Dad always taught me how to get home: Frances Bodkin

Auntie Frances Bodkin was put in fourteen foster homes and Paramatta Girls Home . Her father had taught her how to get home and she always ran away from her placements. At the age of 14, with her mother dying, she was allowed to remain with her family. Although they did not openly identify as Koori, she suspects that the authorities knew and that was partly why she was removed.

Keywords: Identity; childhood; racism; stolen generations; school; values; moving; law

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All the video recordings on this website were made at least a decade ago. Some are fifteen years old.

What the speakers say on camera was based on their own knowledge and researches at the time each video was made. Since then a great deal of information has come to hand which may make some of the information first recorded now outdated. Therefore please regard this website as a period piece presenting knowledge held and believed at the time of recording.