>> Obviously we want to acknowledge the survivors and I want to acknowledge the
students that are here today. It's good to see some young faces that are
involved in real, well it's historical isn't it, it's our history.
Jim Morrison is my name and don't laugh, I don't have a band behind
me, not The Doors.
>> And it's a good thing or we'd be dong karaoke tonight.
>> But on behalf of the Bringing Them Home committee and we've now developed a
statewide body the West Australian Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation.
That's been a wish of survivors around the state where they have an
organisation that will advocate and look at healing for Stolen Generation
people and their families. But it's important that students get a better
feel of your contribution that you're making in, in a dreadful situation.
But to make it good.
>> Well these boys here, they wanted to come out here, they said "Did you live here, Pop?"
I said "Yeh, I lived there for nine and a half years." And you know, suddenly it hurt me for a while but
when I come back and I had five years here, I was a caretaker here for five years,
I thought I'd get used to the place, you know. I got used to it and my grandkids, they really liked it too.
>> Now that we got an opportunity of coming out here and start
doing things, I think it'd be a great honour to be here to have a say, that I'm
still alive at least. I'd like to have a say about the Missions and have it up and
running for things. And I'm glad the University mob got involved with it.
>> It's a great honour and a privilege to be able to work with Jim and the Committee
and Southern Aboriginal Corporation and the Survivors, to do this work.
And I'd just like also to wish everybody the very best of success for
the project. I know it's a painful time also for many people to be out here and
also, we also, many of us feel that, feel that pain. And it strengthens our resolve as a
university, and as academics and as students to make a
serious contribution to assisting and working with you in a partnership to
achieve some justice and some reconciliation around what we're
doing here. So thank you very much.
>> For me the only positive was, it's
always been like us kids together, you know. We enjoyed, all us kids
enjoyed each other's company,
we weren't that keen on the adults.
>> I think they should restore this because
this was some part of our life growing up here when we were kids, babies, young kids.
And it'll bring a lot of memories back to us and pass it down on to our
younger generation. For the food and whatever and I know you used to get
another place here and in there will serve the freezers for the meat and vegetables
and everything, remember? I know I got locked in there a couple times in the freezer.
Oh they used to shut the door on us and run away. The kids in there used to laugh, wicked.
>> All we can do is support, make sure that what we do supports what they need
and what they, what they want. And that's our mission
I guess, our mission is to do that.
>> I think I would just like to add that for
students, I hope that it's going to be a very you know learning experience as
well for them. In this particular project we are also involving quite a lot of
outside forms, so industry partners. We are at the moment in conversation with one
of these firms who would be actually reviewing the work that students have
been doing, so that it can be costed and given back to the Bringing Them Home.
So that itself is a learning experience for the students because they are getting
knowledge from the industry partners as well.
>> So we've got a bunch of students down
here and their background is that they've come from all sorts of
disciplines. So we've got spatial sciences, architecture, interior architecture,
construction management, all working together. So there's scanners and the
targets that you can see around, that's what these people are using. And then
we're starting to do really detailed documentation inside with laser scanners so
that will give you full 3D models where hopefully you'll be able to walk through
those buildings.
>> One of the ideas that has been working around and seems to work
now is creating a place. Turning this place into something like,
I know at the moment it's a little bit rundown, but you've got someone to come.
And that's what it seems like, a lot of you have been saying, it's just somewhere to come and
be together, is the idea that a lot of the students are working with, trying to
create something like that.
>> It's a really great experience for us educationally,
but I think it's a pretty momentous thing for us as well.
In our lives, I think this is a pretty, bit of an honour to be involved in
something like this. So on behalf of all the students I'd like to thank everyone
that's been involved in organising it. Thank you.