeks before I can find file and paper and I started writing I've written a file full of my childhood had I wanted to further my education as my children grew older went to school I couldn't help them we go so I put myself through college I went to college set there for six months and pulled out my husband said to me no you go back the following year saw me go back and graduate I am graduated with the residential child care certificate which enabled me to help children a lot of people ask me why do you go and work for these very people to Community Services I don't know what they called a self today we used to be native welfare during my time why do you go and work for these very people my answer to them was if I could help one child make it in this world it'll be worth it all thank you all for listening [Applause] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 188,958

Rating: 4.9490643 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Humanities, Childhood, History, Life, Struggle

Id: 5V3SX0H7pHc

Length: 14min 51sec (891 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 01 2018