
Frank Byrne, Stolen Generations senior case workers Heather Shearer and Justin Howard, director Mitch Torres and Julie Hayden from the Department of Indigenous Affairs sit around a table. They are looking at the yellow pages of an old file that recorded the preparations by authorities to remove Frank from his mother Maudie Yooringun. In re-enactment, children play at Moola Bulla. Archival footage of Beagle Bay Mission shows a church and priests, a market garden being tended and young children in the classroom and singing in church.
Frank tells us that when he got to Beagle Bay Mission they had everything there compared to nothing much at Moola Bulla, and at Beagle Bay Mission they were taught to pray and sing in Latin. Archival footage shows children rolling off a tumble horse during an exercise session. Frank says he has heard many reasons as to why Aboriginal children were stolen or removed, but for him there was no purpose, and that being removed wrecked his, as well as his mother’s, life. Summary by Romaine Moreton.
This clip is a testimony to the confusion and personal reassessment that takes place throughout a person’s lifetime after being removed from one’s family as a consequence of government policy. The question, ‘what purpose?’ is a deep searching for an explanation for being torn from one’s family and immersed in a foreign culture. Being taught Latin yet not understanding the language typifies the loss of Indigenous language and cultural values and not having them replaced by anything meaningful.
Frank Byrne was stolen from his mother Maudie Yooringun at the age of five. Decades later, Frank searches for his mother’s burial site with the intention of taking her back to her country in the Kimberley, 42 years after she passed away.
A personable and intimate portrayal of an Indigenous family whose lives are irreparably changed by the government removal policies. Case 442 is the story of Frank Byrne who was taken from Christmas Creek to Moola Bulla on the 20 November 1943, removed from his mother Maudie Yooringun. Frank pinpoints that moment of his life – when he was taken to Moola Bulla – as being when the struggle for survival began, not only for him but also for the other children removed from their parents. When Frank was taken from Moola Bulla to Beagle Bay Mission, he was told by a priest that his mother had died, but the details of where, when and how were unknown to him, and Frank would search for the answers to these questions all of his life.
Case 442 is a heart wrenching story of Frank Byrne, who as an old man finally finds his mother’s resting place at Perth’s Claremont Mental Institute, where she was incarcerated following a nervous breakdown she suffered after the forced removal of her small son. Frank Byrne’s search for his mother was one that was supported by Stolen Generations senior case workers Justin Howard and Heather Shearer, and Julie Hayden from the Department of Indigenous Affairs, who collectively located Maudie’s remains. Case 442 is a personal testimonial to the effects of Aboriginal child removal policies, and the lifelong consequences it has had upon people who have endured being separated from their families and communities. Witnessing the emotion of Frank Byrnes, now an elder, and the determination he has to find the remains of his mother and return her to her country, is a demonstration of the impact of child removal policies on an individual survivor.
A film from writer and director Mitch Torres, Case 442 is the human face of a government policy designed to assimilate Indigenous peoples into mainstream society, the intention being to indoctrinate half-caste children with western values and in the process, forget Indigenous cultural identity and connections.
This program has also screened on NITV, National Indigenous Television.
Notes by Romaine Moreton
This clip shows Frank Byrne recalling how he was removed from his mother as a child and sent to Moola Bulla reserve and then to Beagle Bay Mission in Western Australia. Frank looks at the file that details his removal, accompanied by Stolen Generations senior case workers Heather Shearer and Justin Howard, director Mitch Torres and Julie Hayden from the Department of Indigenous Affairs. Excerpts from the file are shown and read in voice-over. Historical footage follows of a church service, sports activities and classes at Beagle Bay Mission.
Education notes provided by The Learning Federation and Education Services Australia
This clip starts approximately 10 minutes into the documentary.
Frank Byrne, Stolen Generations senior case workers Heather Shearer and Justin Howard, director Mitch Torres and Julie Hayden from the Department of Indigenous Affairs sit around a table. They are looking at the yellow pages of an old file that recorded the preparations by authorities to remove Frank from his mother.
Woman Well, it says the police should have information regarding this child at Fitzroy Crossing.
Frank Byrne He changed that?
Woman Yeah. In reference to you…
Frank I wasn’t taken then. Was I taken already?
Woman No, they were talking about…
Woman 2 They were talking about it.
Woman Talking about getting ready to take you.
Frank (in voiceover) Well, I didn’t need to be taken away from my mother, you want to put it that way, because I was well looked after there. I had, I had no problem.
Narrators, acting as the original writers of the letters in the file, read out fragments of the letters.
Narrator In reference to the half-caste boy, Frank, I note that the boy is only 12 months old. The boy’s father, Jack Byrne, is the station cook.
Narrator 2 As Frank is now five years old, I am rather anxious that he should be removed for educational purposes. Possibly you could arrange for the removal of…
Narrator 3 …any control of the boy as, according to Section 8 of the Native Administration Act, I am the legal guardian of every native child, notwithstanding that the child has a parent of other relative living, until the child attains the age of 21. Commissioner of Native Affairs.
A group of Aboriginal children play hopscotch. Frank is interviewed and the interview continues over footage of Beagle Bay Mission including Aboriginal children attending a church service and school and men working in the garden.
Frank They took us away to go to school in Moola Bulla. There was no school there. There was nothing there – absolutely nothing there. If you had something from there, you’d be lucky but then some big fella would take it off you. And, that’s the way it went on for all that time I was in Moola Bulla.
Colour footage from Beagle Bay Mission.
Frank When we got to Beagle Bay Mission it was a different story there. They had everything there. You know gardens and… We made it happen, you know. We do everything and we had a dining hall there and we’re getting big now by this time and we’re doin’ things. We had a dining hall there and we got a feed out of it there. Then we went to school, we went to school.
We were disciplined properly, you know, we learned to pray in Latin and sing in Latin. I don’t know what we were praying about in Latin and singing in Latin. But, still, it was a wonderful noise – ah, sound, you know, when we’d sing. It wasn’t too bad at all. I mean, but still, you know, we shouldn’t be there. I hear a lot of things – we were put there for this purpose, that purpose, that many purposes… We don’t know what purpose. But to me… no, I don’t know what purpose. All they done was wreck my life and my mother’s life, that’s – you know.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.