Many Voices: Reflections on Experiences of Indigenous Child Separation

By Doreen Mellor And Anna Haebich Eds, Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2003, 324 pages, paperback, audio CD, $34.95. Reviewed by Christine Cheater in the October 2003 issue.

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The back cover of this book features rows of thumbnail photographs of faces. Imposed on the faces is a single line quote from Annie Ozies, 'I didn't think my little story would be so big ...' This quote and the faces encapsulate the contents of the book. Many faces, many voices, each face with a little story that personalises a momentous and sorry episode of Australian history, the separation of Aboriginal children from their families. This practice ran from the earliest years of British colonisation to the 1970s and has generated intense debate in all levels of Australian society. The passions raised by this debate are understandable for, as Jackie Huggins points out in the introduction to Many Voices, 'The fear of losing a child is a universal feeling, transcending social, political, cultural and racial barriers'. (p xi)

The realisation that the federal and state governments condoned the policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families has led to calls for an official apology and recognition of the damage these policies have inflicted on Aboriginal communities. Many Voices is the result of one reconciliation initiative, the Bringing Them Home Oral History Project. Commissioned by the National Library, the aim of the project was to create a public record based on the oral testimony of those who experienced the reality of child removal policies. While the focus was on indigenous experiences of family separations, white officials involved in the process of removing and caring for the children, such as cottage mothers and police officers, were also interviewed.

When confronted with the richness and diversity of the material they had gathered, the editors of Many Voices determined that all the voices should be heard without judgment. This decision is reflected in the layout and design of the book and the most notable feature of Many Voices is the lack of authorial voice. The readers are not told what to think or how to react to the many stories presented in the book. They are free to form their own opinions. The bulk of the text consists of quotes from the oral histories, and editorial comment is confined to providing background information on the historic aspects of child removal and how the individual being quoted was caught up in the practice.

The editors' main task was organising the oral histories into chapters that focused on a number of themes that emerged from the interviews. They included four chapters relating to the children and their families -- memories of home, leaving home, living in care and returns and reunions -- two chapters on the carers and officers who implemented the policies, three on memories of life in the institutions and one on the legacy of child separation policies and the ongoing need for reconciliation. Bracketing these chapters are two on the interview process itself. The first explores the reasons why people volunteered to be interviewed and their reactions to the experience and the final chapter explains how the interviewers approached their task.

Page long biographies of those interviewed are scattered thoughout these chapters. Photographs, short biographies and brief histories of the homes that housed the children are provided in boxed texts set in the margins. Basic facts, such as a historic overview of policies relating to indigenous child removal, a summary of legislation affecting indigenous children from the nineteenth century to the present, maps of the institutions, missions and settlements mentioned in Many Voices, interview access details and information on the people who managed the Bringing Them Home Oral History Project, are provided in detailed appendices. Also included are illustrations by indigenous artists and an audio CD of nine raw interviews, which provide a glimpse of the emotions encountered while conducting the interviews and of the depth and content of the oral histories now stored in the National Library.

Those hoping for an authoritative or comprehensive text on the history of Australia's stolen children will be disappointed with Many Voices. The book has the look and feel of a modern museum display. It lacks narrative structure, opting to bombard the reader with snippets of information about the topic, photographs, and short quotes from those interviewed. Given the highly emotive nature of the material this was a well-considered means of presenting the topic to a general audience. It challenges its readers by providing a wide range of material that they can interpret themselves. The book does not demand to be read from cover to cover and the reader can approach the material from many angles, from simply reading the boxed texts to an in-depth analysis of the oral histories.

Many Voices provides an ideal introduction to the stolen children debate, as oral histories are a simple but effective way of communicating painful memories. They speak directly in a language that readers can empathise with. The use of oral histories also conforms to Aboriginal traditions of passing on knowledge. The overall impression gained from reading Many Voices is one of sharing: the sharing of stories to create an understanding of why Aboriginal children were separated from their families and how this experience affected all their lives.

Citation

• Christine Cheater. 'Review: Many Voices: Reflections on Experiences of Indigenous Child Separation by Doreen Mellor and Anna Haebich eds' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), October 2003. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 06 September 2010].

Back Cover Blurb

• Since 1998, the National Library of Australia, with funding from the Federal Government, has been recording narratives about the removal of children from their families. Indigenous community members, those who fostered or adopted children, policy makers, administrators, and others have shared their individual experiences. This publication, including a CD of excerpts from oral histories, will bring those stories to a wide audience and assist readers to understand the complex layers of this aspect of Australia's story.