Family Law Pathways Network presents:
A Short Film and Webinar discussion with
The Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation
Thursday, 12 November 2020, 1:00 - 2:30 pm AEDT
This NAIDOC Week, the Family Law Pathways Networks across Australia invite you to view and discuss the powerful short film, 'The Kinchela Boys'. In this webinar you will:
Hear from survivors of the Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home (KBH) Uncle Roger Jarred, Uncle Bobby Young and Uncle James Welsh.
View 'The Kinchela Boys', a short animated film that was co-written, animated and produced by KBH survivors who tell of their experiences at the KBH and about their lives since.
A live Q & A with Uncle James Welsh, KBH Kin Connect Team Leader, Lesley Franks, whose father attended KBH.
Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation (KBHAC) was established in 2003 by Stolen Generation survivors of KBH, an institution on the Mid North Cost of NSW that was run by the NSW Government for over 50 years to house Aboriginal boys forcibly removed from their families. KBHAC supports KBH survivors who live across NSW and interstate, as well as their descendants and immediate families who live throughout Australia.
Registered participants will be emailed a link for the webinar within 24 hours of the scheduled start time and will also have access to a recording of the webinar for a period of time following the live stream
Uncle Michael James ‘Widdy’ Welsh, Number 36, is a Wongaibon man. The Wongaibon People are part of the Wailwan Nation which includes Coonamble in the Central Western Plains of New South Wales and is where Uncle Michael was born. He is a Stolen Generations survivor who at the age of eight was kidnapped from his mother. He, along with five other siblings were taken from his mother by the police and then further separated from each other. Only Uncle Michael and his brother Barry were kept together, both sent to Kinchela Boys Home. At Kinchela Boys Home (KBH), he was given the number 36 and his brother 17. They remained in KBH for five years. Uncle Michael went on to help establish some of the first Aboriginal organisations in Coonamble. He has been a member of the Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation since 2009. He is employed as the KBH Peer Support Social and Emotional Wellbeing Worker and has held the position of Treasurer since 2011.
Uncle Michael is a member of The Healing Foundation’s Stolen Generations Reference Committee which guides The Healing Foundation’s Stolen Generations work, ensuring it meets the unique needs of Stolen Generations survivors and their families. Uncle Michael passionately believes in making sure his pain stops with him and is fighting to stem the intergenerational trauma in his family by restoring his family structure. He and other Stolen Generations are focused on truth telling to ensure these acts of genocide are not forgotten and so to ensure the policies inflicted on him, his siblings and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children are never repeated.