Boys gather to remember Kinchela

The commemoration began on Friday with the launch of an exhibition of paintings, photographs and memorabilia about the home.

Saturday featured a chain-cutting ceremony at the former site of the home, now Bennelong’s Haven, with NSW Aboriginal Affairs Minister Victor Dominello, and concluded with a touch football tournament at Verge St oval on Sunday.

The Kinchela Boys Home closed in 1970 after more than 500 boys had passed through its doors.

Most of these were indigenous children removed from their families in line with government policies at the time.

They have become known as the stolen generation.

The 90th anniversary commemoration was staged by the Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation (KBHAC).

The corporation was formed in 2002 as a vehicle for former residents of the home to take ownership of their experiences.

It provides a vehicle for the men and their families to be part of the ongoing healing process.

KBHAC strategic development manager Tiffany McComsey said regardless of how the boys were treated, being removed from their families was a trauma that was hard to overcome.

“Being removed from country and put into a strange home was a terrible thing for the boys to go through, regardless of how they were treated at Kinchela,” Dr McComsey said.

“Another aspect of it is that the men often feel like Kinchela is ‘home’, not having known anywhere else growing up as children.

“They feel rejected and caught between two worlds, their own indigenous heritage and the white world, neither of which fully accepts them.

“The inhabitants of their world are the other survivors of Kinchela and their families.”

The KBHAC is looking at proposals to establish a healing centre in Kempsey which would also have a public education component.

“We would also like to make the touch football tournament a permanent yearly event,” Dr McComsey said.

An exhibition about the history of Kinchela Boys Home is on display at the Kempsey Library this week.