Reviews for Kick the Tin

The average rating for Kick the Tin based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-06-26 00:00:00 Rob Stevenson 'My healing began when I decided to write my autobiography and I continued to write throughout my illnesses.' Doris Eileen Kartinyeri was born in South Australia on 8 September 1945. One month later, her mother died. When Doris's father and aunt went to the hospital to collect Doris to take her home, they found she had been removed from the hospital by the welfare officer from the Protector's office. This is how Doris became one of the children of the Stolen Generations. Her family was devastated: she had been left in the hospital on doctor's advice until after her mother's funeral, but was removed from hospital the day before the funeral. Doris was placed in the Colebrook Home for Aboriginal Children in South Australia, where she lived for the first fourteen years of her life. While Doris has some good memories from her time at Colebrook, especially during the first seven years, life at Colebrook changed from 1952 when Sister Hyde and Sister Rutter left. The new administration, inflexibly Christian and with continual staff turnover was not as supportive of the children's needs. Education became less important than training the children for menial work. 'It was decided I was to leave Colebrook when I was fourteen. I didn't know why.' Doris was placed in white homes as a domestic servant, where she was also abused. Her experiences made her feel insecure and inferior. Doris's life was complicated by the onset of bipolar affective disorder, by relationship failures, by feeling like she didn't belong, and by not knowing enough about her family. As Doris remarks several times throughout her memoir, so many of the Colebrook children (especially the boys) have died. For many, while alcohol and other substances can often provide a short-term relief to the pain of dislocation, in the long-term it can prove deadly. 'I needed to find out who my family was because I wanted them so desperately.' There are many sad stories from the survivors of the Stolen Generations. While many share similar characteristics, each is the story of an individual. Of a person who once was part of a family and longs to belong again. Doris's story is a reminder that the practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families - simply because they were Aboriginal - was not in any one's best interests, and has consequences far beyond childhood. 'Kick the Tin' was the name of a game played at Colebrook, where children had to run and hide after a tin was kicked. Doris compares her life to the game, as she tries to come to terms with the past though writing this book. 'My children have always stood by me and given me the incentive to go on. The main purpose in writing this book is to record the story of my life for them.' Doris's voice is important. Her story should not be forgotten. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Review # 2 was written on 2009-12-27 00:00:00 Kristian Michalopoulos This is just a sad book written by an aboriginal woman who was part of the "lost generation" of aborigines -- taken away from their parents, often illegally, by the all knowing "wise" Australian government officials. The children were brainwashed, especially with Christanity and never taught about their own culture and customs. Many were subjected to sexual, physical and certainly emotional abuse by the so called religious care givers -- who seemed to be meeting their own needs ratrher than those of the children. They were also abused by employers when they were placed away from the orphanage with "Christian" families. Doris Kartinyeri tells her painful story of being taken away from her father (by trickery) when she was a month old and her mother died. Although she is clearly not a writer (and was not even educated much) she tells a riveting story --although I think she glosses over the very painful pieces. She makes you realize that the alienation this generation feels is responsible for their alcolholism, drug use and mantal illness. One of the sobering things she writes about and you see photos of in the book, with the designation "deceased: are all the young men brough up with her at the Colebrook Home -- all dead from alcoholism at an early age. It is definitely not a light read --a nd a reminder of the ills of colonialism -- but worth a read. Thanks, Rich, for the gift of the book.