Jennifer Pittorino
A special film screening of ‘The Last Daughter’, will be showing on Thursday, June 22, at the Sun Theatre in Yarraville.
SNAICC, the national voice for aboriginal children and Justice for Action Maribyrnong (JAM) are coming together to hold the screening, which will also feature a book signing from Brenda Matthews.
Matthews wrote ‘The Last Daughter’, which has since been turned into a documentary, about her real life journey to unearth the truth about her past, and to reconcile the two sides of her family.
Matthews said it has been a hard journey but all the positive responses have made it worth it.
“All of the responses have been wonderful, a lot of people have thanked me for sharing the story , and sharing their story back,” she said,
“It’s a powerful story, we were all children once and we all have a mother and a father and some of us know what it’s like to be disconnected from that loss, it brings healing to the individual who hears the story.”
The documentary details Brenda’s first memories of growing up in a loving white foster family before she was suddenly taken away and returned to her aboriginal family.
John Chadderton of JAM said they have decided to run this fundraiser with SNAICC because the nature of the film is very related to their work.
“It was an idea put forth to support first nations children through SNAICC who do this amazing work, all ticket sales act as the fundraiser and go directly to support them,” he said.
Matthews said is it important to keep telling these stories despite how hard it might be.
“It was hard going back through the story, the pain kept coming back up but I had a great support system to help me.”
