Oranges and Sunshine

'I can still hear the kids' screams'

The harrowing plight of child migrants such as Hennessey is examined in the film Sunshine and Oranges, which opened on Thursday. It focuses on a British social worker, Margaret Humphreys, and her work to blow the whistle on the child migration schemes and help the victims find their families.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/i-can-still-hear-the-kids-screams-20110611-1fyap.html#ixzz1PEnDecFY

On treacherous building sites little boys were flogged if they slowed down, carrying loads of bricks up the scaffolding, lime burns lacerating their legs, hands blistered and cut. This was not Dickensian England; this was Australia and it was happening until 1970.

Hennessey is still, at 75, a noticeably damaged man. He is warmly greeted by everyone he encounters at the Ingleburn RSL Club in Sydney, where we meet for lunch. But he is in tears throughout much of our interview. He did not receive a birthday card until he was 62. It was from the mother he had yearned for all his life but had been told was dead.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/i-can-still-hear-the-kids-screams-20110611-1fyap.html#ixzz1PEnYhNnX

also :


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http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3224781.htm?site=perth




Our Library currently does not have a copy of this book or Empty Cradles the previous title- I have suggested it be purchased. It can be obtained from Book Depository UK for $11 approx. dollars postage free. 380 pages -- the books covers very much more than the film and is a must read account.

see also: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/movies/9609630/father-helps-tell-tale-of-lost-children/

Oranges and Sunshine recounts the true story of a Nottingham social worker who has dedicated her life to reuniting the thousands of child migrants sent from the UK to Australia between the 1940s and 60s with the parents and families they were told did not exist.

Based on her best-selling book Empty Cradles, Oranges and Sunshine follows Margaret Humphreys (played by Emily Watson) as she battles to bring emotional closure and justice to those who suffered at the hands of those institutions (governments, Christian Brothers, "charitable organisations") charged with their care.

http://www.childmigrantstrust.com/
see transcript at: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3224781.htm?site=perth