Rene Baker File #28/E.D.P.

This book tells the harrowing story of the life of Rene Baker who, at the age of four, was forcibly removed from her mother and taken to a mission over 350 miles away. Constantly told that her Aboriginal family had rejected her and deeply scarred by the mission experience, it wasn’t until Rene made the journey home and met her people at the age of twenty-one that she began to learn the real truth. With the help of her friend, Bernadette Kennedy, she began to search through government archives for the truth about her removal and in the process uncovered the highly questionable legal basis of many of the removals of Aboriginal children in Western Australia in the 1940s and 1950s. Told in Rene’s own words, the book provides a moving and valuable contribution to the Stolen Generation story. It also tells the truth regarding a shameful aspect of Australia’s past. pp. 221 #0816