00:00Ducking to the outdoor toilet block of his boys' dormitory at night was a gamble for
00:07Waka Waka man Uncle David Ragg.
00:10Sherberg Boys Home, west of Brisbane, was a place where Uncle David says grown men could
00:15access on a whim.
00:17A place where bad things happened.
00:20I've been abused physically, sexually, mentally in the Sherberg Boys Home.
00:25The 66-year-old recounted to Queensland's Truth Inquiry how he was separated from his
00:30parents at nine years old.
00:32He survived on Weevil-riddled rations, was flogged for not eating his food, and didn't
00:37own his own clothing until after he finished high school.
00:41Uncle David Ragg is a survivor, but he says that so many of his brothers and sisters from
00:46the Sherberg Boys and Girls dormitories did not make it.
00:50He's thinking about them today and wants to acknowledge their family and respect them.
00:55He says that this Queensland Truth and Healing Inquiry is for them.
00:59The spirit of my people, my old people, my grandparents, my community of Sherberg, really
01:04has given me that resilience as well.
01:0695-year-old Ruth Hegarty vividly described by a video link being sent to work for non-Indigenous
01:12farming families when she was 14.
01:14She told the inquiry they were there to be used and abused by the government and their
01:19employers.
01:20She added that's why many girls, including herself, ended up pregnant.
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