The Last Daughter

At Campbelltown train station in 1973, a young Aboriginal girl was handed over to her hopeful new white foster parents, Mac and Connie. There was no paperwork. There were no questions. Brenda settled into her new family and became inseparable from her white foster sister, and for five years, she grew up happy. Until, one day, her parents were forced to give her back – to the family she was originally taken from.

Now, as an adult, Brenda has fragmented memories of a little white sister, but she can’t put the pieces together. She feels torn between two worlds: “I felt like I was acting white. I didn’t know what it meant to be Aboriginal.” The Last Daughter follows Brenda on her journey to uncover the truth about her past, and to reconcile the two halves of her family.

“There’s lots to appreciate here, story and subject-wise, as well as texturally and aesthetically. The Last Daughter gracefully shows how old wounds can be healed and how distant memories can come back into colour and focus.” ~Luke Buckmaster, The Guardian