SISTER KATE’S KIDS GET FAVOURITE BUSH BLOCK

Sister Kate’s Home Kids Aboriginal corporation chair Glenn Pearson, CEO Tjalaminu Mia (TJ), and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti.

GEOFF VIVIAN

In Perth, stolen generations group Sister Kate’s Home Kids Aboriginal Corporation now has ownership of a favourite block of land where they used to play as children.

Known as the “Bush Block”, it is fondly remembered by generations of children who grew up in Sister Kate’s childrens home have fond memories.

One of these was retired magistrate Sue Gordon, who is not a member of the Corporation.

“It was a place sometimes for kids to escape,” she said. “They could go over there and hide, and have a cry or just escape the realities of living in an institution.”

In a ceremony last week the Australian Government's Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation handed the Queens Park block over and the WA Aboriginal Affairs minister Tony Buti announced $3.2 million to build a “Place of Healing”.

Sister Kate’s Home Kids chief executive Tjalaminu Mia said it would be used for trauma recovery.

“We address programs very culturally and very subtly with the intergenerational trauma that’s been passed on to them,” she said. “But also include opening it up to other parts of the community, other stolen generations groups, the collective Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and also the wider community which makes up a lot of migrant people that have also suffered trauma in their war-torn countries.”

The former Sister Kate’s home itself is now the site of a retirement village for people who grew up there.