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C-BERSS EX-PRESS
September 2004
Issue 2, Vol 7
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All Newsletters : September 2004 : A Story of Survival, Success ... and Celebration
A Story of Survival, Success ... and Celebration
We were delighted to receive an email from an Australian-born man who was placed in Castledare/Clontarf as a child. George and his four siblings were placed in various Catholic orphanages in WA during the 1940s and early 50s. It would be forty years before he and his brothers and sisters – and their families, would meet again at a reunion in Perth.
George says he feels that the “Aussie” kids have been placed at the back of the room over the years, including on the part of the media, and that this is most unfortunate. We hope that the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care in Australia, (whose report has now been issued) will do something to rectify the situation and highlight the lives of “Aussie” kids whose story needs to be told and heard in the same way that the stories of the Stolen Generation and of Child Migrants have been told and heard.
George is very clear that neither he nor any one of his siblings feel like “victims” of their childhood, and he feels proud of the fact they have achieved much more than many who have been privy to all the benefits and comforts of a “normal” family life.
Most of us are survivors – not victims, he emphasized.
George says his brother was Executive General Manager of a major national retail chain while he himself served his country in the RAAF and later held senior positions in Australia’s Foreign Service both nationally and overseas. He has also held positions in business as General Manager of a leading entertainment corporation and retired recently from his business as Managing Director of an accomplished company in Brisbane. More recently he has been a Team Leader (Volunteer) training and leading hundreds of volunteers in major world events. Other siblings have also achieved much in their own fields and with their children.
George says he writes the above not to ring his own bell but solely to show that because you were brought up in an orphanage does not mean you cannot do something useful with your life and strive to reach goals that most of the community may consider impossible. “Live the impossible dream? – sure can, and so can you.”
George suggests that whether we be “Aussie” kids or part of that great collective of youth shipped away from their own countries to become Aussies in their own right we all feel a sense of unity of spirit that we all went through that time together and human nature being what it sometimes is, hopefully we will retain memories of the better moments rather than those others that may have been more painful.
In closing, George asked us to mention and recognize the great work that one man in particular did for his charges – Rev.Bro. P.L.O’Doherty - to whom George, and many others will always be thankful, for his guidance, application of discipline, teaching, and caring. Thanks “Dickie”. George.
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