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Year 8 KKHS 2020 Indigenous E-Book

by Samantha Golding

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Year 8 2020 Indigenous E-Book
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 The Lost Generation
 
23th June 2019
The tears silently rolled down my face as my son and I drove slowly past the train station where it all began. The bright blue train station is filled with lots of unhappy people making their way home from work. My hands started to grip to the steering wheel as I remembered what happened. My memories of before this time are of my large family, laughing, playing and being carefree. I turn to face my son as I prepare to tell him of my past.

February 16th 1914
It comes back vividly, the day they came and forcibly took us away from our parents. We were very young and frightened especially when our older brothers escaped from them and my younger brother, sister and I were put on a train and at the time, we had no idea what was happening to us. We were all terrified and we didn’t know where this train was taking us. It was a freezing cold night and there was no one else on the train except us. It was dark when the train eventually stopped and we could see the lights of an empty city like we had never seen before. The city was so pretty with the night lights. We were taken to a cold dark place with rows and rows of beds which would become our home.
 
February 17th 1914
Our days began at 4:30am with a bowl of watery porridge that was supposed to keep us going while we were expected to scrub the floors, clean the dishes and do the laundry all by hand in scalding hot water and lye soap that left our hands red, raw and painful. This was our life and it was controlled by cold and heartless people.
 
23th June 2019
Next we drive past farmland which reminds me of my next home.

July 27th 1916
A boy’s farm on the outskirts of Bathurst. Once again my days were filled with back breaking work from early morning to late afternoons in the fields. All day we were working harder than ever harvesting potatoes in the freezing cold or on a boiling hot day. It was hard being separated from my brother and sister, not being able to take care of them anymore or knowing what happened to them.
 
Even though I am free, I must teach my son of what happened because he needs to know what my story is so he can share it with the next generation.
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