As I walked out of the gas chambers into the garden the tears which had been building in the last few moments of our tour began to flow like a flooded river.

From a young age I had a deep love of reading and writing. As a child books were how I experienced the world and I dreamed of one day becoming a writer and creating my own stories. So when I moved to Sydney in my mid 20’s I took advantage of opportunities to attend the NSW Writers Centre at Lilyfield in Sydney’s inner west whenever I could.

On the 16th anniversary of the former PM’s apology to Australia’s Stolen Generation I sat at my dining table listening to the tv reports about the failures of the Closing the Gap policy, and the fact that four of the targets were actually getting worse.

Living and working so far from my Grandmother’s Country takes its toll on me at times so when I travel home I make a point of visiting this tree, a Gumbi Gumbi tree.