Aboriginal Australian writer, Ngarrinderi woman Doris Kartinyeri (1945-2020), was only 28 days old when she was taken by the Aboriginal Protection Board to live in Colebrook Home, a South Australian institution run by the United Aborigines Mission from 1924 to 1981.

Doris remembered many happy times playing with the other children—friendships she honoured in her children’s book, Bush Games and Knucklesbones (2003)—but under new ‘management’ later on, she resented the increased emphasis on religious observance. She was also sexually abused.

Doris Kartinyeri writes about her time in Colebrook, about the work placements that followed when she was 14 and about the impact of being removed from her family in her memoir, Kick the Tin (2000) and in her later work, Bipolar Express (2017).