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Crimes Against Humanity
The stories of what happened to children in the institutions in Queensland that were supposed to look after them, in the name of God, or the State, remained locked up in the minds and memories of those children for decades.
Despite the depravity they had suffered, or the brutality, or the inhumanity, they kept their counsel. Few , hardly any, spoke publicly about what they had suffered or witnessed. Few even told their families. Who would believe them? And, if they did speak out, there would surely be more embarrassment, more humiliation and shame. Some took up the matter with the institutions responsible and got nowhere. The ranks were closed. Rock solid.
Eventually, thirty, forty, even fifty years later, some began to talk about what had happened to them. And the cracks in the wall of silence and suffering began to open up. Particularly in the case of the Church institutions. In our experience Silky Oaks was first. Then Neerkol. Then Nazareth House and Riverview. By the late 1990s the cracks had split wide open. The stories were starting to tumble out.
And then the stories of the State-run institutions (the children's detention centres) began to emerge - Westbrook, Sir Leslie Wilson, and of course John Oxley, in which we already had a special interest. And that interest continues - for the complete John Oxley story has not yet been told.
Because of that reality, we are focusing our early attention on that institution. We will add the wretched stories of the other places we have covered as time goes by.
John Oxley Youth Detention Centre
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