On Their Own - Britain's Child Migrants @ Immigration Museum



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Event Name: On Their Own - Britain's Child Migrants
 
Artists: On Their Own - Britain's Child Migrants
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 to Thu, 10 May 2012
Venue:
400 Flinders St
Melbourne, VIC, 3000

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Price: Free
Eleven-year-old Pamela Smedley was sitting in class at an orphanage in Middlesborough, England. It was 1949. Nuns walked into the room and asked the children, “Who would like to go to Australia?” Of course, everyone put up their hand – who wouldn’t want an adventure in that mysterious land of sunshine and kangaroos? Seven of the girls were chosen, Pamela included. She was told there was a family in Australia waiting to adopt her. This was a lie. Eventually, Pamela boarded the SS Ormonde and took a six-week voyage to Australia’s shores, where she was placed in another orphanage, endured harsh discipline and put to work. Pamela was among 7,500 children who were sent to Australia as part of the British and Australian Government-endorsed schemes between 1860 - 1967. The Australian and British Governments thought it was for the greater good – Britain was facing overpopulation and Australia was crying out for settlers, particularly good British stock – but children were placed in farmsteads, and religious institutions, and treated like slaves. Many of these children weren’t orphans, either. Most of them were removed from their parents, some parents even gave up their children so they could live a ‘better’ life. The Australian Government didn’t apologise for endorsing the schemes until November 2009.
Event Type: Arts and Exhibition
Genres: Museums

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