Concluding Remarks

Abstract

In her fourth interview, Shirley (grandmother of Reggie), relayed the following life-changing moment that happened in the early 1950s in central Australia:

• I: [Y]ou mentioned that [it] was a real eye-opener when you went to Alice Springs [and worked as a nurse] [And you said that’s where] you saw Aboriginal people for the first time.

• P: That was where I decided to adopt… because there was a little boy in there, a two-year-old he was… in Alice Springs [Hospital] [H]is mother had died of tuberculosis… [and] his father was in the bush somewhere, they didn’t know where So he had to stay [in the hospital]. He had been there from a baby. When I… went down to the ward, he was in a cot [T]hey had… a whole lot of kids in cots… but he was in this cot and nobody went near Anthony. And he used to sit in his cot [and defecate], and then he’d make patterns all over [the walls with it] [T]hat little kid never smiled and I thought, ‘This is terrible that this little baby’s here and nobody cares for him’. So I did. And in the three weeks I was in there… I took him and I cleaned him up… because nobody wanted to clean him up because of the mess and everything. I cleaned him up, I took him out to play with the other kids and all that sort of thing. And in a couple of weeks that kid was smiling and trying to talk. And [when] I came home, I wanted to adopt him [But] I couldn’t…

• I: Did you ever find out what happened to that little two-year-old or not?

• P: No… No I never [did].