The rolling hills dotted with farmhouses in the Riverina district in Western New South Wales hold painful memories for survivors of the .
Generations of children were forcibly removed from their loved ones and communities from 1911 to 1969 under the racist governmental policies of the day, with many ending up at institutions like Cootamundra.
Dozens of survivors of the home have returned for a reunion with friends, family, and their fellow 'Coota girls'.
Survivors gathered to return to the site at the former Cootamunda Aboriginal Girls Home (NITV News: Sarah Collard)
Trained to 'be white' servants
Aunty Lorraine Darcy Peeters was taken to the home at just four years old, to be trained as a domestic servant for white families in the district.
"We learned from a very young age how to clean, because that was the endgame for us," she told NITV News.
"We were to come out perfect servants. The process was done by brainwashing and abuse."
She suffered abuse at the hands of the authorities who ran the home with an iron fist.
"When we forgot to be white, they said, 'you have to be white, you have to act, dress and speak like white people now.'
"If we didn’t do what we were told we were punished," she said.
She said the was to assimilate and destroy their connection to family, community, and culture.
Aunty Lorraine said despite her traumatic past, she believes the institution should stand as a stark reminder.
"It's important for the next generation and the generations to come to know the story. This is our family story. They need to know because this is part of it."
Calls for preservation: 'It's not what it was'
Survivor Cheryl Parry at the former site of the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal girls. Source: Sarah Collard: NITV News
She said the girls at the home became each other's family.
"Good memories and I've got some bad, very bad memories," Ms Parry told NITV news.
"It wasn't a good childhood... But at least we had each other and we looked out for one another."
She has travelled from Queensland to make the difficult journey back to the site along with her brothers Lester Mayer and Stephen Ridgeway.
"There's not many of us left but it was just lovely to see them all. It does bring back a lot of memories. I still haven't come to terms with it all," she said.
Survivors of the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal girls are calling for the site to be restored. (Sarah Collard: NITV News)
Ms Parry hopes that the site which has fallen into disrepair can be turned into a place of healing and truth-telling.
"I would really like to see it brought back to what it was because it meant so much to us. I don't want what they are going to do, but I'd like to see it restored to what it was because it has changed so much."
