Rita Wright recalls her life at Marella Children's Home

Rita Wright, removed from her family at Brewarrina, recalls her life at the Marella Childrens Home. ‘We worked as slaves, you know, the children. We were only kids. Marella was a farm, they had a big paddock there was all plum trees. We had to pick the plum trees, climb up in the tree and pick as many, even though it took all day to do it. We had animals, we had kangaroos. Chris, she used to do the kangaroos, we used to do the chooks. They – he had prize pigeons. Sometimes I felt like just letting them all go cause I hated the farm. My sister, Dawn, used to milk the cows and bring it back up in the buckets and put it in the big freezer. We had to skim it, get the cream off. Make the butter every morning before we went to school. Do all the washing. Three lines of washing every day. Every morning before we went to school. We used to stand up on a box cause we was too little. And do it in the winter, in the rain, no shoes. Fix the toilets up when they was blocked. But not, not the education, I missed out on education. (http://stolengenerationstestimonies.com/index.php/testimonies/994.html