How many white kids were victims of ''The Stolen Generation''?
Until around the mid-1970s, government policy across Australia was to remove children they considered to be “at risk” in their home environment. The story of ‘’The Stolen Generation’’ is now well known internationally, but the whole truth hasn’t been told. Children weren’t taken solely because of their race. They stole white kids too. Welfare legislation authorizing the removal of children from poverty-stricken homes was enacted by people who were untrained, and unable or unwilling to acknowledge that lack of money did not mean a bad home life. For financial gain to welfare workers and Churches, children were removed from their family to institutions where they suffered deprivation, abuse, separation from loved ones, and withholding of affection that scarred them for life.
A minimally fictionalized biography, "The Pencil Case" is a confronting account of the life of one of the victims of this policy.
A hit on the head with a pencil case began Paul Wilson's lifelong battle against the system and the pencil-pushers who tormented him... but nothing could break his indomitable spirit. A fifth generation, native-born white Australian, Paul was a stolen child. Bureaucrats stole him twice. So-called ‘women of God’ and a misguided carer stole his identity, his heritage and his self-respect.
Join Paul as he takes his lawyer on a journey through time, from the post-war home of a poverty-stricken Australian family, to a cold, harsh Catholic Orphanage, into foster homes and an Anglican Boys’ Home, to an army training school for boys, and through an eventful adult life desperately searching for identity, acceptance, love and peace.
His is a story is that may sadden or enrage you, but it's also one that will reassure you of the beauty and strength of the human spirit and the power of family love.
A Noveltunity Award Winner.
‘’Gritty and mesmerizing” (Kenneth Edward Lim)
“The author’s brilliance with imagery and words involve the reader to the point of being an observer in the time and place.” (Diana Hockley)
“Read even half a chapter of this and you'll know straight away you're dealing with a phenomenal writer and a fascinating story. This book is as important as it is riveting.” (Richard Walsh)
“…a story that I think should be mandatory reading in schools and colleges, and for most everyone else too” (Fran Macilvey)
A beautifully-written, utterly moving piece of art. (Faith Rose)
“…a story that should be heard” (M.A.McRae)
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