1 00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:03,320 Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, just a quick note before we get started 2 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:06,680 Speaker 1: with today's episode. We recorded this one before the June 3 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:11,520 Speaker 1: sev attack on Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, 4 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:15,160 Speaker 1: South Carolina. That mass shooting put the former colony of 5 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:18,520 Speaker 1: Rhodesia in the national spotlight in the United States. We 6 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:21,720 Speaker 1: mentioned Rhodesia in this episode almost as an aside. That 7 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: was a coincidence, and we definitely would have approached it 8 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:26,880 Speaker 1: differently if we had recorded even a couple of days later. 9 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 1: So if you get to our brief mentioned of Rhodesia 10 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,600 Speaker 1: and wonder why we didn't include a more thorough or 11 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 1: detailed explanation, that's why our focus was really on Australia 12 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,559 Speaker 1: as we were preparing this episode, and a full episode 13 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:42,280 Speaker 1: related to Rhodija will be coming in the near future. 14 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:47,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from housetop 15 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. And 16 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy D. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. A lot 17 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:03,639 Speaker 1: of our listeners probably like the BBC drama called The Midwife. 18 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:06,560 Speaker 1: I know I like it very much. It is for 19 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:10,200 Speaker 1: those who are not familiar set in the impoverished neighborhood 20 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,000 Speaker 1: of Poplar in London's East End in the nineteen fifties 21 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:15,920 Speaker 1: and sixties, and it tells the story of these nuns 22 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,320 Speaker 1: and midwives who are basically providing healthcare and delivering babies 23 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:23,400 Speaker 1: in people's homes. And it's based on the memoirs of 24 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 1: Jennifer Wirth, who was one of the midwives who did 25 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: this work during this time period. So every episode of 26 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:31,800 Speaker 1: Called the Midwife tells these stories of women in their 27 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:35,679 Speaker 1: neighborhood and lots of babies and uh and family stories, 28 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:38,759 Speaker 1: but because of when they're set, they are also peppered 29 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:44,160 Speaker 1: with horrific other happenings in the world. Um there are 30 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:46,959 Speaker 1: stories of women who have survived work houses and the 31 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: eugenics movement. There are ones about teenage mothers who had 32 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,480 Speaker 1: their babies taken away from them without their consent or 33 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:56,360 Speaker 1: the chance to say goodbye. One of the most recent 34 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,640 Speaker 1: episodes that aired in the US, I was literally yelling 35 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:03,040 Speaker 1: at my television to a pregnant woman who was having 36 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,480 Speaker 1: extreme morning sickness. Don't take that it's the litamide, because 37 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,920 Speaker 1: we know now the litamide caused many many children to 38 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:13,400 Speaker 1: be born without their limbs and with all kinds of 39 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 1: other physical problems. For the most part, when like when 40 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,519 Speaker 1: Called the Midwife drops one of these things on the viewer, 41 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:25,360 Speaker 1: I know that story already, right, I already knew about 42 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:27,919 Speaker 1: work houses and teenage moms who had their babies taken 43 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:31,440 Speaker 1: away and all this stuff. But there's one episode that 44 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: alluded to a horror that was entirely news to me. 45 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:37,320 Speaker 1: The first episode of the most recent season, which is 46 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,680 Speaker 1: series four. It's about a family of four young children 47 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:43,600 Speaker 1: who have just been woefully neglected, neglected by their mother, 48 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:46,919 Speaker 1: and the oldest one is trying to look after the siblings, 49 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:50,359 Speaker 1: but he's just a little boy. In the end, they 50 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:54,640 Speaker 1: are taken from their mother's care. The baby, who was 51 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 1: just in very horrible condition from all this neglect, was 52 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: adopted by another family um and then the rest of 53 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:05,280 Speaker 1: the children are sent to Australia as part of the 54 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:10,280 Speaker 1: Child Migrants program, where, according to Vanessa redgraves narration, they 55 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:12,440 Speaker 1: faced a life of hard labor. And then I was like, 56 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,680 Speaker 1: I'm wait, I'm sorry, the what the what program are 57 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:19,320 Speaker 1: we talking about right now? Then I basically tweeted that 58 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:21,480 Speaker 1: I just wanted to thank Called the Midwife for telling 59 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 1: me some horrible thing from the past that I didn't 60 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:24,359 Speaker 1: know about that now I was going to have to 61 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:27,280 Speaker 1: do a podcast episode on because that's exactly what happened. 