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Coota Girls

Aboriginal Corporation

The Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls was run as a training institution for Aboriginal girls who were forcibly removed from their families under the Aborigines Protection Act (1909-1969).

The Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation was founded in 2013 by a courageous group of Coota Girls, former residents of the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls (1912-1969).

Our Board of Directors is made up of Coota Girls Survivors and descendants.

Our History

The forced removal of First Nations babies and children took place from the earliest years of colonisation as governments and private organisations attempted to exert control over First Nations people in order to eliminate its people and culture from the stolen land.

A systematic race-based system operated in New South Wales to remove First Nations babies and children under the Aborigines Protection Act 1909-1969.

The Aborigines Protection Act was used first by the Aborigines Protection Board (1909-1939) and then the Aborigines Welfare Board (1940-1969) to establish a system that supported the forcible removal of First Nations babies and children in New South Wales over a period of sixty years, from 1909 until 1969.

This system of removal had lifelong consequences for its survivors and their descendants.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands, seas and waters which are embedded with our spirit, culture and knowledge. We recognise the powerful connection we have to our spirits, ancestors and to our community.

We pay our deepest respects to our Elders who sung the Songlines before us and those that will sing into the future.

We pay respects to our Stolen Generations Survivors, their families and whole communities, including those who never made it home, and those who are still searching.