Wurrek tyerrang is a historic opportunity for First Nations Victorians to speak their truths on the impacts of colonisation still felt to this day.
Uncle Jack, 78, was the first to share his story and the consequent effects of being a part of the Stolen Generation.
Now a respected Elder, advocate and actor, his story features harrowing accounts of violence, 22 incarcerations and extensive drug abuse, stemming from a foundation of systemic oppression.
Uncle Jack said he was taken from his mother at Daish’s Paddock, the First Nations camp between Shepparton and Mooroopna, at only four months old.
“That's as much as I can glean, because being born under the Assimilation Policy, all babies were supposed to be taken from the hospital bed, from their mothers and then placed into babies' homes — City Mission over in Brunswick,” he said.
Uncle Jack was transferred to the Box Hill Boys’ Home where he stayed for 12 years as the only registered First Nations boy ‒ he referred to himself as a “bit of a novelty” at the home.
“I was whitewashed by the system,” he told the inquiry.
He said he knew nothing about his roots, was told nothing and had no choice but to assimilate.
“I wasn't allowed to know, it would have defeated the purpose of assimilation,” he said.
“I don't recall any other Aboriginal-looking kids with me in that home and in reflection, I believe that it would have been seen sooner as a failed social experiment, this notion of assimilation, if other blackfella kids had been moved in with me at the Box Hill Boys' Home.”
Uncle Jack said he learned of his mother, Bunurong woman Blanchie Muriel Charles, at when he was 18 and of his father only last year in SBS’s Who Do You Think You Are?.
He was confronted with news his biological father was not who he thought it was, but rather Yorta Yorta Taungurung man Hilton Hamilton Walsh.
Although he never met his father, Uncle Jack spoke of the familial connection to Yorta Yorta country with a bittersweet remembrance.
“The Queen, when she was being escorted up to the cannery, had to pass Daish's Paddock, the blackfella camp,” he said.
“So they put a hessian fence along the side there so she wouldn't see blackfellas living in Third World conditions — that's that.
“But, you know, I have got a picture yesterday, somebody gave me a picture of Hilton standing with the Queen, big Philip, up there at Cummera and some other person looking like a minister.”
Yoorrook is Australia’s first and only formal truth-telling process.
Taking historic steps outlined in its Roadmap to Hearing Elders’ Voices, Yoorrook allows Elders to share truths about the impacts of colonisation on First Peoples in Victoria and have it be a part of the official public record.
Stories heard in the Yoorrook hearings, among other submissions or nuther-mooyoop, will culminate in the publication of Yoorrook’s interim report due in June.
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