62 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:29,840 Speaker 1: We have before on the show talked about a number 63 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: of government attempts to populate their various colonies throughout encouraged 64 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:40,440 Speaker 1: or more accurately forced migrations. Before in the fairly recent archives, 65 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:43,200 Speaker 1: we have episodes on Lefi Duroi, who were the women 66 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 1: sent to New France which is now Canada as potential 67 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: wives and the hope that they would even out the 68 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:51,360 Speaker 1: gender ratio and boost population there. And we've also talked 69 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: about the Lady Juliana, which was a ship of female 70 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:57,760 Speaker 1: prisoners sent on a similar mission from Britain to Australia. 71 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:00,920 Speaker 1: And in the US there were the Offen trains, which 72 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:03,600 Speaker 1: transported children, some of which were orphans, some of which 73 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: were not from densely populated cities in the east to 74 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:10,560 Speaker 1: country out west where they would have it was hoped, 75 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:15,200 Speaker 1: a better life. So the fielding wat migrated in the 76 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: late seventeenth century. The Lady Juliana sailed in seventeen eighty nine. 77 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:21,760 Speaker 1: The Orphan trains ran in the United States from the 78 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:24,800 Speaker 1: eighteen fifties until nineteen twenty nine, although that last train 79 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:29,600 Speaker 1: only carried three children on it. In Britain, child migration 80 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:32,680 Speaker 1: efforts started as early as the sixteen hundreds, when children 81 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:35,560 Speaker 1: were sent to the American colony of Virginia was about 82 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:39,240 Speaker 1: a hundred children, but these efforts didn't really get going 83 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:43,520 Speaker 1: until the eighteen hundreds. From then until the nineteen twenties, 84 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:48,239 Speaker 1: about one hundred thousand children were sent from the British 85 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:52,600 Speaker 1: Isles to Canada to live. For the most part, these 86 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,920 Speaker 1: Canadian children were sent through processing centers and then they 87 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: were divided by gender. Boys went to farms to do 88 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 1: farm work and girls went to homes to act as 89 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: domestic servants. So this phase of child migration from Britain 90 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: did have some things in common with the orphan train 91 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:13,480 Speaker 1: movement that we've had a whole episode on. People thought 92 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:15,360 Speaker 1: that the children were going to be better off in 93 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:18,359 Speaker 1: their new circumstances, that they were getting access to a 94 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:20,920 Speaker 1: better life than they would have had in an institution 95 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:24,599 Speaker 1: in Britain, and that they were also learning to work 96 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:30,000 Speaker 1: in their new placements. But in reality, British children sent 97 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:32,680 Speaker 1: to Canada wound up doing manual labor for little to 98 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,760 Speaker 1: no money. Once in Canada, home children, as they came 99 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:39,839 Speaker 1: to be known, were usually stigmatized, and they were treated 100 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: as second class citizens, regardless of whether they were working 101 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,640 Speaker 1: on a farm or in a home or somewhere else, 102 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:48,560 Speaker 1: so much so that many of them hid this part 103 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,280 Speaker 1: of their childhood when they became adults. It's estimated that 104 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:55,599 Speaker 1: a little more than ten percent of Canada's population is 105 00:05:55,640 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: actually descended from child migrants. I kept find in a 106 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,320 Speaker 1: statistic that more than half of these children had also 107 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 1: been abused in some way, but I could not figure 108 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:09,919 Speaker 1: out how that statistic was determined. Uh, and some of 109 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,400 Speaker 1: the children who were sent to Canada did wind up 110 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:16,520 Speaker 1: back in orphanages and other institutions when placements for them 111 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 1: could not be found in homes and farms and other places. 