A review by carleesi
Living in Hope: The Complete Memoirs of Frank Byrne by Frances Coughlan, Gerard Waterford, Frank Byrne

5.0

Living in Hope is part of the Truth Telling series from the deadly Running Water Community Press. In this book, Mr Frank Byrne shares his story as a survivor of the Stolen Generations. Mr Byrne was removed from his family at six years old, recounting this separation with painful clarity, before being sent to settlements and camps around Western Australia. Mr Byrne's story takes us along as he becomes a stockman and travels around the country growing his skills and building connections.  

I was especially moved by Mr Byrne describing the experience of reading his file. These files were kept on all Aboriginal people in WA, especially Stolen Generations survivors. It was used to track their whereabouts and very racist commentary on their lives. This file was started when Frank was 12 months old and reported to the authorities as a “half-caste” child. (The term half-caste is incredibly racist and should be avoided at all costs unless explicitly necessary. Mr Byrne includes a powerful explainer of why he uses the word in this book as someone against whom this word was weaponised.)

"But my file tells me nothing about me. It never mentions how I am going, not anywhere. It never comments if I am happy or sad... These people were my guardians, they took me from my family, who had no choice about it, and they never thought about how I was
 going as a little kid, or growing up, what I was good at, what I was like. Nothing.”