Retta Dixon children ‘chained up and beaten’, inquiry hears

By Amos Aikman
Australian
September 22, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/retta-dixon-children-chained-up-and-beaten-inquiry-hears/story-e6frg6nf-1227066410248

ABORIGINAL children at the Retta Dixon Home in Darwin suffered harrowing sexual and physical abuse, including being chained up, beaten until they bled and repeatedly touched inappropriately, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

Many of those living at the home, which operated between 1946 and 1980, were members of the Stolen Generation, taken from their parents due to their mixed race heritage.

The commission is sitting in Darwin for the next fortnight to hear evidence from nine residents of the home, which housed Aboriginal and mixed race children and unmarried women. It will also hear from a number of experts and government and other agencies.

In her opening statement, Sophie David SC assisting the Royal Commission said the former residents would give “harrowing” testimony about experiences at the RDH.

“The alleged perpetrators were house parents or other children of the home, some of whom were also allegedly sexually abused and sexualised by house parents themselves,” Ms David said.

“The experience of former residents at the Retta Dixon Home is characterised by harrowing allegations of physical and sexual abuse by those entrusted to care for them.”

People seated in the gallery became visibly emotional as the statement was read out. Several of those expected to give evidence had brought family members along.

Witnesses told the hearing that half cast children living at the RDH were beaten for talking to full blood Aboriginals, even when seeking information about their parents.

Sandra Kitching said that, in her view, the government “didn’t think it could do anything with the full bloods.”

“As half castes, we had brains, so they thought they could beat the colour out of us,” she said. “At least that’s the way I see it.”

Ms Kitching described incidents in which her house parent, referred to as Mr Pounder, watched her and other girls shower, and touched her inappropriately on the way to school.

“He would barge in and he’d pull me to him and sniff me and say, ‘You didn’t use soap.’,” Ms Kitching said.

She also described being punished for trying to intervene on behalf of another resident who was being abused.

“He chained me up and took my clothes off me, and he said; ‘That’s what Aboriginal people deserve’,” she said.

Earlier, another witness, Lorna Cubillo, spoke of being abused by a house parent referred to as Mr Walters, against whom she took court action in 1998.

“I never told the court or even my lawyers about the sexual abuse I suffered from Mr Walters,” Ms Cubillo said. “I was too ashamed. I think this is why we lost the case.”

Both witnesses spoke of the profoundly damaging effects the abuse had on their lives.

“The worst part of it was that being in Retta Dixon left me without hope,” Ms Kitching said. “Missionaries didn’t teach you life skills. They didn’t teach you about the outside world, they didn’t tell you about boyfriends, about being pregnant. Nearly all of us got pregnant when we were still very young.”

Ms David said the commission would hear evidence that staff at the home had arranged for children to go on camping holidays to places around Darwin.

“These locations were isolated and would feature in later allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of house parents,” she said.

She said witnesses would testify to the “devastating impact” of their time in the home, the toll taken on their marriages, family life, connections to culture, and ability to work.