Aboriginal children can be seen smiling from the pages of Dawn Magazine but there is a darker story behind the pictures.
Dawn and New Dawn Magazine were created by the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board (AWB) and published monthly from January 1952 to December 1968.
They were distributed to all Aboriginal stations, reserves and institutions in the state where they were read by Indigenous people who had limited access to information about their kin and community.
Dawn shared the work of the AWB through photos and stories from stations, reserves, schools and training institutions in NSW.
The primary goal of the magazine was to promote assimilation to Aboriginal communities with a strong emphasis on the advantages of becoming a part of white Australia.
In the first edition of Dawn, AWB chief secretary Clive Evatt said that he hoped the magazine would go into every Aboriginal home and be read by every one of his Aboriginal friends.
"Dawn represents a further step in your progress towards that goal which has been set - your assimilation, as a race, with the general community," he said.
The AWB fabricated the conditions of Aboriginal children in institutional homes in their photos and content to further the agenda of the state government's assimilation policy.
The children in these photos were taken from their family and community by both the AWB and its predecessor, the Aborigines Protection Board (APB).
Often these stolen children were forcibly placed in institutions where they were raped, brutalised, abused and neglected.
These children are known today as the Stolen Generations.
Survivors of the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls (1912-1969) are developing a truth-telling exhibition featuring photos and content from Dawn and New Dawn Magazine.
Cootamundra Girls Home was a training institution for Aboriginal girls who had been removed from their families under the Aborigines Protection Act 1909-1969.
Aunty Jean Carter is a survivor of the Stolen Generations who was taken to the Cootamundra home.
When she was first placed there, she started reading Dawn and enjoyed it.
"At the time, I thought it was good because we were starting to see pictures of our family that we didn't know were around," Ms Carter said.
"I looked forward to reading Dawn and then as I've grown up, I see it as a magazine that was presenting a wrongful story of our forced removal from families."
In Dawn there are more than 100 references to the Cootamundra home, including photos, articles, letters and artworks.
Children in the home were told their families had rejected them and were taught to fear and avoid Aboriginal people and not to speak their own languages.
These girls were neglected, abused and forced into assimilation to 'think white, look white and act white'.
Aunty Liz Young is another survivor.
"The pictures make you look like you're happy," she said.
"Like I was happy, smiling.
"But I think all the damage is going to stay with me til the day I die."
From 1940, NSW implemented systemic programs aiming to remove Aboriginal identity and enforce assimilation.
Cootamundra Girls Home was a harsh place run along military lines, with children referred to as inmates and daily life revolving around a strict routine.
Aboriginal children in NSW continued to be removed, trained and "apprenticed" in this way until the machinery of forced removal was dismantled with the Aborigines Act 1969.
This followed the national referendum in 1967 that transferred responsibility for the legislation relating to the Aboriginal people to the Commonwealth and authorised their inclusion in the census.
Cootamundra Girls survivors will use the exhibition to share the magazine's content and photos to educate and raise awareness about First Nations history, the history of assimilation policies and Stolen Generations.
The Secrets of Dawn Exhibition will be launching in mid-2024 at Carriageworks in Sydney.
13YARN 13 92 76
Aboriginal Counselling Services 0410 539 905
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
