2nd National Conference on Mental Health Aspects of People Affected by Family Separation

Held at Parks Centre For Mental Health Research

Wacol Queensland

October 2004

To whom it may concern

by

Denise Luke

Presentation

My name is Denise, I was a ward from two years old, I spent time at WINBIN, BIDURA.  My brother Stephen was four years old.  We were sent to foster parents at CARDINDA, Mr Wild and his wife, where we were child molested.  My brother and I were forced to commit sexual acts on each other.  We left their care when I was 9 and Stephen was 11 years old.

My brother Stephen hung himself when he was 21 years old, he couldn’t face the past or the future with the torment of our cruel childhood and the acts we had to commit on each other or what had happened.

I was placed in ORMOND after being in the GLEBE shelter and MINDA was committed to ORMOND girl’s school, where we were beaten and molested by Mr Henderson, Miss Hunt the physical education teacher, Miss Hasset was in charge or the school mistress.  She was a harsh woman, that’s when I became a number, number 45.  I was in ORMOND for 2 and half years, not seeing the outside, cars etc.  I was sent to PARRAMATTA GTS at 14 years old – Welcome to the big girls school.

Pregnant I ran away from a place called MYEE; I climbed 6ft fence because I was told my baby would be taken away from me at birth, a ward having a ward.  My baby was not yet born but belonged to the department.

Already I was on the run from the welfare for 2 years, one night I had a tap on my shoulder.  I ended up locked in GLEBE shelter, beaten by the police at Central for not shutting up and crying for my baby.  I told them where she was.  I was promised a live in job.  We where put into BIDURA together.  After court, in the middle of the night, handcuffs were slapped on my wrists.  Two police officers threw me into the back of the bull wagon and I was taken to PARRAMATTA, were I was thrown into the dungeon.  Bashed, bleeding, and screaming for my baby, sodomised, bashed and beaten with a piece of hose.  My knee length hair cut off, jewellery taken, handbag, hairbrush, photo of my daughter.

My flat was ransacked, I was told there was a removal truck and it was all taken away.  My baby was stolen, she was still breast feeding, Niki had a mild intolerance.  She went to the baby health clinic every week, near the ALAMAIN fountain.

I was getting molested and beaten again.  Degraded, told how stupid I was.  My heart and soul were gone; I detached myself from the life growing inside me.  I lived in denial, I thought my will could never be broken, but that year, 1973, my heart left me.  My son was born but I never saw him, only his foot leaving the delivery room.

I became a drug addict, I wanted to die, I wanted to feel nothing.  I fell pregnant again, it took great courage, burning and longing for family that I gave birth to my beautiful daughter Kelly Anne in the September of 1974.  I adored the air my baby breathed and ground she walked on and I still do.  My beautiful daughter Kelly Anne’s son Jayden March Luke was murdered by a foster mother in 2001 and this is another crime committed by the department against me and my family, especially my baby girl Kelly Anne, Jayden’s mother.

I found my family in 2003 after putting an ad in the paper, I later found out my mother died in 1984.  I have a brother, Christopher, who has been in the departments care since he was 18 months old.  He is now in MORRISET Psychiatric Hospital in Newcastle.  The department has totally wrecked my life.  The department knew where I was all the time and where my mother was.  I asked repeatedly for and about my family but was told there was no one.

I now have been diagnosed with post traumatic, bi-polar panic attacks and I take anti depressants.

ABOUT NIKI ND KURT

I have now found my child Niki, who is now called Rachel.  We are trying to form some kind of a relationship, she can’t handle my life or that I was taken away from her.  I can’t take it all in some days, it feels surreal.  I will always have a fire burning in my guts, a hatred that can never go away.  The mere mention of the welfare department makes my stomach churn, I feel so destroyed by them.

What of that little girl Denise, well my childhood followed me through my adult life; the pain and hurt I feel will be with me until I die and with my family for generations to come.  Our family is not complete; there is too much pain.  And guess who caused it all?, me by being born.  I pass on my pain to my family.

If the welfare had not lied life would have been different, I would have found my family and they were looking for me.  I had three beautiful homes and families and they all where my flesh and blood.  How different things would have been, I might today be sitting where you are. 

From a young age till now I haven’t been able to trust anyone at all because of the lies, betrayal and mistreatment I have suffered while I was in the care of the welfare.  At this point in time I have no friends, I just stick by my family I have built today with the government in its full power to stop me on my way to happiness.  I’ve always been branded a bad apple.