| Books for Children and Young Adults | Labour History, 89

Books for Children and Young Adults

This is the first in an occasional series of reviews of social and labour history books for younger people. We have chosen reviewers from the target audience.

David Hollinsworth, They Took the Children, Working Title Press, Kingswood, SA, 2003. pp. 38. $11.77 paper.

They Took the Children is an important book on a number of levels. As an educational tool and resource it is both comprehensive and engaging, in itself a major feat for the young enquiring (and often impatient) mind. How, where and how often it will be utilised is difficult to say, given the (parlous) state and faltering development of reconciliation; however it is reassuring to see a book like this. They Took the Children covers a lot of issues including the removal of indigenous children from their parents, dispossession and protection laws, fostering and adoptions, and issues raised in the Bringing Them Home Report. It also covers recent developments such as helping to reconnect the stolen generation, and Sorry Day (now known as the National Day of Healing). Crucially it succeeds in the difficult task of combining a very detailed account of these events in a very accessible way, both for educationalists and children.

The following review is drawn from me reading this book to my nine-year-old daughter Ruth, as well as a response from her reading all of the chapters to herself. While this book will most likely be read by teachers to students, the following review helps to raise issues that come from the one receiving the information, as well as the one delivering it. Before Ruth does this I will briefly detail the book's format. The book includes various sections, including an introduction drawn from the experiences of three children Molly, 14, Gracie, 11, and Daisy, 8, on which the film Rabbit-Proof Fence was based. Subsequent sections include 'the first removals of children', 'dispossession', 'protection laws', 'taking the children away', 'down a hole' (including hiding places where families and children sought refuge from the authorities), 'in the children's homes', 'fostering and adoptions', 'getting the children back', 'bringing them home', 'sorry day and journey of healing'. The book also includes a time line from 1788–2000 and has numerous maps showing the settlements and institutions where children from the stolen generation grew up. There are also some really beautiful watercolours from students as part of Reconciliation and National Sorry Day 2000, generous archival photographs, letters and drawings from the period, as well as photographs and storyline from the film Rabbit-Proof Fence. From an adult's perspective, the book also provides really useful definitions of words like missions, reserves, and includes excerpts from the Bringing Them Home Report. Below are the direct thoughts of a child, of a similar age to that of Molly, Gracie and Daisy, reading and being read the book.

The introduction was tempting and made you want to read more about what happened to aboriginal kids in Australia. The book explained things well, and I loved the way they've got younger people's pictures and opinions. There is lots of good information and interesting pictures. You get a really good idea of the story in your head just by reading the introduction. There are also great pictures and captions by children and the definitions were really helpful. Many of the pages were quite sad and [it was] disappointing to see how badly Aborigines in Australia were treated. You could picture what white people thought.

The bit on 'protection laws' had some really good photographs, and you could see how children felt in the photo. In 'Taking the Children Away', it looked at half-castes and inter-racial marriages and the letter (from the protector) showed how they wanted to breed out the black colour and the photos of the people of the time make you see that it was sad. They didn't deserve to be taken away, sad that whites believed that their way of life was better. It is disappointing to learn how they were treated.

As someone reading the book to a young person who has seen Rabbit-Proof Fence, it should be said (and was said to me by Ruth) that it was hard to find anything new to say about the book by the final chapters. As an adult, and parent, I can see the point, and it's not a criticism but a reflection of the book's relevance. That is, that this book, whether it's in the libraries of primary schools or the bookshelves of children's lounge and bedrooms, is firstly a solid and no-nonsense educational resource which details our nation's record on race relations. The book shows that it's not 'black (or any other) armband history', it's just, as Ruth said, 'quite sad and disappointing to see how badly they were treated ... sad that whites believed that their way of life was better.' It's a 'sad' story that many young Australian children should have access to and this book does it well. Its strength particularly lies in its ability to communicate detailed historical information, while at the same time including some really accessible historical documents for children, like original letters and photos as well as some really touching representations of particular events by children putting themselves in the shoes of indigenous children of the time. This ability to engage what is a lot of really important (and often sad and serious) information into such an accessible form is a major achievement in itself, and as such is highly recommended for any bookshelf that aims to inform and inspire today's generation from the stories of yesterday's generation.


Bulli, NSW University of Sydney	RUTH BAKER DIANE VAN DEN BROEK

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