112 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: So in these cases, children had basically been sent from 113 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:25,560 Speaker 1: one institution to another institution, with the second one being 114 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:27,920 Speaker 1: on the other side of an entire ocean, so they 115 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:31,040 Speaker 1: basically lost the connections they had had to friends and 116 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:33,200 Speaker 1: family and the people who were caring for them where 117 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:36,640 Speaker 1: they came from, to have to start all over somewhere 118 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:39,960 Speaker 1: on the other side of the world. Many of the 119 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:43,360 Speaker 1: surviving British child migrants to Canada were tracked down in 120 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:46,359 Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties, and by that point the ones that 121 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:49,040 Speaker 1: were still alive were elderly, and the stories that they 122 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:51,599 Speaker 1: told were also very similar to what we talked about 123 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:54,800 Speaker 1: in the Orphan Trains episode. Many had been sent to 124 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:57,520 Speaker 1: Canada far too young to really know what was going on, 125 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:00,760 Speaker 1: and most were told that their parents had id but 126 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:04,559 Speaker 1: many had siblings, cousins and other family, all of whom 127 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:08,799 Speaker 1: were separated from one another. Child migration efforts from Britain 128 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: to Canada ended with the Great Depression, but a new 129 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:14,880 Speaker 1: wave of migration followed, and this was to Australia and 130 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:17,920 Speaker 1: New Zealand. We're going to talk about that more after 131 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,600 Speaker 1: a brief word from a sponsor. So the Department of 132 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:25,160 Speaker 1: Health estimates that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a 133 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:28,800 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand child migrants were sent from Britain 134 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:31,360 Speaker 1: to other countries. A hundred thousand of them, as we 135 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:33,800 Speaker 1: just talked about before the break, went to Canada. The 136 00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:37,000 Speaker 1: rest of them went to Australia, New Zealand and Rhodesia 137 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 1: which is now Zimbabwe. In the wake of World War Two, 138 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:44,280 Speaker 1: the British Empire feared for the stability of its territory 139 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:48,280 Speaker 1: in Australia and New Zealand. Having such an expansive, largely 140 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:52,560 Speaker 1: unpopulated territory, so far away from Britain and so much 141 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:55,080 Speaker 1: closer to nations with which Britain had just been at war, 142 00:07:55,680 --> 00:08:00,120 Speaker 1: seemed very threatening. Plus there were some overall population and 143 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:02,520 Speaker 1: worries in general, there had been a great loss of 144 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:04,920 Speaker 1: life that had come along with the war. And then 145 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:07,480 Speaker 1: there was the fact that the white colonists in Australia 146 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:11,200 Speaker 1: were basically a minority in that hemisphere. In the words 147 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:14,640 Speaker 1: of the Archbishop of Perth in quote, if we do 148 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:17,960 Speaker 1: not supply from our own stock, we are leaving ourselves 149 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,840 Speaker 1: all the more exposed to the menace of the teeming 150 00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 1: millions of our neighboring Asiatic races. So the British government 151 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:31,480 Speaker 1: decided to send children to Australia and New Zealand. Australia 152 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:35,160 Speaker 1: also invited other European nations to participate in this scheme, 153 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:38,280 Speaker 1: and about a hundred children came from Malta, but that 154 00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:41,439 Speaker 1: really seems to be the extent of participation from elsewhere 155 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:44,360 Speaker 1: in Europe. About five hundred and fifty British children were 156 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: sent to New Zealand and placed in foster homes. Although 157 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:49,600 Speaker 1: many of those placements turned out to be temporary, they 158 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:52,800 Speaker 1: just didn't work out for one reason or another, and 159 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:57,040 Speaker 1: that whole process was not really supervised very well by 160 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:00,880 Speaker 1: local authorities or child child welfare organization, And