Impact of Stolen Generations needs to be remembered: Uncle Bobby Nicholls

By Taylah Baker and Max Stainkamph

Feb 14, 2023

**Advocacy:** Co-convenors of Shepparton Region Reconciliation Group Bobby Nicholls and Dierdre Robertson. Photo by Amy De Paola

“How would you like me to come along and take your children?”

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Looking out over the crowd of 300-odd people at Queen’s Gardens in Shepparton on Monday morning, Uncle Bobby Nicholls asked a simple question.

He got silence in response.

Speaking at the Apology Day breakfast, which is held every year to mark Kevin Rudd’s 2008 apology to the Stolen Generations, Mr Nicholls was one of several speakers in front of an audience made up of people from different backgrounds.

“People expect us to get over it and move on,” Mr Nicholls, a co-convener of the Shepparton Region Reconciliation Group and proud Yorta Yorta man, said following the speech.

“It’s difficult when you’re the one that’s affected by it ... the audience went quiet (when I asked them).

“They’re shocked, they don’t have an answer.”

Mr Nicholls said there was a “disbelief” people could take children from their parents at a young age.

He said that made Apology Day — held every year on February 13 to reflect on the trauma suffered by First Nations people because of government policy over the past century or more — so important.

Shepparton has held a breakfast every Apology Day, with Monday’s event beginning with a traditional Smoking Ceremony by Nathan Bourke, accompanied by Wilfred Stewart playing the didgeridoo.

**Music:** Wilfred Stewart played the didgeridoo during the Smoking Ceremony and minute’s silence. Photo by Amy De Paola

Aunty Pam Pedersen did the Welcome to Country and students from St Anne’s College in Kialla recited Mr Rudd’s formal apology speech.

**Welcome:** Aunty Pam Pedersen did the Welcome to Country at Shepparton’s 2023 Apology Day breakfast. Photo by Amy De Paola

Guest speaker Jarvis Atkinson spoke about Russell Moore, better known as James Savage, who was taken from his family by the Salvation Army just after birth in the 1970s.

Mr Moore was passed from “one family to another” before being moved to America and abandoned as a teenager.

He was never told of his Yorta Yorta and Wemba Wemba ancestry, causing an identity crisis, and only once he was sent to prison in the United States did he find out his background, but was unable to be extradited back home before he died.

**Healing:** Guest speaker Jarvis Atkinson gave a powerful speech about the Stolen Generations. Photo by Amy De Paola

Mr Nicholls said he was touched by Mr Atkinson’s speech, and reeled off more names and “heartache stories” of people such as Larry Walsh, Archie Roach and Jack Charles, who were stolen from their families at a young age.

He said each name and individual taken from their family and their culture came with a heavy weight on the shoulders of First Nations communities.

Mr Nicholls said some went to the grave suffering from a loved one being taken, but the day was not about looking for sympathy.

“It’s a matter of acknowledgement that these things happened,” he said.

“Days like this help my personal healing, and I believe it gives people, especially young people, a better understanding in regards to reflecting on the past.”

**Student involvement:** Ch'e Atkinson from ASHE Daya introducing the guest speakers. Photo by Amy De Paola

Mr Nicholls said more work needed to be done, particularly around bail reform, to prevent avoidable deaths of Traditional Owners in custody, but on a whole he said life was better than it was during the height of the Stolen Generations for First Nations people.

“I think everyone after the event was filled with lots of praise and hope that these things are not continued from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people,” he said.