The 2009 National Apology to the 'Lost Innocents' — the thousands of unaccompanied children exported from England to Australia during the 1940s and 1950s — was, like the Apology to the Stolen Generations, a rare moral highlight of Kevin Rudd's mostly lacklustre tenure as PM.
Oranges and Sunshine relates the history of this dark period of colonial history from the perspective of Margaret Humphreys, the heroic English social worker who in the 1980s uncovered the truth about these 'child migrants', and who still works to reunite the now adult children with their families.
Humphreys' non-fiction book Empty Cradles was the main source for the film. 'I read it in 2003 in one sitting,' says director Jim Loach. 'I knew very little of the wider story of the child migrants, and was shocked by it.' The following day he phoned Humphreys and set up a meeting. 'She was inspirational, and had an incredible story to tell. I knew it was a film I wanted to make.'
English actor Emily Watson portrays Humphreys as a steadfast woman on an all-consuming quest. It takes its toll. Frequent, prolonged trips to Australia put strain on her home life; her husband Merv (Richard Dillane) is supportive to a fault, but her young children are not always so understanding.
'She's a working mum,' says Loach, 'trying to run her own family, but also out trying to repair the damage done to others. That juxtaposition made the story more morally complex. If it was told from the perspective of the child migrants, the rights and wrongs would have been very straightforward.'
Detective work is hardly the most difficult aspect of Humphreys' job. For many of the children, forced separation from their families was exacerbated by the abuse they suffered in Australian institutions. In the film Humphreys becomes literally ill from her exposure to the trauma that many still carry.
The Christian Brothers, who were responsible for some of the institutions at issue, are portrayed in an unflattering light. During her investigations, Margaret is subjected to a campaign of intimidation that is attributed (albeit ambiguously) to supporters of the Brothers. When she eventually comes face to face with some of the Brothers, at Dimboon outside of Perth, they regard her with resentful silence.
These encounters, Loach says somewhat elusively, are based on 'something that happened in real life'. That said, the decision to keep the Brothers literally voiceless within the