once the 161 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:04,920 Speaker 1: children were in New Zealand, many more children were sent 162 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:08,640 Speaker 1: to Australia. The British and Australian governments took on this 163 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:13,400 Speaker 1: scheme with a collection of religious charities and other charitable organizations, 164 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:18,160 Speaker 1: including the Salvation Army, Bernardo's, the Fairbridge Society and National 165 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:22,520 Speaker 1: Children's Homes. There were organizations affiliated with the Roman Catholic 166 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,079 Speaker 1: Church and the Church of England that also were involved 167 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:30,439 Speaker 1: in this plan. So at least in some cases, there 168 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:32,840 Speaker 1: seems to have been a genuine desire to provide a 169 00:09:32,840 --> 00:09:35,720 Speaker 1: better life for children who were living in poverty, or 170 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:39,200 Speaker 1: were being neglected or mistreated by their families, or were 171 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:42,880 Speaker 1: for some other reason living in some kind of unsafe condition. 172 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:46,160 Speaker 1: So there were definitely people involved in this who were 173 00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:49,560 Speaker 1: envisioning that these children would have an idyllic life on 174 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:52,400 Speaker 1: a farm with warm weather and lots of sunshine once 175 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:55,160 Speaker 1: they got to Australia. When you look at the pictures 176 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:58,920 Speaker 1: of these children as they're leaving Britain or arriving in Australia, 177 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:01,480 Speaker 1: they often look really happy, like they're about to involve 178 00:10:01,679 --> 00:10:07,280 Speaker 1: embark on this wonderful adventure. But the reality was much different. 179 00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:11,360 Speaker 1: Between the nineteen thirties and nineteen sixty seven, between seven 180 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:14,440 Speaker 1: thousand and ten thousand children between the ages of three 181 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:18,360 Speaker 1: and fourteen were moved from Britain to Australia, and they 182 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:20,640 Speaker 1: were described in the press at the time as quote 183 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:25,160 Speaker 1: war orphans, and newspaper coverage praised these efforts as being charitable. 184 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:28,080 Speaker 1: But even though they had generally been told that their 185 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:31,640 Speaker 1: parents had died, most of these children were not orphans. 186 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 1: Many of them were children whose families had fallen on 187 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:37,600 Speaker 1: hard times during the war, and they had consequently put 188 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:40,000 Speaker 1: their children into care, hoping to come back for them 189 00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:44,360 Speaker 1: later when they had their their finances under control. Many 190 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:47,760 Speaker 1: of them were children of unmarried women and other parents 191 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:50,360 Speaker 1: who had placed their children up for adoption and thought 192 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:53,800 Speaker 1: that their children had been adopted by families who were 193 00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:58,200 Speaker 1: going to be better off that way. For the children 194 00:10:58,280 --> 00:11:00,560 Speaker 1: who still had living families, which was a lot of 195 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:04,800 Speaker 1: the children who were sent to Australia. This basically deportation 196 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:09,280 Speaker 1: was done without their parents knowledge or consent. So at 197 00:11:09,280 --> 00:11:11,360 Speaker 1: this point we have children who were told they were 198 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:14,240 Speaker 1: orphans but in fact they were not, and parents who 199 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:16,240 Speaker 1: were told their children were going to be placed with 200 00:11:16,280 --> 00:11:18,679 Speaker 1: an adoptive family, but in fact that they were not. 201 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:21,760 Speaker 1: And instead these children, who were as young as three 202 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 1: years old, were sent twelve thousand miles away on a 203 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:28,240 Speaker 1: sea voyage that took up to twelve weeks, giving them 204 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:31,560 Speaker 1: very little hope of ever returning to Britain. Let's make 205 00:11:31,640 --> 00:11:34,000 Speaker 1: things worse. Once the children were in Australia, they were 206 00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:37,080 Speaker 1: not families waiting to care for them. That the whole 207 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:39,679 Speaker 1: plan was pretty much abandoned almost immediately as being too 208 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:43,920 Speaker 1: much trouble. They went back into institutions. So for a 209 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:46,520 Speaker 1: lot of children, even if they had started out at 210 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:49,600 Speaker 1: an institution in Britain, this meant being uprooted from a 211 00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:52,680 Speaker 1: setting that was familiar, where they had relationship with relationships 212 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 1: with staff and other children, and being sent to the 213 00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:58,640 Speaker 1: literal other side of the world once again to start 214 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:01,240 Speaker 1: over at a different in the tuition, with different staff 215 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:05,920 Speaker 1: and different surroundings and different peers living with them. Although 216 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:08,959 Speaker 1: some children who were relocated to Australia did well there, 217 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:12,920 Speaker 1: many wound up feeling rejected by Britain and never really 218 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:16,280 Speaker 1: at home in Australia. A couple of the institutions where 219 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:19,640 Speaker 1: these children were placed became notorious for abuse and neglect. 