STRIPPED

STRIPPED, is based on my wild and adventurous youth, moving over ninety times across Australia. My mother appeared topless on postcards and souvenirs across the land. What drove my mother, a reserved Mormon back in England to become a stripper?

I began writing STRIPPED in an attempt to make sense of my many colorful but often traumatic childhood memories. Had I really been in a Government run child work camp with my brother and sister where we were treated as slaves and not given shoes in order to keep us from running away? Could we really have been told that our mother was dead? Surely this must have been something I imagined.

I was able to confirm my memories and trace hundreds of documents through the Freedom of Information Act pertaining to my childhood, my mother, and our life on the run. This helped me put together a very complex puzzle.

I wrote STRIPPED not only for my family but also for all the victims of Fairbridge and the ‘White Australia’ schemes. I hope that STRIPPED will give validation to those children that survived and will pay homage to those less fortunate who perished.

STRIPPED is a constant reminder that, sadly, cruelty to others exists in places that no one would ever suspect. STRIPPED is a tribute to the power of mothers throughout the world who will sacrifice and do anything to provide for their family.

As the Australian Prime Minister said in his official apology in 2009, let Fairbridge serve as, “A turning point for shattered lives. A turning point for governments at all levels and of every political hue and colour to do all in our power to never let this happen again.” To turn the “Forgotten Australians” into remembered ones.