Taungurung man Larry Walsh has more reasons than many to be angry. When he was just two-and-a-half the state took him and his sisters from their home, a riverside hut at Mooroopna, northern Victoria, where he was being cared for by his nana while his mum was in hospital. From there he went to a series of children’s homes. By the age of eight he was living with a foster family in which the father was a violent drinker.
He was endlessly racially abused and bullied at school, and blamed for starting fights when he physically retaliated or defended himself. Meanwhile, he was subject to constant attention and harassment by police – alleging that, even as an eight-year-old, he was a no-good criminal responsible for crimes he hadn’t committed – which both tested and confused him. For he had never at that stage committed any offence against the law. Or so he thought.
