I am living proof of the stolen generation. Trust me, the trauma is real | Elaine Crombie for @IndigenousX | Opinion | The Guardian

9.12.16

I am living proof of the stolen generation. Trust me, the trauma is real | Elaine Crombie for @IndigenousX | Opinion | The Guardian: I’ve never had to experience on a traumatic level what my mother and uncle did, but there are definite parallels and I have to make mention of this because lately people have spoken out about the subject of the stolen generation and its validity. Trust me, it is real. It did happen. I am living proof of it. I live today with no living culture that I can practise or pass down to my sons. I have no living tongue in my mouth that I can teach my kids. My tongue only knows a colonised speak.

“I am a perfect example of genocide,” I say it all the time, it’s my catchphrase for people who want to ask about my family and where I grew up. I see that look in their eye and have to hit them with a joke to lighten the mood before I spoil their day, you know.

Back to my yarn: I wouldn’t see Mum until Christmas time and she would come home and bring presents along with old scripts from plays that she had worked on during the year. We would read through them and she’d have me cracking up laughing at her stories, making up our own plays and some most of my fondest memories were doing things like this with her.