I wrote a very lengthy response to your posting, then decided to delete it.

However, from our personal experience from what you write it is most likely accurate.

Stoney silence from our Antipodean contingent.

Maybe David above said it all?

If the documentary is accurate,maybe it will shame the Australian government into doing something about the situation,at long last?

Perhaps Mr Pilger could do an expose on the UK sometime and we will see how that pans out.

Indeed. There are many things to be said about them too.

But this would not negate what was shown in this particular film.Have you seen it?

Right.... here goes. After deleting the original text and then thinking about it for two whole days, have decided to reinstate the original script.

We lived in Perth for 5.5 very unhappy years. Not long after arriving in Oz, a close friend and I would board the same circular route innercity bus each day to go to work. We had both recently arrived from South Africa. Very noticeable was a young "full-blood" [as the locals call them] aboriginal man, sitting in the same place every day. Despite that the bus was habitually full, with many people strap-hanging, the place next to him was always vacant. My friend and I talked this over, and decided to take turns in sitting next to him every day. Remember, we had only just arrived from Apartheid-ridden SA. The locals viewed this practice with a large amount of distain and even incredulity. The young man would not look directly at two "white" women but slowly, as he became used to us, he would half turn and smile slightly when we sat down next to him. We never spoke to him. More's the pity. He never spoke to us, presumably he didn't dare. Hopefully the situation will have become better since we left in 1992.

Incredible. So South Africa was not alone.That is quite an amazing little snapshot of life.

Thank you for going ahead and sharing that memory after all. Makes me think the documentary may well be depressingly accurate.

For all you god loving, god fearing "good" catholics out there (and anyone else who thinks this only happens "over there") - read:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/19/catholic-church-sold-child

Apparently the real identities of those involved in this child trade are still "protected" by the church (and go unpunished) under the guise of protecting the children's identities.

But if you haven't seen the film "Philomena" then go see it before reading the article as it could rather spoil the film for you!

As an ex-Catholic( survivor),nothing ould surprise me about the church which has a long historyof corrupt practices and cruelty.

However,the Apartheid-like treatment of Aborigines was something I had not been aware of.Of course,I knew there was discrimination,but I never imagined that,in 2014,it could be so brutally inhuman . Sheila's experience above is shocking.

I suppose that,as being now a minority,unlike the black people of South Africa,the Aborigines are in a position of being the forgotten abused.This is very sad and shameful

Believe me, I could tell you stories that would make your hair stand on end!

But I wont.

However, just to add that it was only here that we first heard the derogatory term "slopes" - a reference to Asian peoples.