27/05/2026
Aunty Ruth Hegarty – a national treasure – spent her childhood wondering who she was and where she came from. A Stolen Generations survivor, she was removed from her mother at just four and a half years old.
The acclaimed author, activist, and survivor, Aunty Ruth (Guggurri) spoke about her many adults and children’s books at a Story Time Event at Queensland State Library.
Her most well-known book, “Is that you Ruthie”, shares her story of her time growing up in the Cherbourg Girls Dormitory – she promised the dormitory girls that she’d write about their time there.
Of the 75 girls in the dorm from Aunty Ruth’s time, she is the last one of her group in the dormitory who remains, at aged 97.
“I was a storyteller in the dormitory, that’s where I got into trouble.”
“I told ghost stories. But I never told a lie. I just wanted to write,” she recalled.
Whilst beginning with writing adults books, she then turned her talented hand to children’s books. She first wrote about the duck pond, the only place the dormitory girls could go, outside the barbed wire fence that surrounded the dormitory.
“It was our favourite place, a very special place. We’d go down there and turn into someone else. It was the only place we could go without supervision. This was freedom time,” she recalled when she spoke about her first children’s book, The Duck Pond, which she read from during the event.
Books authored by Stolen Generations survivors are a way to learn about the impacts of Australia’s history of forced removals, through the voices of survivors.
In every state and territory, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were systematically removed from family, community, Country and culture, under policies deliberately aimed at erasing their identity. Children were placed in missions and reserves all over Australia.
Explore the map for yourself:
https://www.healingfoundation.org.au/stolen-generations/institutions-map/
