Australia’s ‘Stolen Generations’: ‘Heroin use hid the pain’

For decades, 77-year-old actor Uncle Jack was a familiar face on Australian televisions. A member of the ‘Stolen Generations’, taken from his mother when he was just a baby and sent to a boys’ home where he was abused, he was also homeless and addicted to heroin.

More than 116,000 people are homeless on any given night in Australia and Indigenous Australians are disproportionately represented in those figures. As the country marks Homelessness Week, we tell some of their stories. “Uncle” Jack has worn many guises in his decades as an actor. At 77, his impish face is now beset by a grey beard and long, grey locks. An Indigenous man with a deep gravelly voice, he has appeared in films, plays and television shows since the 1970s, and in recent years, has seen a renewed interest in his life and work. In 2019, he was awarded a Lifetime Award at the National Indigenous Art Awards.