220 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:23,320 Speaker 1: In particular beIN Dune, Boys Town, which is north of Perth, 221 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:26,760 Speaker 1: was literally built by the boys who were to live there. 222 00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:31,400 Speaker 1: It was heavy manual labor and they were children as adults. 223 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:33,760 Speaker 1: Many of the boys who lived there reported being physically 224 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:36,560 Speaker 1: and sexually abused, and this was by far not the 225 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:40,400 Speaker 1: only place where abuses were reported, but reports of abuse 226 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:46,360 Speaker 1: at ben Dune were widespread and extremely horrifying. So apart 227 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:48,959 Speaker 1: from the news coverage that had happened as children were 228 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:52,839 Speaker 1: being sent which was generally favorable, this whole process fell 229 00:12:52,920 --> 00:12:54,600 Speaker 1: out of you for a lot of people for a 230 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:57,079 Speaker 1: long time. We're going to talk about when and how 231 00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:01,280 Speaker 1: that changed. After another brief word from a sponsor, so 232 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:04,000 Speaker 1: as we just alluded to before the break, after all 233 00:13:04,040 --> 00:13:06,600 Speaker 1: this favorable news coverage in the post war years, this 234 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,640 Speaker 1: program kind of faded away from the public consciousness. In 235 00:13:09,679 --> 00:13:13,800 Speaker 1: the British Empire. That started to change in when a 236 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:16,480 Speaker 1: woman known as Madeline wrote a letter to a British 237 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:20,480 Speaker 1: social worker named Margaret Humphries. Humphries had been running a 238 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:24,160 Speaker 1: support service called Triangle, which was for birth parents, adoptive 239 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:27,400 Speaker 1: parents and adults who had been adopted as children. So 240 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,600 Speaker 1: it was for all three pieces of the adoption Triangle 241 00:13:30,679 --> 00:13:32,320 Speaker 1: to kind of get to know each other and have 242 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:36,600 Speaker 1: a support group and that sort of a thing. Madeline 243 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:39,440 Speaker 1: was living in Adelaide and had heard about the service 244 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:41,440 Speaker 1: from a friend who had taken a trip to Britain. 245 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:44,800 Speaker 1: Madeline's letter said that she had been taken from a 246 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:47,240 Speaker 1: children's home where she had been living because her parents 247 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:51,280 Speaker 1: had died when she was four, and sent to Australia. 248 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:55,000 Speaker 1: So when Humphreys read this letter, she thought Madeline must 249 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:57,760 Speaker 1: be mistaken or misremembering that there had to be some 250 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:00,839 Speaker 1: other explanation, because the idea of a four year old 251 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,760 Speaker 1: being sent from Britain's to Australia without a guardian there 252 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:08,920 Speaker 1: was just frankly unbelievable. Not long after that, though, another 253 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:11,440 Speaker 1: woman at a Triangle meeting who had been adopted as 254 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:14,320 Speaker 1: a child, told a story of basically remembering as an 255 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:17,080 Speaker 1: adult that she had had a brother. When she managed 256 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 1: to track this brother down, it turned out he also 257 00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:23,600 Speaker 1: had been sent to Australia. Even as she started searching 258 00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:27,280 Speaker 1: for birth records and the records of Madeline's parents deaths, 259 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:31,160 Speaker 1: Humphrey thought this must all have been some kind of misunderstanding, 260 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:33,680 Speaker 1: But after looking for birth records one day at St 261 00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:36,280 Speaker 1: Catherine's House, which is where all the birth, death and 262 00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:39,480 Speaker 1: marriage records were kept, she walked to the nearby Australian 263 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,560 Speaker 1: High Commission House and asked about the records of children 264 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:45,000 Speaker 1: who had been sent to Australia after World War Two, 265 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:47,880 Speaker 1: and the wording of the answer that she got sent 266 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,360 Speaker 1: off some alarm bells quote the records of the children 267 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:54,680 Speaker 1: had been sent to Canberra that made it sound like 268 00:14:54,720 --> 00:14:59,640 Speaker 1: there were many, So she started to do some more investigating, 269 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,080 Speaker 1: put ads in Australian newspapers asking for people who had 270 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:05,800 Speaker 1: been sent to Australia from children's homes in the forties 271 00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:08,920 Speaker 1: and fifties to write to her, and soon it became 272 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 1: clear that there was just a vast tangle to uncover. 