Garry Ryder sits in a cosy cafe in the West Australian country town of Katanning with a giant grin on his face.
Collingwood has just had a win, so Garry is feeling pretty chuffed with himself.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains references to the Stolen Generations and child abuse. It also has images of Aboriginal people who may have died.
He's sporting the black-and-white-striped merchandise, much to the local West Coast Eagles supporters' dismay.
Garry might not barrack for the blue and gold, but he does have something in common with the large birds of prey.
He says he feels the same sense of freedom when he shares his story, as if the weight of the world has been lifted off his shoulders as he soars in the wind.
He's a survivor of the Stolen Generations and he wants people to know what really happened to young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia when they were forcibly removed from their families.
Garry alleges he was gang-raped in the mission by older Aboriginal boys but still has a special bond with the place he called home.
And now he wants the old settlement restored.
He invites us along to understand why.
Feeling unloved
Garry was born in the WA town of Northampton and was very sick as an infant.
He says he spent the first year of his life at Geraldton Regional Hospital with breathing difficulties.
But instead of returning home, he and his four siblings were taken to Marribank Mission near Katanning.
It was a small sheep farming town about 200 kilometres south-east of Perth.
The First Nations children did not live in the town, but on a deserted farm about half an hour from the town centre.
Garry, now 67, said he didn't know why he had been sent there and was curious about his identity.
He said he kept asking the missionaries whether he had any parents, but their responses only made him feel unloved.
"They said: 'Your parents don't want you, they don't love you, they just dumped you to the native welfare department or they got killed in a car crash,'" Garry said.
"The only people who loved us were the mission kids themselves."
Garry said there was a divide between the black and the white and recalls being segregated because of his skin colour.
He remembers not being allowed to swim in the Katanning pool because he had dark skin.
Instead, he and the other Aboriginal children were forced to swim in the snake-infested river.
But Garry says at the time, it didn't bother him. He was just glad to be with his friends.
A life in poverty
Garry remembers extremely cold winters at the mission.
He was forced to wake up at dawn to the milk the cows.
With barely enough clothes to cover his tiny body, he remembers the uncontrollable shivering.
"The only way we could keep warm was when the cow did their business, to stand in what they've just finished to keep warm," he said.
"I know it sounds gross, but that's how we did it."
Years later, machinery came in and Garry no longer had to milk by hand.
He said that was the definition of "relief".
Horrific abuse
Garry alleges he was physically and sexually abused while at the mission.
He describes how scratching ears was forbidden by some of the stricter missionaries.
But one day he forgot and paid the price.
Garry claims the missionary dragged him outside and started sharpening two pencils.
"He told me to turn around and he said, 'This is what's going to happen to you now' … so he shoved both sharp pencils and busted my ear drums.
"I wasn't allowed to tell anybody."
Garry said his ears got infected and he struggled to hear in class following the incident.
But the abuse didn't stop there.
Garry also alleged he was gang-raped by older Aboriginal boys.
He said the abuse started when he was seven years old and lasted five-and-a-half-years.
"You can't fight five or six boys, they're holding you down, you just got to do what they ask you to do while they're having turns raping you."
Garry said he was punished by the missionaries for reporting the abuse at the time.
He struggled emotionally and said he considered taking his own life.
Garry has since engaged a legal firm to represent him in his sexual assault case.
The mission was run by the Baptist Church of Western Australia between 1952 and 1988.
In response to questions from the ABC, director of ministries Reverend Victor Owuor said the church acknowledged the "deep and enduring pain felt by individuals, families and the Aboriginal community" and "publicly expressed sorrow and regret for the mistreatment of Aboriginal people".
"Aboriginal people deserve to have their stories told and receive fair and just recognition and compensation where suffering has occurred," he said.
The Baptist Church officially apologised for its "institutional failures" in 1998. It said it had since implemented policies that prioritise wellbeing and safety.
However, the church said it could not comment on specific allegations that were the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.
Happy memories too
Not all of Garry's memories are bad. Some are full of friendship and laughter.
Many Aboriginal boys had to mentor the younger ones.
Garry was assigned a young boy called Timmy.
He had to take him to and from the dining hall each day.
Garry said they were like brothers until they were torn apart when Garry was sent back home to Geraldton from the mission as a teenager.
He'd never even heard of Geraldton before and thought he was being taken to be killed.
"Are we ever going to get to that place or are they going to kill us?" Garry asked the other Aboriginal boys on the ride there.
"If they plan on doing something to us, we've got to run," he told them.
Garry describes leaving Marribank as the "worst day" of his life.
He hated saying goodbye to his friends.
"Missionaries tried to break all our kids' bond, but it didn't work," he said.
Garry said when he left tried writing to his friends.
He said the letters never arrived and later claimed to have received an admission that the staff were instructed to tear them up.
Garry struggled to fit in back in Geraldton.
To him, Marribank was his home.
Garry returned to Katanning decades later to be closer to where he considered his country.
He said he never planned on moving to Katanning but went for a holiday and has been there ever since.
And to his surprise, he reunited with Timmy who was also living in Katanning – 20 years after they said goodbye.
Garry jokes about still looking after Timmy today.
Place of healing
Garry and Timmy are now part of a committee hoping to restore Marribank.
There's hope the place will provide healing for other survivors of the Stolen Generations and act as a reminder of Australia's dark past so that the mistakes are not repeated into the future.
Garry also wants other survivors to know it's OK to share their stories.
He said talking about his abuse had helped him heal.
Back at the cafe, Garry said he was looking forward to the next Magpies game.
He said while Timmy's team, the Eagles, didn't look like they'd fly very high this season, the Magpies on the other hand could go all the way.
