Contenders, ghosts and sacrificial lambs

I will never forget that first moment of walking into the great Velázquez room shortly after entering the Prado Museum for the first time, still in a jet-lagged stupor, looking up and seeing Las Meninas hanging in front of me…

Waller graduated from school with the highest marks of anyone in Hannover. His father was an ironworker, a little man with drooping shoulders. He had managed somehow to make sure his son qualified for the elite high school, although his wife had run away, abandoning the boy.

“I’m lost for words. My tears say it all. Thank you for this great exhibition.” “We lost our families-still looking.” “Please don’t feel sorry for us. Just understand the struggles we endured and ensure nothing like this happens again.” These are just three of the many heartfelt responses written on cards pinned to a board in the exhibition On their own – Britain’s child migrants currently on display at the Immigration Museum.

The second essay from Asialink in our series responding to the Gillard Government’s White Paper announcement on Australian in the Asian Century.