A Good Friend of mine who is fighting the same injustice Native and Irish Children faced, is asking for our support. Mark Torr, marktorr@activ8.net.au , is asking for your email support to explain why it is important to unearth the "Forgotten Australians" children that were abused, murdered and place in unmarked mass graves.As our Children deserve a decent honorable burial for the life's they represented, so do these children. I ask that you please write and show support to Mark Torr, The Forgotten Australian Children, and for Justice to the atrocity that was produced.
Hi Russ I need as many emails as you can muster for this To all our brothers and sisters and friends we need your support We are in the early stages of negotiating with stanwell for the beautification of the children that lay in unmarked graves with no name Some are trying to settle with just to up grade the memorial to include the children's names on this memorial which is hidden on the side of a road nowhere near where the children lay . please look with in yourselves these children are forgotten Australians of st Josephs orphanage Neerkol please email me with your support and words marktorr@activ8.net.au we will not stop until these children about 60 odd have there names back respect and dignity and the beautification of the 2 sites where they lay below is a open letter to stanwell from us forwards forgotten Australian justice committee
The Forgotten Australian justice committee is made up of Forgotten
Australians from all walks of life "Forwards" for short, it means and
includes all who were in institutions be it church run or state run;
we all ate the same food, we slept in the same rooms, we were treated
in the same way. In saying that we are made up of Neerkol folk,
Indigenous, Child Migrants and all those who found themselves in these
institutions.
We are based right across Australia with representation in all states,
some of these are based in Rockhampton which I am sure you are aware
of.
Recently, thanks to the assistance of Stanwell one of our colleagues
was permitted to visit the grave sites where they left flowers and
words from many in Australia and overseas who have been shocked and
appalled to learn that so many lost children lay in unmarked, untended
graves in a field which is not a registered cemetery.
These Forgotten Australians currently lay with no name, no dignity and
no respect; these forgotten ones are family and friends, companions
and playmates of our fellow orphan brothers and sisters, they are not
forgotten by those of us who shared life and its experiences with
them. Today they are not forgotten, they are hidden from view, their
existence and their lives are denied, their connections with friends
and families remain forever shattered and broken only to satisfy those
who offer no respect, no dignity and no empathy for the loss of a
family, friends and fellow humans.
We understand that the general public is largely unaware of many of
these issues and much of the history surrounding the lives of these
children. That is evident even here in Rockhampton; however, a lack of
knowledge, ignorance or even guilt should not and can not stand in the
way of the known and documented history, it's facts and it's reality
including these communications.
Our investigations and our research over many years of the activities
at Neerkol have exposed many omissions, errors and obfuscations
throughout the thousands of pages of documentation that we have
compiled and researched in regards Neerkol and the deaths of these
children.
We have established communication with the church and the Sisters of
Mercy and have offered to provide assistance to rectify the errors and
omissions and wherever it is humanly possible to see that every
child's name is correct and in the instances where they have been
absent and not accounted for to have them included as they should have
been.
We do not want to dwell on the negative paths of the Neerkol story as
that is well documented and recorded and is now a history that cannot
be changed; our sole aim is to return the right to be acknowledged and
to bring back the proper dignity and respect we afford to all human
beings through having their names and their final location known and
acknowledged and for their graves to be freely accessible to all in
the future who may wish to find consolation, closure or an
understanding of their real history and connection with these
forgotten and hidden children.
This is a timely opportunity for the Stanwell, Forwards, the
Government, the Church and the Sisters of Mercy to come together to
forge the only possible moral and appropriate result required by human
dignity and respect for those children of the past and those children
yet to come through giving them back their names and through marking
their final resting places.
I look forward to progressing and finalising this matter with you as
soon as possible.
I have included below a poem from an ex Neerkol resident as their
personal plea to you to have their kin and companions acknowledged.
Your Sincerely,
Mark Torr for Forwards
A Child with No Name
The bush is showing its benevolent face
As we gather here at history's place
Where children's names were brushed away
By those who wielded power that day.
Oh, list their names, let each plaque spell
So all remember them as well
In a public place we can protect
And pause awhile to give respect.
To those who cried and those who died
Each babe and child who mystified
These unmarked graves amongst the trees
At this resting place that no one sees.
Way back then, the times were tough,
A young child's life was ready and rough,
In eighteen hundred and eighty five
In the Neerkol bush they must survive.
Survive most did through those sad years
Still wee ones perished now memory sears
The apathy for all that time
An enduring epitaph would be sublime.
With the date they came as a gift from God
The date they perished and newly turned sod
Sought solace at their lonely grave
While their soul returned to He who gave.
So silent still is the bush and sky
But listen close those children cry
"Just a simple stone spelling out our name"
For anything less would be a shame.
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