Day One March 18 1:15am-1:45am

Keynote Presentation

Our presentation is a lived example of the out of home care system and how it impacts upon First Nations children, young people and their relationships with their mother. We are looking forward to sharing our experiences of survivance and how our ancestral and cultural resilience has supported advocacy in this space towards resisting structural racism.

Jenna Morris

Student

About the Speaker

Jenna Morris

Student

I am Jenna and I am a 19-year-old survivor of the family policing system. I am Gomeroi, I am Dungutti, I am Worimi and Adnyamathanha and I am very proud of my heritage. I grew up in the out of home care system and spent 12 years in foster care where I was treated as a domestic slave and abused by the carers and this abuse has been covered up by the family policing system. I grew up completely denied of my culture and connection, and my mother and family group were erased from my life my knowing, my being and my entire life by the carers and the white out of home care agency. I grew up never knowing my mother lived 30 minutes away from me and was told that her fighting spirit for us to know her and to be connected to our culture was somehow wrong.