An Australian Reverand shared the deep emotions he felt after walking in the footsteps of the victims of stolen generation and shed light on the tragic history of Sydney Central Station.
Standing on platform 1 on Central Station, Pastor Bill Crews stopped at a memorial plate in honor of the thousands of Aboriginal children who were violently removed from their families and were sent throughout the country as part of the stolen generation.
'This is a dark part of the history of Australia that most people want to forget. I am at the central train station in Sydney. Trains come here from all over Australia, “said Pastor Crews in a video posted on social media.
'Small indigenous children were taken from their mothers and fathers, trained here to the number one platform in Central Railway where they were split.
“The boys went to Kinchela Boys Home and the girls went to Cootamundra Girls Home (Cootamundra Domestic Training Home).”
Respected crews choke the tears back when he told Daily Mail Australia that he received a first -hand report of what it was like of a member of the stolen generation.
“A lady from the bush called me before Christmas and said she would see me and I saw her on Saturday morning,” he said.
Pastor Bill Crews explained a horror that took place at Central Station
'I met her there centrally and she was one of the Cootamundra girls and she told me the story.
“To actually walk in the stairs of where the children walked was actually quite moving.”
The Memorial Plaque is next to platform 1, near the Taxi rank, but people often walk by without notice because it “just looks like an advertisement”, according to pastor crews.
That was another reason why he made the video and he wanted to send a message to modern Australia.
“Racism has no limits. It has no morality and it is essentially bad, “he said.
'This platform would be filled with crying children who were removed from each other and were taken to the houses of children where incredible abuse took place.
'Many of these children did not live. They did not died as children, they died because of the abuse that happened and they could not survive in adulthood. This is just so wrong. '
Transport has collaborated with NSW -Stolen generations of surviving organizations to install commemorations at its stations.
Thousands of children were removed from their families in what is known as the stolen generation
Plaques are installed on stations in Grafton, Kempsey, Bourke, Berry and Bomaderry.
Stephen Ritchie, Van Tare on the Midden-Noordooast, was taken from his family and sent to the house of Kinchela Boys.
When they were revealed in 2022, he said he had mixed views over the plaques.
“I may think differently than the others, but for me it brings back too many memories and you have to go live again, which is wrong in my opinion,” he said.
The stolen generation
Thousands of children were violently removed by governments, churches and welfare bodies that had to be raised in institutions, promoted or hired by non-native families, nationally and internationally. They are known as the stolen generations.
The exact number of children that has been removed may never be known, but there are few families who have been left unaffected – in some families children from three or more generations were taken. The removal of children broke important cultural, spiritual and family tires and has left a permanent and intergenerational impact on the lives and well -being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Everywhere from 1 in 10 to 1 in 3 children there is not a single Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community that has not changed forever.
The first sorry day was held on May 26, 1998, in which the assault of the Aboriginal people of the country is remembered and housed.
Shown: A newspaper clothing from 1934 Advertising children for adoption
