On behalf of annecto, we acknowledge the 17th National Sorry Day this Tuesday 26th May 2015. On this day, it is important to remember and honour the thousands of Aboriginal children taken from their families & our thoughts go to our partners Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation and the men to which this day holds significance.
The stories of men and women, forcibly removed from their families as children, have been told in many different ways. On the eve of National Sorry Day, we encourage you to view a music video entitled Our Pain created by Filmmaker Sean McFerran & musician Mark Ferris from a poem written by Kinchela man, Uncle Ian “Crow” Lowe.
Uncle Crow, as he prefers to be called, wrote the poem, Our Pain, about the destruction of the childhood he & his fellow KBH brothers suffered at the hands of staff and management of the Home, which operated 1924-1970. He uses poetry as a way to deal with his pain of being taken from his family & placed in KBH. When each boy first arrived at the Home they were assigned a number. Uncle Crow’s number was #41. It was stamped on the boys clothing & used as a replacement for their names. This is reflected in the Our Pain music video clip.
Our Pain is one of the nominee’s in the music video competition, SoundKILDA, that’s also part of the St Kilda Film Festival. While the music video clip will be shown tonight at the opening of the Festival, the SoundKILDA winners will be announced in a ceremony of its own at Melbourne’s The Palais Theatre on Thursday 28 May 2015.
To view the music video clip, Our Pain, by Sean McFerran, Mark Ferris & written by Ian “Crow” Lowe, go to https://vimeo.com/116027104
