Launched by Wadi Wadi elder and poet Barbara Nicholson on May 25 at the Wollongong City Arts Gallery as part of the annual Indigenous Writers night, this anthology is not just poetry, but prose and life writing as well by members of the Stolen Generations affiliated with Link Up NSW.

Contributors include: Elyssa Allard, Adam Gerrard, Megan Gerrard, Chris Edwards Haines, Nancy Hill-Wood, Diane Jarrett, Charles Leon, Troy Maltby, the late Pauline McLeod, Lorraine McGee Sippel, Marie Melito-Russell, Barbara Nicholson, Ryan Sadlier and the late Janaka Wiradjuri also known as Joy Williams whose name was changed from Eileen to Joy when she was take to Bomaderry as a child. Janaka also contributed poems, illustrations and the foreword to the collection

The words in this anthology express suffering through betrayal, the impacts of not knowing true cultural identity because of removal, the torment of separation from family, and the ‘aches and pains’ of being stolen.

The stories shared here help the reader understand the extreme sense of loss and rejection experienced by those removed under policies of protection in NSW and taken to places like Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home and Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls Home. But the words are also full of love and a sense of survival, with some moving tributes to Joy Williams and more generally, to mothers and grandmothers and how our matriarchs represent the seeds of life.

This book will truly touch your heart and even leave it heavy for a while, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

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