Forced into slavery at 12, Sue Roman has spent her life fighting for Aboriginal justice

Australia Broadcast Center

26-05-2025

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names and images of Indigenous people who have died, used with the permission of their family.
Larrakia woman Sue Roman says her story begins two generations before her, with her grandmother Yirra Bandoo and the children that were stolen from her.
In the early 1900s, Yirra's two children were taken from her under the Aborigines Protection Act, and she was forced into servitude for a white family as a "domestic".
Her daughter Lindy was taken to the Kahlin Compound in Darwin and her son Robert was taken across the territory to Alice Springs.
Yirra was barred from living in the house of the white family she served, instead made to stay in what Ms Roman describes as a shanty out the back.
Decades later, Yirra's daughter Lindy Roman went through a similar experience.
Her five children were taken from her and sent to the Retta Dixon Home in Darwin, while she was forced into labouring for white families.
At Retta Dixon, Sue Roman remembers being "groomed" to be a domestic labourer, and could only sneak conversations with her mother through a fence.
The notorious mission was responsible for the welfare of mixed-heritage Indigenous children between 1946 and 1980, and was later found to be the site of horrific abuses.
When Retta Dixon sent Ms Roman to Victoria to stay with a white "foster" family, her mother was not told.
At just 12 years old, she was the third generation of Aboriginal women in her family forced into labour and sent thousands of kilometres away from family.
She remembers feeling trapped in Victoria, until a teacher at her local school began to look out for her.
"Over time she was able to learn about the physical, mental, and sexual abuses that [were] going on and had me removed," she said.
At 18 years old, Ms Roman flew back to Larrakia Country, but she struggled with the isolation from her time interstate.
"I had been gone for so long during my puberty years, I missed out on being connected to people my age on my return. It was very hard," she said.
Ms Roman clearly remembers the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses of Child Sexual Abuse being announced more than 10 years ago.
When she learned it was coming to Darwin, she knew Retta Dixon survivors needed to be heard.
Through extensive talks with her community, Ms Roman managed to gather 50 survivors of abuse at Retta Dixon to share their stories with the private sessions held as part of the inquiry.
The sessions revealed abuses so horrific, the royal commission bought a public hearing to town, in its Case Study 17 focused on Retta Dixon.
Almost 50 years after their suffering, victims of alleged rape, sexual touching and brutal physical assaults at the home were able to tell their stories and the impact the abuses had on their lives.
Ms Roman's childhood friend Sandra Kitching remembers testifying during the royal commission.
Solicitor Bill Piper, who was part of the victim's counsel on the inquiry, said it was the depth of children's suffering that hit him the hardest during Case Study 17.
He credits Ms Roman with encouraging survivors to speak.
"It is my opinion that the Retta Dixon story could be lost to history but for Sue's efforts," he said.
When the royal commission finished, Ms Roman and other Retta Dixon survivors tracked down Mr Piper to start a class action.
Ms Roman remembers the class action work being done on the "smell of an oily rag", with a roomful of law students being recruited at one stage to get through all the evidence.
In 2017, the Commonwealth settled, and 71 people who suffered abuse at the Retta Dixon Home won compensation.
"Letting the world know and making the government be accountable, that was just magic," Ms Kitching said.
Ms Roman has also raised her family, fought a land claim and worked to preserve her Larrakia culture and language.
"In losing my mother … it gave me appreciation of the fact that we're losing so many of our old people," she said.
Ms Roman tracked down one of the last Larrakia language speakers and created the first Larrakia language dictionary.
She has also represented Australia at international conferences, worked on truth-telling inquiries and founded an Aboriginal corporation, Yirra Bandoo, in honour of her grandmother.
When prime minister Kevin Rudd delivered the formal apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008, Ms Roman was in the crowd — but she "wasn't caught up in the euphoria of people celebrating."
"An apology doesn't remove the fact that mothers were deprived of kids and kids deprived of their mothers," she said.
Two generations on, Ms Roman's grandson Connor Wright is advocating for action on climate change.
He is one of the faces of activism group Generation Justice, and last year he presented at the G20 Youth Summit as Australia's first Indigenous representative at the event.
He credits his grandmother as the primary reason for his activism.
"My grandmother is unapologetically driven with a sense of justice and betterment for everyone around her," he said.
"[She] experienced so much in her life. I don't doubt that influenced my mother's upbringing, and therefore my upbringing and my sister's upbringing.