It should not have been. She did not sell out as I heard one Aboriginal leader decry. She opened the way for a telling of the whole and honest story of her life. Thousands of black and white Australians have had their lives shattered by fathers or mothers abrogating their responsibility, by flawed social policies and court orders of the day. We need to hear these stories.
Words are important.
They have huge legal and emotional ramifications. They must not be used to distort our history. Neither Kate Shayler nor Lowitja O'Donoghue was stolen, yet there is little doubt they had their childhoods stolen from them - both, it seems, by hopeless fathers, and what we now know to be wrong social and legal systems. Lowitja O'Donoghue is a decent and respected person. She should shut herself in a quiet place and write down her story, far away from the noise and fury of her enemies who abuse her and her friends who use her.