Servant or Slave

During the era known as the Stolen Generations, countless Aboriginal girls were forcibly removed from their families by the Australian Government and placed into domestic servitude. Although they were ostensibly hired as household workers, their lives were tightly controlled, including their movements, wages, and living conditions. This often led to a relentless cycle of mistreatment, sexual assault, and enslavement, with repercussions that are still felt today. “Servant or Slave” shares the personal accounts of five such women—Rita, Violet, and the Wenberg sisters—offering a powerful first-person narrative of a grim and often overlooked chapter in Australia’s past. Directed with skill and empathy by documentarian Steven McGregor (known for “Croker Island Exodus,” MIFF 2012), this film is a poignant and urgent exploration of the profound human suffering within Australia’s Indigenous history, told through the raw and honest voices of those who experienced it.