Stolen Generations survivor Daryl Sloan was two years old when police charged him with vagrancy.
He and his brothers were charged for having "no settled place of abode and no visible means of support".
It came about in 1963, when his mother went to police in desperation, seeking help.
She was escaping domestic violence, and took her five children with her.
Mr Sloan said his mother found accommodation for herself and her two eldest daughters with family in Shepparton, but could not bring her three younger boys with her.
She approached welfare groups, hoping they might help her with temporary accommodation for the whole family, but had no luck.
As a last resort, she asked the police.
"And as a result of that we were made wards of the state," Mr Sloan said.
He carries a copy of his police documents with him, because few believe him when he tells them he faced criminal charges as a toddler.
'Utter confusion, utter hopelessness'
Mr Sloan and his brothers were moved between children's homes in Melbourne repeatedly due to overcrowding.
The memories he holds of that time are those of a boy not yet three years old.
"Eventually one day a big, black, shiny car — the biggest, blackest, shiniest car I've ever seen — came and us boys were told to get in," Mr Sloan said.
He recalls vivid images of a driver in a pork pie hat, the smell of his cigarettes, and a woman with white gloves and a colourful silk ribbon.
They were taking him to Ballarat, where Mr Sloan was separated from his brothers as they were placed in orphanages according to age.
"But we weren't orphans, we just didn't have anywhere to live," he said.
He remembers talking to his siblings through a fence.
"To sum up those years, it was just utter confusion, utter hopelessness," Mr Sloan said.
"You didn't even know where you were, let alone where you wanted to be.
"The confusion of going from a youngest child in a family of five to one of 300 — completely disempowering."
Today, Mr Sloan is using his experience to help others.
He works in family violence prevention, and along with his wife, has been a foster carer for more than 20 years.
"If we can give a child a safe bed, a safe room, and a full belly, and they know they're cared about ... we've achieved a lot even if it's only for one night," he said.
Breaking the cycle
Arrende man and Albury resident Uncle Aaron Perkins-Kemp-Berger's father was a survivor of the Stolen Generations.
Mr Perkins-Kemp-Berger said he didn't learn that part of his family history until his cousin told him in 1994.
"He kept his trauma well hidden cause he never spoke about it, he just went on with life," he said.
Today the Arrende Elder worries the cycle is repeating itself.
"What the population don't understand is that every time an Aboriginal child is born, there is going to be someone watching them and making sure they do the right thing," he said.
"One slip up and that child could be gone."
In 2021, more than 40 per cent of children aged 0-17 in out-of-home care were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
But First Nations people make up less than 4 per cent of the Australian population, according to federal government data.
Mr Perkins-Kemp-Berger and Mr Sloan both said the Australian government's formal apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008 was a step forward.
"I loved hearing sorry," Mr Sloan said.
"But sorry means it shouldn't happen again."