273 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:15,600 Speaker 1: She teamed up with Annabelle Fareman, who traveled to Australia 274 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:18,440 Speaker 1: to do more research, and Bell Fareman was a journalist 275 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:21,160 Speaker 1: who was going to write articles about what they discovered. 276 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:24,840 Speaker 1: While she was in Australia, Humphries meant more people who 277 00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:28,120 Speaker 1: had been sent to Australia as children, and once they 278 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:31,080 Speaker 1: were in Australia, they had wound up in institutions and 279 00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 1: all of them believed that their parents had died. They 280 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:36,520 Speaker 1: had no birth certificates, they had no other ties to 281 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:39,600 Speaker 1: their home, and many of them weren't even sure of 282 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:43,840 Speaker 1: what their own birthdays were. Eventually, Humphries worked to establish 283 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:47,120 Speaker 1: the Child Migrants Trust to help reconnect these now grown 284 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:50,520 Speaker 1: children with their families back in Britain. This became an 285 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:53,680 Speaker 1: actual organization and working there became her full time job. 286 00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 1: Many of the children's records were destroyed as schools closed 287 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:01,400 Speaker 1: down or charities ceased to oper rate. Some of these 288 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:04,160 Speaker 1: records were falsified or even lost when the children were 289 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 1: originally sent to Australia, and one of the difficulties that 290 00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: arose was that once children were reconnected with their birth parents, 291 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:14,400 Speaker 1: they had trouble traveling to Britain to meet in person. 292 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:19,040 Speaker 1: With no birth certificates or other documentation, they couldn't get passports. 293 00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:24,400 Speaker 1: Humphries really worked just she worked herself to exhaustion repeatedly 294 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:27,760 Speaker 1: doing all this. She also got as the allegations of 295 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:32,359 Speaker 1: abuse became more public. She got death threats and multiple 296 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:37,160 Speaker 1: death threats, threats to her family. Um Like, she really 297 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:42,600 Speaker 1: continued to do this work as people were uh showing 298 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:45,920 Speaker 1: up at her hotel rooms trying to break in because 299 00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:50,240 Speaker 1: she was speaking out against abuse that children had suffered 300 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:53,560 Speaker 1: at the hands of religious care institutions. The whole thing 301 00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:58,560 Speaker 1: is pretty horrifying. Um. In addition to many many trips 302 00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:02,200 Speaker 1: to Australia, she also traveled to Canada and to Zimbabwe, 303 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:05,960 Speaker 1: which was during the time of the migrations known as Rhodesia, 304 00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:09,199 Speaker 1: to meet with former child migrants in both of those places. 305 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:13,520 Speaker 1: And we haven't talked as much about child migration to Rhodesia, 306 00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:16,960 Speaker 1: but based on the accounts that she heard there, most 307 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,320 Speaker 1: of the child migrants that were sent to Rhodesia were 308 00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:23,080 Speaker 1: sent to school and treated as a privileged class, although 309 00:17:23,119 --> 00:17:26,320 Speaker 1: they still did not know who their families were. The 310 00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:29,480 Speaker 1: migration to Rhodesia seems to have been orchestrated, at least 311 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,520 Speaker 1: in part to make sure that there was an ongoing 312 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:37,399 Speaker 1: white upper class in British African territory. A documentary drawing 313 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:40,879 Speaker 1: from Humphrey's work came out in It was called Lost 314 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:44,720 Speaker 1: Children of the Empire. A drama followed which was called 315 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:47,760 Speaker 1: The Leaving of Liverpool. And as each of these aired 316 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:50,880 Speaker 1: in Australia and in Great Britain, people just came out 317 00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:53,639 Speaker 1: of the woodwork in both places trying to