Photographs of Uncle Des at his 16th floor flat in the Redfern public housing estates. He is on the long wait list – exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19 - for a new home, which he hopes will be at ground level. Despite what some might consider as million dollar views, Uncle Des says his flat is more like a prison - isolated on one of the top floors of the sprawling estate, away from the community which mingles below and for which he yearns.
Uncle Des is part of the Stolen Generation, having been forcibly removed from his family as a child and taken to the notorious government-run Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home (KBH) near Kempsey in northern NSW, where he suffered immense abuse at the hands of those in charge.
Uncle Des is being supported to find a new flat by the Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation, who support the social and emotional wellbeing of survivors, their families and descendants.
Part of an ongoing series, ‘COVID-19 Diaries’.
*Click on image for full screen view.
^These photographs were taken prior to the current lockdown of the Redfern public housing estate, where 12 COVID-19 cases have been detected.