The Voices of the Kidnapped
“It has been my honour to work closely with Uncle James Michael Widdy Walsh since he first let me interview him publicly in 2018. Uncle Widdy is a survivor of the Stolen Generations, but as he and many of the Kinchela Boys will remind you, they were not stolen; an object is stolen; they were kidnapped and taken from their families. He and his elder brother ended up at Kinchela Boys Home in Northern New South Wales where they were no longer allowed to use their names. For the survivors, this place was not a home but a place where they endured physical, sexual and emotional abuse. It was a place where they were taught that their parents had died or abandoned them and that being Aboriginal was primitive and barbaric. His brother was given the number 17, and he was given the number 36. Here is how he recounted his arrival at Kinchela in a recent interview with Yahoo News:
‘When we got to that place, the coldness of that place when we went through the gate was just such a– it was just– yeah. They stripped us of everything that we had and shaved all our hair off. They lay us and powder all over us. And that was when they told us that you were no longer to use your name; that if you was to use your names, you’d get punished.’
Uncle Widdy has an incredible ability to invite in the listener. While his story is painful and confronting, Uncle Widdy possesses an unflagging warmth and compassion. There is pain, but there is also hope. You can be sure you will laugh, and you will cry with Uncle Widdy, and he will definitely ask you for a hug. I miss Uncle Widdy’s hugs when I don’t see him. He has become a dear and close friend. Someone I can spend hours talking with.
I can still remember meeting Uncle Widdy and another Stolen Generations survivor, Uncle Kerry Mckenzie (Uncle Kerry was kidnapped and taken to Clairvaux), for a public interview at the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM). We spent several hours together and I can still remember sitting opposite them at the Museum listening to their stories, it had been well over three hours and they both had a hunger to share more. I had already worked with a number of Stolen Generations survivors, but sitting there, just the three of us, was a reminder of why the recollections, the eyewitness accounts of survivors are so crucial to understanding these events. Every story is distinct, powerful, and, when you truly engage with it, transformative. Both men were incredibly vulnerable and candid. They needed a place of acknowledgment. I felt passionately that the Sydney Jewish Museum should provide a place for these voices to be heard.
I had completed my doctorate in oral history, but I was still discovering how to utilise oral recollections when I taught about genocide. When I moved to the Sydney Jewish Museum it began a long journey of rethinking how to incorporate survivor recollections when I taught about genocide.
I was honoured to run comparative genocide studies seminars for teachers at the SJM alongside the late Professor Colin Tatz. Colin convinced me that we must speak plainly about the fact that genocide was perpetrated against our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. Before Colin passed away, I organised a panel with Uncle Widdy, George Grojnowki (a Holocaust survivor), Olivier Kameya (A survivor of the Genocide against the Tutsi) and Eang Meng (A Cambodian survivor) for teachers. The experiences of each of these communities are very distinct, but the survivors have similar scars to bear. Allowing the survivors, Jewish, Cambodian, Rwandan and Indigenous, to acknowledge their shared pain as well as the similar ways they have rebuilt their lives was a powerful reminder of our common humanity.
I resolved that I wanted to work more closely with the Kinchela Boys and left the SJM to help establish an education program for Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation.
Unfortunately, COVID cut the program short, but not before I had the incredible experience of touring with the Uncles in the MEC – the Mobile Education Centre. It was my privilege to live with the Uncles, interview them in the MEC and pilot an education program that placed their voices at the heart of the work that we did. Interviewing and internalising the stories of Uncle Widdy, Uncle Richard, Uncle Paul, and Uncle Roger… was painful and difficult emotionally, but it will also stay a part of me throughout my life.
Oliver Kameya and I are now co-founders of Kumva and Kwibuka: Listen and Remember: A program with survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi. As part of the work Kumva and Kwibuka does we continue to work closely with Uncle Roger and Uncle Widdy. Listen and Remember believes that stories transform us and that listening to survivor stories helps build empathy and understanding. The Tutsi survivors and I feel passionately that the story of every survivor matters, and there is always, always more to learn. As a Jew and an Australian citizen, I passionately believe that we must listen to and internalise the stories of our Uncles. They have the courage to speak, and we have the responsibility to listen.”