Charles Perkins
Alice Springs and Adelaide.
Charles Perkins was born in Alice Springs in 1936. At age 10 his mother, Hetti Perkins, gave permission for him to be taken to an Anglican boys hostel in Adelaide.
His biographer, Peter Read, wrote:
To Perkins, parents like Hetti who agreed to their children's removal were hoodwinked by the society which allowed the atrocity of separation to occur. Perkins was angry at the regimentation, the lack of counseling about schoolwork, about homework, about life. He reasoned that Smith (the Anglican priest) protected, fed and physically did what he could for the boys, but he could not replace a mothers love
The removal of his heritage and culture was the other loss whose significance Perkins did not grasp until many years after he left the home. Did the years away rob him and the other boys of their culture? Is it worth recovering? Should all the separated children, whether their parents assented or not, be counted amongst 'the stolen generations'?
Soccer and study------------------>
