Happy and cheerful with my family one day

With tears and screams I was taken away

Put into an Aboriginal children's home

Who was I to turn to? Where was I to go?

 

The sisters were nice and looked after us

Until the sad day my friends were put on the bus

The bus took them away from me because they were too dark

They were sent to be slaves, because our skin leaves a mark

 

I was so lonely and so sad

Just because of our skin colour we are judged as bad

Then my day came to leave Bomaderry

To turn white and to be put in a white family

 

As I got on the train I couldn't stop crying

Why did the matron make me leave? Why am I still going?

As I got off the train I felt like everyone was watching

Watching the dark girl that was approaching

 

Now I lived in Sydney with my white family

Why do I have to be white? Why can' t I be me?

To white people I am introduced as the coloured child

Why do people act like that? It's like I've been pulled out of the wild.

 

On Australia Day I am going to fight

Against the government for our Aboriginal rights

Fight to be with my real family and fight to be free

For I am an Aboriginal and proud to be me

Poem by Kate Hughes, Fauconbridge, NSW.