I was fifteen when they took my two sisters, brother and I away from our home. We lived in the Wurundjuri area in the Kurung-jang-balluk tribe. My youngest sibling is my two year old brother, Tommy, he’s half white boy, he has a different dad to us girls , he cud barely walk, Jirra was the second youngest, her name means a kangaroo, she can jump higher than the sun, she is eight, after Jirra was me, Bakana, my name means the lookout, mum always said I had sharp eyes, I could spot anything, then there was my oldest sister, she’s sixteen, Kadee, her name means mother, she always took care of us, ever since mum died it hasn’t been the same. Mum got shot by Tommy’s dad before he left, mum explained to us that she was scared of Tommy’s dad because Tommy was an accident, we knew what she meant by that but she would never ever tell us, that’s why she just kept us close, that could be why he shot her because he never got to do that to her again.
It was just after sunrise on my 15th birthday, and this strange man woke Kadee, she woke up and told me to wake up the others, Kadee wouldn’t tell us why we had to run. We ran all day that day, by noon we got so far away from home we didn’t know the way back. We stopped for to lie down and rest our eyes. When I woke up we were in this dark, cold building with lots of beds in it with lots of other kids just like us, I didn’t know where we were, all the other kids told us it would be fine and we’re just at a camp for aboriginal kids. They stole us from our land; they took all of us away from our people, our culture. They forced us to learn the way they live.
A lady in white came in, covered from head to toe with only her face and hands showing, she told us we had to wash, she took us to the shed where they washed you and afterwards she gave us new clean clothes. She said we had to get dressed and go straight to the big building with the big door. We walked in holding hands, they said we had to bow our head and put our hands together, all the other kids started saying the same thing, the lady in white explained it was called praying and that we were in church, Tommy was crying all through the prayer. The lady in white took us to the front and poured water on us and told us that we are now Christians and we now believe in god and we follow by his rules that are in the bible.
Later that day we sat down on the dusty, dry ground. The man who pushed everyone who pushed us around, he came for a visit to find the whiter kids to go to a smarter school so they could be a doctor or something good like that. He checked all the new kids, my sisters and I got checked, youngest to oldest. First Tommy, he didn’t get taken luckily he got most of mum’s colour. Jirra was next, she was checked very closely and he said he needed to check her a bit closer. Then me, he just looked at me and said “no” and finally Kadee, she was checked, he said she was white enough for school. They took our older sister away from us, we needed her to take care of us she was like our mum. We fought for them not to take her, I begged that they would take me instead or someone else. They held us back wouldn’t let us go until Kadee was in the truck and gone until the dust covered the road and we couldn’t see the truck anymore.
I couldn’t sleep that night, neither could Tommy, he was tossing all night. Jirra was still with that man, I couldn’t help but worry. I knew he was going to make her go too. Tommy finally got to sleep just as Jirra ran in crying, she woke the whole room up, even Tommy. The girl in the bed next to me said she got the special treatment and that he must of liked her I didn’t know what that meant but i was going to ask Jirra when she settled. When calmed down a bit, I walked to her bed as quiet as I could, I asked Jirra what had happened and why she was so upset, she just asked where Kadee was, she was dodging the topic, I told her that they took Kadee to the place where whites go and asked her again. She started to cry, I heard footsteps coming to our room, I quickly jumped back in bed and lucky I did, the lady in white came in and said “I hope you girl’s are asleep” and took Tommy to her room because he was crying.
I talked to Jirra about it the next day when we were going to get Tommy from the lady in white’s room. Jirra said that that man touched her where Tommy’s dad touched our mum, she told me that and started to cry and said it hurt and she doesn’t want to get shot like mum did. I tried to calm her down before we got to Tommy, I said that she shouldn’t worry because it won’t happen if I stay around her and don’t let that man come near her again. When we got to the lady in white’s room Tommy was gone and she told us that he is in a better place now, we both looked at her puzzled. She explained that he had passed while he was sleeping, but the way these people acted we didn’t trust her word we didn’t trust anyone here, specially the white ones.
For the following three weeks the lady in white went to church a lot. It was Sunday; we were figuring a way to get out of going to church. We hid around the back of the church; we could smell something really revolting. We walked around the building a bit more to find out if it was around the corner. It was Tommy’s rotting corpse; I don’t know what they did to him or why they would do it. So it was just Jirra and I.
Everyone went to bed later that night Jirra and I were planning to run, we didn’t know where but we had to get out of this place before we got separated or killed. We climbed out of bed took sum blankets and started to run, when we got a fair way away we heard sirens going off. We started to run faster I don’t know what it was, we could run a lot faster after we heard the sirens. They knew we took off, we knew they were coming for us, they wanted us back there, and they wanted to trap us again.
We ran all night and all the next day, we couldn’t stop for a rest we had to keep going, otherwise we would get caught like the first time. We got too tired to run anymore. We started to stumble. Jirra tripped so I carried her. So now we had to stop for a rest, we needed it. I had sore feet, Jirra twisted her ankle when she fell. We don’t remember ever being this tired, not even when mum made us chase those kangaroos. When we woke up in the morning, we found some bread, it had some dirt on it but it was food so we ate it. I could see a truck in the distance, I knew that truck I remembered it from that camp, it was that man he came for Jirra, he wanted her back. I wouldn’t let him take her we couldn’t he can’t do this to her again she only eight. I got a really sharp rock and when he reached for Jirra I cut him and we started running again, we were so worn out Jirra started to slow down because of her ankle, I slowed down and picked her up and carried her. This man was sick he wasn’t going to stop until he got Jirra. I got tired but I couldn’t give up on Jirra I kept running until my little heart couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t keep going; I tripped into a ditch, and dropped Jirra.
That man caught up to us and he took Jirra but he left me, it didn’t make any sense to me wouldn’t he just take us both. So now it was just me, I just gave up. I just lied there for three days. I thought about everything that had happened ever since we got taken from our home. I started walking just for something to do. I got over a dusty mountain and there it was my home, I was home. After all this time I was finally home.