The tragic story of Uncle Murray Harrison is just one of many that serve as reminders of the importance of National Sorry Day.
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Mr Harrison is a member of the Stolen Generation, having been taken from his family, along with his sisters, while picking beans and peas in Bruthen in East Gippsland at the age of 10.
He was then taken to the Turana youth centre in Melbourne where he was deemed a 'juvenile delinquent'.
Mr Harrison said National Sorry Day was a very emotional day for him.
MORE NATIONAL SORRY DAY: 'We need allies': Call to stand in solidarity with Aboriginal community in Ballarat
"When Archie [Roach] was here a couple of weeks ago, I had this flashback of these people coming in and grabbing my two sisters by the hair and throwing them in the car and they also got me by the neck and threw me in the car. That was as clear as it was 73 years ago," he said.
Mr Harrison said he remembered Turana as a 'brutal place'.
"I went in at midnight, they looked at me like I was nothing and then got me by the neck again, threw me into a little cell not much bigger than [a car], and said, 'Get in there, you little black bastard. We'll deal with you in the morning,' and they didn't," he said.
"They cut my hair off, put me in the shower and scrubbed me with a hard brush to scrub the black off me.
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"What really got to me was this steel door shut and the lock turned, the key turned in the lock. Now, that haunted me for 60 years until Kevin Rudd gave us our apology. The waking up in the middle of the night screaming went away, but the dark room hasn't gone away yet."
Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative chief executive Karen Heap said generations of Aboriginal people grew up without knowing their families, their culture, their language or where they belong.
"I urge the whole community to stand with their Aboriginal colleagues, friends and families to reflect on the trauma experienced by so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who now live in the Ballarat region," she said.
City of Ballarat Mayor Daniel Moloney said National Sorry Day was an opportunity for Australia to remember past mistakes.
"It reminds us of the immense hardship and treatment endured by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who were forcefully removed from their families as part of official government policy; and the impact this had on their families and communities," he said.
"We also acknowledge that some of our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community is made up of children, forcibly removed and placed in the Ballarat Orphan Asylum, Ballarat Orphanage and Ballarat Children's Home and who have since made Ballarat their home."
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