Uncle Michael Welsh was only eight when he was bundled onto a train from his country out in Coonamble, in central-west New South Wales, with six of his siblings—the eldest only 10 and the youngest, six-month-old twins. They had already been ripped from their mother, and on reaching Sydney’s bustling Central Station were that day ripped from each other.

Uncle Michael and his ten-year old brother would begin a separate journey together, embarking on the same road, although with different endings (Michael says his brother’s journey ended at ‘around 43’ years old). They were taken to the notorious Kinchela Boys Home near Kempsey, where on their first day they saw a fellow detainee digging a hole for the sole purpose of filling it in again. This ‘home’ warehoused Aboriginal boys who had been taken from their families, imprinting trails of tears on generations of young Aboriginal warriors that are still visible today.