CONCERN FOR THE FUTURE OF ELDERS COUNCIL

Stolen child now ‘proud Tasmanian Aboriginal’

SHARON Holbrook re members clearly the shudders he felt as she put her foot on Tasmanians oil seven years ago, knowing she was finally back on country after 54 years.

Mrs Holbrook had finally received her birth certificate, which revealed she was born in Launceston to an Aboriginal mother.

Until then she had “hated” her mum, believing she gave her up to the notorious Ballarat Orphanage, which closedin1968.

The truth was that she was taken away by an institution unable to accept her family arrangement.

Mrs Holbrook, now 66, was born to an Aboriginal mother and white father and was one of 15 siblings.

Although many of her siblings were not born by the time Mrs Holbrook was separated from her family, they were “all taken eventually ”.

Aged just five, Mrs Holbrook remembers being in “skimpy clothes” in the cold, scrubbing floors with a toothbrush and subject to neglect, as many of the Stolen Generation were at the Ballarat Orphanage.

“I have some awful memories from there ,” she said.

“I never got to see Mum or Dad again, and it’ s very hard .”

After 18 months at the orphanage, Mrs Holbrook was adopted by a white family from Preston, Victoria, and was loved and cared for.

The family had two other adopted daughters.

One was later revealed to be Mrs Holbrook’s biological sister, Roseanne.

In the decades following, Mrs Holbrook was told by government departments that she had no birth certificate, that she was an illegal immigrant and that she was not Australian.

Milestones such as marriage and overseas travel were complicated and tarnished by painful reminders from the commonwealth that legally, she was “a nobody”.

“Without a birth certificate, it’s very hard. You’re not complete ,” she said.

“I applied for a passport to go away overseas and was called an illegal immigrant. It hurt.”

In 2013, a letter containing Mrs Holbrook’s birth certificate arrived at her home, thanks to the Bringing Them Homeprogram.

“When I found out I was Aboriginal, God it was a shock,” she said.

“Bringing Them Home sent Roseanne and I over here (to Tasmania) a couple of times.”

The first time Mrs Holbrook stepped off the plane in Tasmania, a jolt through her body let her know she was “back on country”.

She was welcomed by the elder sat the Aboriginal Elders Council of Tasmania. They had known her mother, who was born on Cape Barr en Island and died in 1974, aged 47.

They told her stories and reconnected her with her siblings.

“I think my mother died of a broken heart,” Mrs Holbrook said.

Her father, a police officer in Launceston then a harbour master at St Helens, died at 87, about a decade before his daughter came home.

Mrs Holbrook settled in Launceston.

Her uncle took her out on country two years ago, painted her with ochre and conducted a smoking ceremony.

“He made me a fire stick to welcome me back to country and that was the most emotional thing ,” she said.

Mrs Holbrook, am other of three, grandmother of nine and great grandmother of three, now ensures her descendants are in touch with, and proud of, their heritage.

At the Elders Council she cooks for the wukalina cultural walk, does welcome to country ceremonies, helps police dealing with troubled youth sand feeds and supports those in need.

“I’m very proud to be Tasman ian Aboriginal ,” she said.

He made me a me stick to welcome and back to country and that was the most emotional thing. Sharon Holbrook