connect with 318 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:57,520 Speaker 1: their lost children and their lost parents. Humphries also wrote 319 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:00,480 Speaker 1: a book which was originally called Empty Cradles. It is 320 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,879 Speaker 1: now retitled as Oranges in Sunshine after the movie that 321 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:08,760 Speaker 1: was made based on it. Kevin Rudd, who was then 322 00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:12,640 Speaker 1: the Premiere of Australia, publicly apologized for the child migration 323 00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:16,119 Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine, saying we are sorry sorry 324 00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:18,520 Speaker 1: that as children you were taken from your families and 325 00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:22,200 Speaker 1: placed and institutions were so often you were abused. Sorry 326 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:26,240 Speaker 1: for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation and the cold 327 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:30,679 Speaker 1: absence of love, of tenderness of care. Prime Minister Gordon 328 00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:35,119 Speaker 1: Brown apologized for the program also in he said to 329 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:37,959 Speaker 1: all those former child migrants and their families, we are 330 00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:41,560 Speaker 1: truly sorry they were let down. We are sorry they 331 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:43,760 Speaker 1: were allowed to be sent away at the time when 332 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:47,480 Speaker 1: they were most vulnerable. We are sorry that, instead of 333 00:18:47,520 --> 00:18:50,639 Speaker 1: caring for them, this country turned its back, and we 334 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:52,800 Speaker 1: are sorry that the voices of these children were not 335 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:56,679 Speaker 1: always heard, their cries for help not always heeded. And 336 00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:59,119 Speaker 1: we are sorry that it has taken so long for 337 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:01,679 Speaker 1: this important day to come and for the full and 338 00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:06,680 Speaker 1: unconditional apology that is justly deserved. Uh, that's so long, 339 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:12,600 Speaker 1: Like literally twentysomething years. Margaret Humphreys had been trying to 340 00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:15,879 Speaker 1: get someone to acknowledge what was going on before the 341 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:21,240 Speaker 1: official apology came, and in that same statement, Brown announced 342 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:24,040 Speaker 1: a six million pound fund which has kept the Child 343 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:28,480 Speaker 1: Migrants Trust working to connect children with their families. Humphries 344 00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:31,520 Speaker 1: and the Child Migrants Trust continue to do this work today. 345 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:34,240 Speaker 1: She was actually named to the Order of Australia. She 346 00:19:34,359 --> 00:19:36,840 Speaker 1: was the first British citizen outside of the Royal family 347 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:40,399 Speaker 1: to be so named. She was later named the Commander 348 00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:44,159 Speaker 1: of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Thanks 349 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,040 Speaker 1: called The Midway for making us have to talk about 350 00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:50,920 Speaker 1: I do love that show, but especially with Christmas episodes, 351 00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:54,440 Speaker 1: there's always just this like some kind of social or 352 00:19:54,560 --> 00:20:00,280 Speaker 1: historical horror that stabs you in your heart part while 353 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:04,040 Speaker 1: you're watching See I'm safe because I'm I'm phobic about 354 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:08,240 Speaker 1: all babies and childbirth. Things I don't watch Call the Deadlights, 355 00:20:10,119 --> 00:20:13,919 Speaker 1: so I am safe for these cruel, cruel episodes. Do 356 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:16,240 Speaker 1: you have a spot of a listener mail for us? 357 00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:19,520 Speaker 1: I do have a spot of listener mail. Uh, and 358 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:22,680 Speaker 1: it is about time capsules. It's from John. John says, 359 00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,639 Speaker 1: first off, love the podcast. Now let's talk about time capsules. 360 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:28,159 Speaker 1: Time capsules are actually the reason why I started listening 361 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:31,119 Speaker 1: to your podcast. Well an art project that deals with 362 00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:33,879 Speaker 1: time capsules, about six hundred and ten of them. I 363 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:36,720 Speaker 1: currently work in the archives at the Andy Warhol Museum 364 00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:40,320 Speaker 1: as an imaging technician. Starting in nineteen seventy four and 365 00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:44,520 Speaker 1: until seven, Andy Warhol field containers made like cardboard boxes 366 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:47,360 Speaker 1: with different items from his life. He had a few 367 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:49,879 Speaker 1: possible plans for them. One was to turn all the 368 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,600 Speaker 1: items into an art show someday, and another was to 369 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:56,280 Speaker 1: sell each box off as a piece of art, but unfortunately, 370 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:59,600 Speaker 1: he unexpectedly died before any of that could happen. They 371 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:05,200 Speaker 1: consist of newspapers, photographs, artwork, letters, invitations, uncash checks, an 372 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:08,520 Speaker 1: inflated birthday cake, a picture of Rob Low wrapped only 373 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:10,840 Speaker 1: in a stuffed animal snake, probably the best thing ever. 374 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,560 Speaker 1: John Michelle Bosciot's birth certificate, and countless other items, including 375 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:17,159 Speaker 1: stuff from when he was a child growing up in 376 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:21,120 Speaker 1: Pittsburgh until his death. In these boxes contain more than 377 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:24,840 Speaker 1: three hundred thousand items. The museum has been working to 378 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:28,520 Speaker 1: archive and catalog everything they're in these time capsules. There's 379 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,360 Speaker 1: a great This American Life about the project. My job 380 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:33,639 Speaker 1: at work, My job is to work at trying to 381 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:37,080 Speaker 1: digitize this entire collection of items. A pretty cool job, 382 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:39,480 Speaker 1: if I must say. But I do spend a lot 383 00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:42,359 Speaker 1: of time just mind loosely scanning things. So I started 384 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:44,720 Speaker 1: to listen to podcasts. It was a few months in 385 00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:46,879 Speaker 1: before I found yours, but when I did, I was hooked. 386 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:49,600 Speaker 1: That's exactly what I was looking for. My favorite episode 387 00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,080 Speaker 1: being The Night Witches, well one of my favorites. When 388 00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:54,560 Speaker 1: I saw the Time Capsule Capsule episode, I've perked up 389 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:57,080 Speaker 1: with delight. I didn't think that you would touch on 390 00:21:57,119 --> 00:21:59,720 Speaker 1: Andy Warhol, but it was still exciting for me. Thank 391 00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:03,600 Speaker 1: you for providing me with such joy through history. And 392 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:07,920 Speaker 1: then He finishes up with an episode suggestion, I had 393 00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:11,119 Speaker 1: no idea that that was even a thing. Well, I 394 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:14,280 Speaker 1: feel stupid because I really love Andy Warhol, and you know, 395 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:18,640 Speaker 1: curse Valerie Salonas for robbing us of the eventual plan 396 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:21,000 Speaker 1: for this one. But I had completely forgotten about it 397 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:23,480 Speaker 1: as well, So it was a nice like, oh my gosh, 398 00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:28,080 Speaker 1: I totally forgot that. Yeah, I. Um. We've gotten quite 399 00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:32,399 Speaker 1: a number of letters from people about specific time capsules 400 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:35,800 Speaker 1: or specific projects of this nature. Um, and some of 401 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,080 Speaker 1: them are like, I'm surprised you didn't mention this. There 402 00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:40,640 Speaker 1: was just there was way too much stuff for us 403 00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:44,320 Speaker 1: to mention every time capsule, even just every super interesting 404 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:49,320 Speaker 1: cool one. There are lacks of them. Yeah, So if 405 00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:51,399 Speaker 1: you would like to write to us about this or 406 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:54,480 Speaker 1: any other uh episode, we were at History podcast at 407 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:57,440 Speaker 1: how Stuffworks dot com. We're also on Facebook at Facebook 408 00:22:57,440 --> 00:22:59,679 Speaker 1: dot com slash miss in history and on Twitter at 409 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,360 Speaker 1: miss in History. Are tumbler is missed in History dot 410 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:04,600 Speaker 1: tumbler dot com, and we're also on interest at pinterest 411 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:07,520 Speaker 1: dot com slash missed in History. You can come to 412 00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:10,000 Speaker 1: our parent company's website, which is how Stuffworks dot com, 413 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,080 Speaker 1: and you can look up all kinds of stuff about 414 00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: the history of foster care and adoption, which, as we 415 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,439 Speaker 1: have learned through some episodes in this podcast, was not 416 00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:21,159 Speaker 1: always a great history. You can also come to our website, 417 00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:23,200 Speaker 1: which is missed in history dot com, to find show 418 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:25,920 Speaker 1: notes and archive of every episode that we have ever done, 419 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:28,600 Speaker 1: and other cool stuff. You can do all that and 420 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:30,840 Speaker 1: a whole lot more at how stuff works dot com 421 00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:37,359 Speaker 1: or missed in history dot com for more on this 422 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics because it has stuff works 423 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:52,720 Speaker 1: dot com.